As we grow ever closer to our Luxury Round the World Trip on miles and points, I am starting to iron out the fine details of our trip to ensure that everyone is well taken care of. One of the things that I am looking most forward to is flying with Etihad’s First Class Apartments onboard their A380. We are in the lucky situation of being able to fly all three of us in First Class even though we will be split across two flights.
My daughter and I will be flying first from SYD-AUH and my wife will follow 5.5 hours later on the later flight. As I like to make everyone’s experience extra special, I made it a point to find out about Etihad’s pajama policy … of all things 🙂
Pajamas for Everyone!
One of the great perks that comes with flying in “fancy class” is that you get those nice perks that definitely made me jealous when I used to fly in economy. Free flowing high-end alcohol, caviar (except Etihad doesn’t serve caviar … booo), amenity kits and pajamas!
On most of the flights I have been on, the pajamas fit perfectly … for adults. My daughter was often left with a set of pajamas that were sized small but about 3x too big for her.
To try and combat that, I called up Etihad to make a special request for pajamas in her size. I thought that I would have to make the special request, provide her size and specifications and perhaps pay a small amount of money, but I was pleasantly surprised.
Forethought
I called Etihad’s head office in Abu Dhabi and was immediately connected to a very friendly representative. I informed him of my desire to ensure that the right sized pajamas would be available on board and his response was “yes sir, we actually look at the date of birth of the passengers in First Class and stock pajamas based on the age of the traveler”.
Whaaaaaa?
The agent wanted to be doubly sure so he placed me on hold and confirmed the information with his supervisor. When he came back he reaffirmed that his initial assertion was correct and that my daughter would have pajamas in her size!
I find this to be amazing and a demonstration of how some forethought can really make the difference in the customer’s experience.
I had mentioned in a previous review of the San Francisco Marquis hotel that upon arriving late to check in (around midnight), the front desk clerk had a care kit of an apple, chips and a granola bar ready on offer. This might have cost the hotel $2-3 but the impression it made on me as a client was worth my loyalty to that hotel for a long, long time.
It’s those little touches that make a world of difference. I wish more companies understood that.
There’s More?
When I went on the Etihad site to research what else to expect, I came across the Nanny On Board feature. I had heard about it before but never really looked into it.
Now don’t get me wrong. My daughter is an excellent flyer but having an additional resource is really a nice perk, especially if I want to document every cool aspect about flying Etihad for my readers. Having the option of entertaining her with arts and crafts on a 14.5 hour flight is very reassuring to me.
Conclusion
I cannot wait to experience Etihad and their quality of service. If it’s anything like what I’ve experienced with their call centre agents, I’m pretty sure I’ll be in for a great time!
The pajama thing is one of those perks I often wonder about, too. I am currently in the ANA lounge in Tokyo returning from an error fare trip to Australia. On the way down, I got food poisoning shortly after the first meal was served. The crew were very kind and offered me a sweater/pajama top as my body temp (they wield thermometers on board) had dropped quite low. I was trying to figure out whether I could take it with me (still had another flight to get to Sydney), but my husband pointed out that they sell them in the on board catalog. I left it, but it would have made a fun souvenir with a story to go with it.