Review: Etihad’s The Residence and how we somehow got lucky

It’s arguably the closest you can get to a private jet

It’s long been a dream of mine to fly in The Residence, but it looked like that wasn’t going to happen. After booking two First Class apartments, we tried for months to get an upgrade using points or cash, but without success. Yet somehow, at the last minute, we flew in a three-room apartment for six and a half hours…

What is The Residence?

It’s a three-room apartment on Etihad’s A380. You can access a bedroom with a small double bed, a bathroom with a shower, and a well-proportioned living room. The bedroom is completely private, with its own full-height door—albeit with a peephole in the wall (more on that later)—and the living room is cut off from the rest of the cabin aside from a small gap at the top of the walls and a door to enter and exit the suite.

You can watch TV in your living room (split the screens in two if you and a guest want to watch different things) or retire to the bedroom and watch TV there instead. Sadly, there is no TV in the bathroom. You also used to get your own chef, but that perk has been removed. Out of all the things to take away, it feels like the one that has the least impact on the experience.

Which planes and routes have The Residence?

The Residence is exclusive to the A380. Unlike Emirates, Etihad only has a handful of these planes. AirFleets.net states they had ten, with four either scrapped or in storage. They fly them to London and New York daily and plan to add them to Paris, Mumbai and Singapore later in 2024 and early 2025. The LHR A380 flight is the first of the day, with another two flights in the afternoon and evening on smaller jets. The JFK A380 flight is the early afternoon take-off, with a second later flight on a 787.

The LHR flight is around six and a half hours, whereas flying from JFK will give you fourteen and a half hours in your own apartment. We chose the LHR option as we live in the UK.

Booking The Residence during a normal cash booking is possible – a dummy booking for JFK to AUH gives me a price of $3,990 to upgrade. I’ll come back to whether that’s worth it at the end.

Where is The Residence on the A380?

The three-room apartment sits on the upper deck at the front of the first-class cabin. You can access The Residence via the same aisle as the First Class suites.

Unlike the rest of the plane, there is a single aisle in the first cabin. That’s due to the width of the suites, and only having two across in First Class.

So, how exactly did we get to fly in The Residence?

We booked First-Class tickets for LHR to AUH eleven months before we wanted to fly. This was the first leg of a trip that took us to Abu Dhabi for four nights, the Maldives (via Qatar) for six, and then back to Doha for a final four-night stay. We booked before Etihad made changes to their points programme, which, in theory, made accessing The Residence easier.

The total cost of the flight for two passengers was 280,012 Eithad points (Transferred from American Express Membership Reward points at a 1:1 ratio) and £426.60 in taxes.

There was no Residence upgrade option online when I logged into the Etihad website. I checked every few weeks to see if anything popped up. Strangely, at one point, both of our seats were changed, despite the cabin being empty. My wife was moved to another first-class seat, and I was moved to a seat within The Residence itself. This was clearly some kind of system error. At all times, the seats in the residence were greyed out as unavailable. I moved myself to a regular seat, just in case the rest of the cabin filled up and I wasn’t sitting in the suite next to my wife.

Around three months before our flight, we had a phone call from someone at Etihad. I missed their first call, and we played telephone tennis until we got to speak late one night. I was told that we could upgrade to The Residence at the cost of £3,000. However, as we were on award tickets, we’d need to be reticketed. I say we; they actually said one of us would need to be reticketed. I asked if we could both be in The Residence and was told that one of us could, and the other could visit.

This didn’t sound right. I don’t know what would be worse – not getting access to The Residence or I get it, and my wife doesn’t have the experience. I declined the offer, as it was just too confusing.

A month out from the flight, we both agreed that £3k was a lot, but it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Maybe I had misheard about only one of us sitting in there.

I tried to reconnect with Etihad to discuss upgrades, but I hit a wall. I was told either we couldn’t upgrade because our tickets were award tickets or that they would get someone from the right team to contact me. Ultimately, no one did, and we resigned ourselves to flying in First, which was still going to be an amazing experience.

We checked in (still hoping for an upgrade option, there was none) and then made our way to the Etihad lounge at LHR. It was a great experience, made better by the lovely team working there.

The Free Upgrade

When we checked in to the lounge the host was lovely, but little did we know how lovely. After breakfast we sat in the main lounge area, and were just making plans to head to the gate when the host came over to us. She checked my wifes name, and then asked us if it was ok to upgrade us to The Residence.

In my many years of flying, I’ve only experienced an upgrade once (switching to AA First from a BA Business seat due to an overbooking). I’m not sure anything will ever come close to this. Of course, we said yes to the upgrade and then skipped and jumped to the gate.

We’ve pondered why we’d be upgraded. We’re of little to no value to Etihad – we’ve never flown them before, and we were on a points booking. Our best guess is that it was clear that we were a couple, so they could free up two first-class suites by moving us into an unused Residence. I couldn’t see if each first suite was taken, but when we departed the plane, it looked like that was the case. That could mean someone more important than us got to move from Business to First, or a last-minute First booking could be accommodated. We probably shouldn’t care about the why.

What was the Residence experience like?

There can be a lot of disappointments when you travel. That hotel you booked, which said it was five-star, but had more similarities to a budget chain. The “luxurious” airport lounge which is no better than a fast food restaurant. The Residence was not one of those disappointment. Despite watching every video, and reading every article, and feeling like we had already flown The Residence a hundred times, the reality was better than we expected.

The first thing that struck me was how private it is and how great that level of privacy is on a plane. I’ve flown in closed-door suites before (Emirates First was probably the most private) but this was something else. Not only can you relax without seeing or hearing anyone else, but you can also go to the bathroom without bumping into someone. And then, for the ultimate privacy, head into your bedroom, close the full-height door and you won’t see or hear from anyone.

The one caveat regarding privacy and the bedroom is the peephole. It’s located in the wall of the bedroom, just above waist height. It allows the FA to check in on you if there’s turbulence and to make sure the giant seatbelt (which goes over the width of the bed) is being used. When we departed, we took a quick look at the peephole, and it reminded me of a school-project periscope.

The door to the suite remained closed throughout the flight, only being opened for takeoff and landing. When our FA came in to see us, she would knock, open it, then close it when she left. She ended up doing that ten or fifteen times during the flight, but I appreciated that she protected our privacy (even though the traffic past our suite would have been light).

I was also surprised by how spacious the living room was. You could easily seat three people on the sofa. It was also easy for us to move around, and we didn’t feel like we were climbing over each other.

The bed was also bigger than expected. We had a short mid-flight nap, and although it was a little awkward to make sure the seat belt was over both of us, it was a comfortable bed, and there was space to move around.

Food and Drink in The Residence

Our host let us pick the exact times that we wanted to eat. We initially chose to have our first meal straight away, then have a nap, and then have our final meal just before landing. We ended up swapping the sleeping and the second eating stage, so we ate, then ate again, and then slept.

When we boarded we were offered a welcome drink. It was an early flight, so I started with an orange juice. After take-off I had a German white wine, and my wife had a cocktail.

For lunch, I had the steak frites, and my wife had the same. Minor gripe: the fries/chips were barely passable. I know it’s almost impossible to have crispy fries on a plane. The steak was well cooked and made up for it. My wife enjoyed both. For dessert, I had ice cream, which was well-presented and delicious (thank you, Haagen-Dazs). My wife has Tiramisu for desert, which she described as “pleasant but not amazing”.

We had afternoon tea, which was delicious and well-presented. One thing I dislike about Qatar is that their afternoon tea is a little sparse, and the scores are—for want of a better word—weird. I’m a plain scone and jam guy, but Qatar presents you with flavoured scones. I know that they want to elevate the experience but give me at least one scone that’s just plain.

Etihad’s afternoon tea was twice the size of Qatars. It was also better presented.

The Bathroom In The Residence

There’s a full-height door that separates the bathroom and bedroom area from the living room. Walk through it, and the bathroom door is immediately on the left. It’s a small bathroom when compared to the two shower rooms on Emirates A380. They are huge, and you can walk around them. The Residence bathroom is smaller, and you still experience that issue when you’re getting dressed or undressed, where it’s easy to hit a wall with your arm. It’s also very dark in there, so dark that none of my photos came out.

The shower is actually a good size, and it feels the same size as Emirates. One thing that caught me out is that the shower door has to be fully closed for the water to turn on. Ours was a little temperamental and needed a shove to click into place. Initially, I couldn’t understand why it wasn’t working, so I threw a towel around my waist and wandered into the living room to ask my wife. Wandering around a plane half-naked is another first for me.

You get five minutes of hot water, which is more than enough. As you’re up against the clock you do rush things a little, and you end up coming in way under time. There’s enough space in the shower to dry yourself off, whereas the main bathroom is a tight squeeze when it comes to movement.

For those who love to look out of the bathroom window while relieving themselves, there is no window in here.

The Residence Amenity Kit

As you’d hope for, the amenity kit is something quite special. It comes as an A4-sized leather pouch, which contains a more environmentally friendly ESPA fabric bag. Inside that, you’ll find a generously sized tub of “night balm” (which I used, I think correctly, as a moisturiser). There’s a facial mist (one thing I love about Qatar is their Diptyque facial mist in the bathrooms), a pulse point oil roller, hand and body lotion and lip balm. All of that is branded ESPA, and there are also some Etihad-branded foam earplugs.

You also get – without having to request them – pyjamas and slippers. Both are from Giorgio Armani, and the loungewear was really comfortable.

Is The Residence worth it?

This question hinges on how much value you would see in The Residence experience. For us, the value was significant. We wanted to experience something unique for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. As a couple, we really enjoy things like that.

If I was travelling alone, then the value I would place on The Residence is different. How much is it worth to have a bigger bed, more privacy, and my own bathroom on a long flight? The answer probably hinges on how much I earn or how much money I have in my bank account.

Given that upgrading on the longer JFK to AUH flight costs around $3,990, and First Class (which appears to be a very good product) already has a cost attached, it’s a very personal question.

It’s worth saying that The Residence is the most incredible suite you can get on a plane. The experience was far better than we expected. Flying business or first makes travel more enjoyable. BA’s club suite is a really nice way to fly. Ethihad’s first (or even business) seats really make a journey better. and upgrading to The Residence takes it up a notch.