Review: Etihad EY38 First Class Boeing 777-300ER Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) to Abu Dhabi (AUH)

Paris Charles De Gaulle (CDG) - Abu Dhabi (AUH)

DEP 20:45PM ARR 6:35AM

Duration: 6h50m

Seat number: 2A

Aircraft: Boeing 777-300ER

Miles Redeemed: 105,000 AA Advantage miles + $138.40 tax

Table of Contents  [show/hide]

The Verdict 

Pros: Huge First Class suite that can be closed with a privacy door. Nice leather seat and comfortable lie-flat bed. I also like the color choices that Etihad picked. Fine service and good Etihad First Class lounge at Charles de Gaulle airport. Good award availability on this route. 

Cons: Etihad swapped my original booked aircraft from A380 to Boeing 777. Mediocre food, no onboard shower and lounge like Airbus 380 does. Annoying First Class passenger that watched video without using headphones. While this is not Etihad's fault, but I would expect flight attendant noticed that too and could do something about it but they did nothing. 

Miles Booking 

I redeemed a total of 105,000 AA miles plus $138.40 to book CDG-AUH-SYD itinerary on Etihad Airways, all in first class. The real total miles were actually 115,000 miles but I received 10,000 miles back as part of the AA credit card’s benefit. Unfortunately, that benefit on the AA card has been removed. If you’d like to just book this route, AA requires only 42,500 miles each way for a First Class seat.

• Review: Etihad EY38 First Class Boeing 777-300ER Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) to Abu Dhabi (AUH)
• Review: Etihad EY454 First Class Apartment A380 Abu Dhabi (AUH) to Sydney (SYD)

Check-in and Lounge

I arrived very early but the check-in counter did not open until 3 hours prior to departure time. I was also confused on which terminal Etihad Airways was at CDG Paris airport. Thankfully I had plenty of time to figure it out. The check-in was pleasant and fast. They also gave me a fast-track paper to go through security and immigration queue for flying First Class on Etihad. 

Etihad First Class Lounge at Charles de Gaulle is actually nicer than I expected. I was the first one to enter the lounge that time so there were plenty of seats for me to choose. While the lounge is not huge by any means, the service of lounge attendants was very good. They have buffet food options and also made to order food menu. I tried both options. The lounge attendants went around the lounge to take people’s food and drinks orders as well. Overall, I was impressed by the Etihad First Class Lounge at CDG, especially the customer service inside the lounge along with variety of hot food items.   

Etihad Airbus 380 Swapped For Boeing 777

My original plan was to fly out of CDG to Abu Dhabi on Etihad A380 First Class and then another A380 to Sydney. Unfortunately, a few months after my booking, Etihad decided to swap the A380 with Boeing 777 for that particular CDG - AUH route. 

Etihad operates two flights out of CDG, while my route got the aircraft switch, the other route still had A380. I thought about switching my flight to that second schedule, but because I had intention to do less than 24 hours layover to explore Abu Dhabi, I settled for the triple sevens aircraft. I figured that would give me an opportunity to review Etihad First Class on both Boeing 777 and Airbus 380 as well.

Etihad 777 First Class Suites

There are no overhead bins in the First Class cabin, making the cabin looks a lot bigger and spacious. Etihad First Class cabin is configured as 1-2-1 spread across 2 rows. There are a total of 8 First Class suites. Each suite comes with the standard Etihad First Class amenities and can be completely shut with a privacy door and a do not disturb sign. I do find Etihad First Class seat big and has a lot of legroom and space. The only small thing that bothers me is the privacy door is a little bit hard to open and close. You have to push the lock up on both sides then manually slide the door. 

First Class Suite Bed

Each First Class seat can be turned into a lie-flat bed. The sky bed was comfortable and I had to ask the flight attendant to make the bed for me after my sky dinning that day. While everything was nice and comfortable, I did find that the triple sevens engine is not as quiet as the A380 aircraft. But it’s not as annoying as one of the First Class passengers that watched video on his iPad without using headphones. So I heard pretty much all the actions going on in that video. It was super annoying. 

Etihad 777 Has No Onboard Shower & Lounge 

Unfortunately, Etihad First Class Boeing 777 does not have shower and lounge like the Airbus 380 does. You only get the First Class suite and other First Class amenities and services.

Food & Drinks

I’m not sure if because I was full from all the lounge food before boarding the aircraft, but my lamb and rice order was quite dry and thus was just mediocre. I did meet the chef on board who prepared all my dinning food. 

Here is the menu: 

For drinks, they have mediocre cocktail selections. I just had some non-alcoholic mocktail drinks. I will be doing some sightseeing upon arrival in Abu Dhabi so I did not want to go all crazy on alcoholic drinks though I did miss Dom Pérignon. But my next flight to Sydney all I had was Dom. 😊

Service

The service was good. There were a female flight attendant and a male chef in the First Class cabin. They both were nice and friendly, but I did find the chef more approachable. 

Amenities Kit & WiFi

Free Wi-Fi with Limited Data

Full Disclosure: We love living points life by using points and miles to elevate travel experiences. In the interest of being transparent with you, we may be compensated from an approved credit card's application, or from some of the products and services recommended on this site. This only happens when you click on our affiliate links. We also earn commissions from purchases made through Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. Thank you for your support and especially for reading this blog! Please see our Advertiser Disclosure for more details!