I knew in the back of my mind that Etihad was starting service to SFO on November 18.

I happened to be driving past SFO this morning at 6:30 a.m. on my way to the gym/work and I looked to see if it was parked at the A gates. Didn't see it. Google showed that it had landed about 5 minutes prior so maybe it was still taxiing.

Then as I continued to drive toward Millbrae, what did I see in the sky on approach to land but the distinctive Jet Airways tail. Etihad is using the Jet Airways 777 on the SFO route.

Part of me felt happy to planespot EY's first arrival at my home airport. The other part of me felt like a total dork.

I'm flying them home from Africa next spring. I'm looking forward to giving them a try.

Does anyone know what lounge they are using at SFO on the International A gates side? I can't image that Emirates would sublease their lounge to them!

Welcome Etihad!

 

They will be using the Cathay Pacific Lounge.

I caught it after arriving while connecting on the Air Train.

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Nice catch guys!

Would love to hear anyone's experience actually on board the flight, especially out of AUH. I have an AAward booking in F with my wife in early May AUH-SFO.

Have definitely heard mixed reviews on the Jet Airways aircraft operating AUH-JFK. How's the food? Predominantly Indian? How's the crew and service?

Also wondering what the F lounge situation might be, given that this flight departs from a different terminal than the primary EY T3. Realize it's complicated currently, since the true F lounge is currently closed though.

 

Flew out of AUH last night on the 2AM flight to JFK which is also operated on the Jet Airways aircraft. the SFO flight was at the gate next to ours. Some notes:
1) Jet Airways aircraft was nice. some people i know in Abu Dhabi who fly the jet flights to the states a lot as well as the "true" EY flights like the business class on this plane (the Jet) better than the true EY flights as there is more space
2) crew is mixture of Etihad and Jet Airways crews. Overall good service on all the times I've taken the Jet-operated flights to the USA
3) Food skews Indian. There are some western options as well, but if you like Indian food you'll love it.
4) now that there are 2 Jet airways flights to the USA at 2AM, I've been told they'll always leave from T3, not T1 as the JFK flight was before the SFO flight started. This is because they use the USA security area in Terminal 3 (not the USA CBP -t hat's not open for the 2am flights, but the extra security that they have for the USUA flights).

So, for lounge, you'll use the new first/business lounge near gate 35 in T3.

 

There's great reading in the trip report forum as well as here.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...f-lax-auh.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...rst-class.html

Food is predominantly western, though their biryani was superb.

F lounge should be open by the time you fly.

 

Will be going SFO-AUH on the 11th of December. What do we do for lounge access in SFO?

BTW any difference in seating on the 9W versus EY metal? LAX-AUH was very pleasant on EY.

 

Did you not read post# 2 in this thread?

You don't mention what class you will be flying. F is very similar, J is very different, Y is Y.

 

No, I skipped over the beginning of the post (which of course does mention CX) but definitely looked at the picture! A picture, etc.,

Will be in F. And I look forward to the Indian food. On EY LAX AUH, the food was very good indeed in F, western and Arabic; lots of hot watercress soup available, just the thing for a long flight.

 

How was your SFO-AUH flight? Would love to hear your experience. We'll be travelling around end of March in F SFO-AUH-BOM (AUH-BOM on 789).
How was the condition of the seat/suite (had read somewhere that they are pretty worn out on these 9W planes). How was the food, predominantly Indian?

thanks...

 

My SFO-AUH on Etihad/Jet Airways was about the best flight I've ever had, specially because of the over-the-top food. It's mainly Indian-themed, as one might expect, but this is my favorite cuisine. How they turned out such a feast in the tiny airplane galley is beyond me. It was actually somewhat better than on EY LAX-AUH.

For example, they served a very thick piece of snapper or some such, and it fell apart into flakes with the lightest touch of the fork. Not the usual rubber airline fish.

The condition of the suites was fine; the upholstery is a little different than on EY metal, rather nice actually. Amenities kit is minimal.

Return flight, on Christmas Day, was about the same. Because it's all overnight, people generally don't eat as much but the food was also very good.

 

That is really good to know. I also love Indian food. Hopefully I'll also have a similar experience to yours.

 

BTW you may know that the CX lounge is available before the flight, and the food is quite nice there as well. They make several items from scratch, and they're tasty. Etihad will come and escort you in a little procession over to the airplane when it's time to board F.

And don't forget the terrific mood lighting. The stars come out at night, and it's really a nice effect. You'll see.

 

Thanks for the tips. Yes I found out about the CX lounge from this thread only , as even the EY website does not mention it.

Good to know this plane has the mood lighting. Had experienced it on EK 77L (SFO-DXB and back) several years ago and had loved it. In fact I'm kind of surprised it wasn't there in any other flights I have flown since then (or if it was there I don't remember)

 

Would you (or someone else) please care to elaborate about the J service / food / seats on 9W masquerading as EY on SFOAUH?

Is it worth the bother of flying SFO-AA-LAX-EY-AUH just to avoid 9W/J or is there no need to avoid 9W/J on this leg?

 

Even though I haven't traveled on it myself, had read some mini-review (for AUH-JFK on 9W metal) that it was fine. Nothing special but what you'd expect.
Also, look at this post - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/23983543-post4.html

You may already be aware of this, but one decision point is whether you are travelling alone or with someone whom you'll like to converse with during the flight. The herring-bone (or is it reverse herring-bone, I always forget which one is which) is probably the worst config for travelling with someone. In fact, that is the reason I booked F for our flight. Otherwise I was looking to book J SFO-LAX-AUH-BOM, but LAX-AUH was not available on our preferred travel dates. SFO-AUH had both F and J availability.