There are separate entrances for Etihad business- and first-class passengers, with a ton of dedicated check-in desks, bag drop-off points, and even security lines to get in to the main terminal.
Once through security — and past the many duty free shops and luxury retailers — we went straight to the business-class lounge.
It's one of the bigger airport lounges I've seen, with a ton of different seating areas and services.
There were a few buffets with hot and cold options. Since our flight was in the morning, the lounge had breakfast foods including eggs, meats, pastries, and a few Indian and Middle Eastern options.
There was self-serve water, soft drinks, and coffee at each of the buffets. For something stronger, passengers could go to the full-service bar.
There was a range of different types of seats — couches, armchairs, desks, restaurant-style tables — but I especially liked the semi-private TV "suites."
A unique feature of Abu Dhabi Airport is that if you're traveling to the US, you actually go through immigration and customs before your flight, rather than after you land. US Customs and Border Patrol has an outpost at the airport, and several gates on the other side of the border control are reserved for US flights.
Airports in Dublin and Shannon, Ireland, and cities in Canada have a similar setup. The downside is that you need to get to the airport earlier and have to go through a second security screening.
The upside, though, is that you land as a domestic passenger, as if you were on a flight from the US, meaning things are quicker on the other side.
We expected to go right to the gate, but it turns out there was a much smaller lounge for premium cabin passengers on the other side of the US immigration outpost.
Boarding can be chaotic on an A380 because of the vast number of passengers — the Etihad A380 carries 486 plus crew. However, Etihad mostly mitigated this with a huge, enclosed gate area, with passengers sitting on the plane's upper deck (first and business class) and those on the bottom deck (economy) separated.
The jet bridge for an A380 actually forks into two paths — one goes directly to the upper deck, and the other leads straight to the lower.
This also helps keep boarding orderly. The one downside: It was tough to get a good look at our plane! Ah, well. In retrospect, it was a decent trade-off.
Etihad's business-class cabin is among the more unique out there, although I found it really comfortable. It takes up about two-thirds of the upper deck, and is arranged in a 1-2-1 configuration.
Rows alternate between forward and rear facing, with even-numbered rows facing forward. Each seat has a side table, which means the positioning of the chair and the table also alternate.
What that means in practice is that on the sides of the plane, forward-facing (even-numbered) seats are closer to the windows and farther from the aisle ...
... while rear-facing (odd-numbered) seats are farther from the window and closer to the aisle, making them a bit less private.
That's true for the middle seats, too, with the additional fact that even-numbered, forward-facing seats are closer together (although there's a privacy divider that can be raised if you're traveling solo) ...
The seats themselves are quite comfortable, and have a handful of helpful features for a long flight.
... and a slightly larger table across from it. That makes the seat somewhat — although not quite — enclosed.
There's a small storage compartment inside of the smaller side table — you simply lift the table to get to it — and a pocket on the front for magazines and the safety card. (I was also able to fit my iPad in there.) There's also an atmospheric lamp above the table.
There's a cubby in front of the seat under the in-flight entertainment screen, which is where your feet go when you recline your seat flat into bed mode.
There was a comforter waiting at each seat — I stored it in the cubby until I was ready to take a nap.
Each seat also has a large in-flight entertainment monitor — almost a given, even though some airlines have cut back on these screens in recent years.
The monitor could be controlled with a retractable touch-screen remote, which was located next to the seat controls.
You could also use the Android OS-based remote to play games or look up the flight map while watching a movie on the main screen.
All in all, it's a comfortable and luxurious seat, even if a bit narrow. I didn't mind that, but I'd imagine some people would.
It's also a seriously stylish cabin. Cream and purple coloring set the tone, along with gold accents, leather, and mood lighting (which made it difficult to take my normal flight-review photos during boarding, but was quite pleasant otherwise).
The business-class seat is definitely comfortable for a long flight. But if you're in the mood for a change of scene during your flight, there's an exclusive lounge area at the front of the cabin, in between first and business class.
There was also a large television. It looked like passengers could pull up movies from the in-flight entertainment selection, but I didn't try it.
Eventually, after taking all of these photos, I settled into my seat, where there was an amenity kit waiting for me.
A flight attendant came by and offered me a welcome drink — I opted for the lime-and-mint juice that Etihad stocks on flights out of Abu Dhabi.
The flight attendants working in the business-class cabin were fantastic throughout the flight. They were friendly, attentive, and helpful without being overbearing or intrusive. They were all knowledgeable, too — it was nice to have a chance to chat about the airline with them.
