Etihad economy to business in the A380 return year: how the Apartments and the Residence reopened the premium courses
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#1 Etihad, UK, business for a year, and I wrote the promotion timeline thread. The A380 return has changed it enough in the last year to write the update, because the new joiners are getting things the batches before waited years for.
What the A380 return did
The A380 with the Residence (the three room suite), the Apartments (first class) and the big business cabin on the upper deck and the big economy on the lower deck. Each returning aircraft needs a full crew complement across the grades and the premium cabins on the A380 are large. The business and first courses that had waited through the fleet reshuffle opened in numbers, and the crew who had been at 30 to 40 months waiting got them in a wave.
The Apartments and the Residence
The first class qualification on the A380: the Apartments service (a seat and a bed in each, the butler style service), the Residence (a dedicated crew member, the butler trained in London, the three rooms), the lounge. The first class course reopened with the A380 and the crew with the business record and the first class ambition got the course they had been told did not exist that year.
What the new joiners got
A380 economy in year one, as Lily's economy thread said. Business courses coming at the earlier end of the range again. And a route profile (the London, Paris, Sydney, Bangkok A380 routes) that the year one crew before the return did not see for two years. The new joiners of the last year are the luckiest batches in the airline's recent history and the crew from the lean years tell them so.
The honest other side
The A380 is the longest day for the economy crew, as Omar wrote for Qatar, and the new joiners getting it in year one are getting the hardest cabin first. The courses opening in a wave means the business cabins have a lot of new business crew at once and the senior business crew are stretched teaching them. And the fleet plans can change again; the A380 return is the up cycle and the Etihad crew have seen the down one.
For the year one crew
The A380 economy will come. Do it well; the pursers on it are the ones who write the business feedback. The business course is closer than it was. And the first class on the Apartments is a real goal at this airline again, which it was not for a while.
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#2 Etihad, Alexandria, three years, and my business course came in the A380 wave Lily describes, at 34 months, after being told it would be 40. The up cycle is real and the crew from the lean years do tell us. I am one of the lucky ones and I know it.
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#3 Etihad business, Amman, and the senior business crew stretched teaching the wave is my last six months: three new business crew on every flight and the twelve orders taught in the galley. Good for the airline. Tiring for the seniors. Worth it.
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#4 Etihad, Canadian, and the first class on the Apartments being a real goal again is the thing that changed my plan: I had been looking at the neighbour. The A380 return kept me. Lily's update is the airline's year.
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#5 Beirut, Etihad applying, and the new joiners being the luckiest batches in the recent history is the sentence that makes the application urgent. The A380 economy in year one is hard and it is the door. Applying this month.
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#6 Emirates, and the Etihad A380 return giving the new joiners the premium courses early is the thing the Emirates crew notice about the neighbour this year. Our courses are steady. Theirs are a wave. Different cycles.
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#7 Emirates A380 purser, and the Apartments and the Residence are the product the Emirates first crew respect most on the network. The Etihad first course reopening with it is good for the crew who waited. Lily's honest other side is the right caution.
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#8 @mohammedauh 34 months after being told 40 is the wave in one person. @nourbey this month is the right month and the A380 economy in year one is the hard door that opens the rest.
