While one of the best-selling planes of all-time, the Airbus A320 is starting to show its age. At least when it comes to Etihad's fleet.
The seats were dated and worn and the leg room was nothing to write home about. It wasn't cramped, but wasn't roomy by any stretch. Thankfully, the plane itself was barely half full, which meant I could take a whole row to myself.
The entertainment system was also aged. While there were plenty of movie options to choose from, the screen was fuzzy and hard to watch during a daytime flight. I didn't end up finishing "Ant-Man" because the screen was annoying me. Also, whenever you try to press selections on an older touchscreen like that, you have have to press so hard that you end up annoying the passenger in front of you whose head rest you're poking.
It's time to give the plane a refurbishment.
The food was decent, but definitely not the best I've had on an airplane. (That still goes to Japan Airlines, which gave meal after meal of tasty, fresh Japanese food.) But, in an age where airlines are constantly cutting costs, I have to credit Etihad for giving passengers a full-meal (with a delicious cake!) on a four-hour flight. That doesn't happen often these days.
The flight attendants were very friendly, always willing to help, and they came around often to offer coffee or water.
All that said, I would definitely fly Etihad again. It just comes down to price. It was a solid experience that was competitive with mid-tier and higher airlines, but it does feel like the airline probably puts most of its efforts towards the flashier long-haul flights on Airbus A380s. I imagine that's a completely different experience.
That may be changing soon. Etihad announced in June that it will begin using Boeing 787 Dreamliners on the Abu Dhabi-Cairo route. I wonder how long it will be until they phase out the rest of the A320s.