Etihad Airlines (A Good Airline, But Tight Legroom in Economy)
We recently flew economy on an A330-200 from Perth to Sao Paul on Etihad via Abu Dhabi. Now economy travel is pretty basic on any airline so my comments are in the context of economy travel (I know what I signed up for we got some cheap airfares to Sao Paulo). We had some positive and some negative experiences on this trip. The positives, well the flight was delayed leaving Perth by about 4 hours, how can this be a positive? Well flights can be delayed, we received some food vouchers, and when I complained about some consequential costs to us of this delay the customer relations people on the internet were very quick to respond and to offer compensation, and they followed through. Great job thanks. Negatives, well the communication at the airport could have been better (the ground staff were pretty invisible), all people want is some information about what is happening and know when the plane will depart, having someone around taking the questions is the best way to keep people happy, but the real negative was the legroom. Now I said that I am comparing economy to the economy of other airlines on the trip we took, not business class or first. There was only about an iPad width between our knees and the seat in front which shrank when the seat in front reclined (basically the seat was bumping on my knees). My opinion was that this was the narrowest and on this holiday we travelled on 5 other airlines in economy. We used the iPad measurement method as most people can relate to that unit of measure. Where legroom increased we added the iPhone length or width. It makes quite a significant difference to the comfort of a long distance economy flight. The in cabin service on the two sectors was variable in quality and sometimes (in the evening ) you had to wave your arms to get some water or attention.
So it is a good airline and they were responsive to my concerns over costs for which they get a 10 out of 10, but really tight legroom makes for an uncomfortable flight. I would fly with Etihad again probably not on such a long leg as Abu Dhabi to Sao Paulo
