Tuesday, July 19, AUH-JFK in EY F & JFK-LAX in AA FCheck-in once again took longer than usual because of the baby’s ticket. I’m not sure exactly what the issue was, but the agent said it had something to do with the fact that we were booked in different fare classes since we were using miles and the infant was a cash booking.
Etihad First Class Check-inAfter 20 minutes it was sorted out and we got our boarding passes all the way to LA. Right after immigration and security (where they made us dump out all water unlike in Dubai) we went to the recently-opened Etihad First Class Lounge. It’s literally right in front of you after security.
First Class LoungeBoth DW and I booked our free massages (there were both male and female practitioners available this time) and went to relax and eat in a private room in the restaurant area. We had some food that we’d brought with us from South Africa as well as some fresh fruit and vegetables from the lounge. The chef was nice enough to cut up some tomatoes, cucumbers and red peppers to make a sudo Israeli salad without any dressing.
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Chef-prepared fruit and saladAfter our massages at around 2:10am we left the lounge for US Preclearance. We had to go through security again where they were stricter than TSA is in the US. They took away our carrots (expected) and looked at every food item we had scrupulously. We then went to use Global Entry at the only working kiosk (the other one was broken).
As expected, DW and I had no issue but DD got the “no biometrics on file” error and we were escorted to the front of the line. Unfortunately, the agent we got was not familiar with GE at all. We handed him the slips for us which he promptly glanced at and set aside. He then started processing all our passports as if we didn’t use GE at all, asking us all the questions and even stamping our passports.
When I asked him why we couldn’t just give him our papers and be on our way like in the US (and he’d process DD manually) he said he wasn’t sure. He even asked the agent next to him who seemed equally unfamiliar with the GE process. So much for time saving (in all fairness it did help us cut the queue, but the US citizens queue wasn’t long anyway).
We found ourselves pre-cleared and in the Preclearance lounge by 2:45am. Our flight was originally supposed to leave at 3:35am, but the monitors showed they were planning on leaving early at 3:20am. We started boarding at 3:10am; no way we were leaving at 3:35pm, because even the quickest boarding processes in the world can’t board a full A380 in 10 minutes.
Turns out we were delayed way longer. Apparently a cargo container was suck in the cargo door, and it couldn’t move forward or backwards. It took the engineers 2 hours to fix the problem, and by the time we finally pushed back at 5:25am it was already light outside.
Etihad First Class Apartments Pics:
AUH Air Traffic Control buildingSince we were delayed so long, we took the opportunity to have our beds made up and eat a quick meal. The kosher food on the flight was catered by Stogel, though I found it quite interesting. Each of us were given 1 breakfast meal, 1 dinner meal and 1 snack. Both the breakfast and dinner meal were identical and features chicken as the hot entrée. The snack featured a turkey sandwich.
As a vegetarian, I rely on the fact that at least one meal will be pareve so DW and I can switch: I have both pareve meals and she has both fleighig meals. Oh well. It almost didn’t make a difference that they only loaded 1 set of KSMLs initially, though they did go back and get a second set.
After takeoff we both went to sleep and slept for about 7 hours. While we didn’t have a bassinet on the plane for DD, the small area in between the two beds we padded and just the right size for our daughter.
Area between the two bedsWhen I woke up I showered, ate some oatmeal I brought and some fresh fruit provided by the on board chef and relaxed a bit. DW ate the chicken meal and relaxed as well. We all chilled for the rest of the flight and finally landed in JFK at 11:08am, a few hours behind schedule.
Once we landed in JFK it was a mad dash to our flight to LAX. Etihad lands in terminal 4 while American leaves from terminal 8, and there’s no airside connections available. Etihad was nice enough to have someone meet us at the gate, though the person who met us didn't help. All she did was help wheel our suitcases all the way to the AirTrain where she left us.
We took the AirTrain 3 stops to terminal 8 where we faced the mess that is security. We found the First Class security line where we were told that Pre-Check had just closed, and we were forced to wait in the regular line. After waiting for 10 minutes in line someone decided to re-open the Pre-Check lane. We (and half of the line) ran over to Pre-Check where we had to wait again, but at least we didn’t have to strip and empty our carry-ons of all electronics.
We quickly walked to the gate, C40, where we arrived just as boarding was starting. Just as we were about to board we were told we had too many carry-ons. We each had a roll aboard and the Emirates F bag. I also had a backpack and DW had the diaper bag. We travelled on all flights (after EK) with all this as carry-ons except on Mango since we were in coach.
We were told only 2 items per person, and even though the EK bags were smaller than some peoples Hudson News bags they wanted to check our suitcases. I pointed out that in F we had ample room to put the bags up, though the gate agent said we could only put 1 piece up. We then proceeded to stuff the contents of our EK bags into the diaper bag and backpack. The gate agent didn’t like this and said those bags wouldn’t fit under the seat in front of us, even though we were in First.
At this point he walked on board with me where I proceeded to put the backpack under the seat. The gate agent said I couldn't keep it there because I was in First, but I also couldn't put it up because I could only put up one bag. Clearly he was on some kind of power trip, though his attitude always remained calm and non-confrontational to his credit.
To settle matters, I suggested we ask the purser, who not only said I
could keep my backpack there, but I could put it up if I wanted also. The gate agent was upset he didn’t get his way, but again he remained calm, professional, and not the least bit sassy or rude. It was quite weird.
AA First Class seat, A321TWe left JFK on time and had a pretty choppy ride most of the way to the Rockies. The KSML was catered by Bornstein’s though I do say the parts I ate were quite good (I didn’t have the hot entrée of beef and potatoes).
Bornstein First Class KSML first courseWe landed in LAX a bit early (around 3:10pm) and quickly taxied to a gate. Despite being one of the first ones off we had to wait 10 minutes for our Doona. We then went to baggage claim where low and behold our bag was nowhere to be found. Turns out it wasn’t on our flight, but rather placed on another flight to LA that landed at 8:10pm (I tracked it on the AA app). AA agreed to deliver the bag the next day.
It really was a great trip and we had an amazing time. We met some really nice new people, experienced some incredible first class products and saw some animals as well.
Thanks for reading!
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