After completing my assignment at O’Fallon near St.Louis (STL) I traveled back to Chennai (MAA) enroute to Chicago (ORD) and Abu Dhabi (AUH) on Etihad Airways. The flight from St.Louis to Chicago was on American Airlines and I had over 3 hours of time between flights at Chicago. But thanks to the bad weather, the flight from St.Louis got delayed by 3 hours. This meant that I would mostly likely miss the flight to Abu Dhabi. But the Etihad Airways folks delayed the flight by 45 minutes as there were other such passengers who were affected. I made it to the flight puffing and panting.
As is the case with most airlines, the seats in the Economy Class were cramped. But most of the middle seats were vacant, providing me an opportunity to stretch and also get some sleep. The in-flight entertainment system had all the latest movies and popular hits; more than enough to keep people absorbed for the duration of the flight.
Though most of the food served was routine and tasted just about okay, the Lamb Biryani was very good. It was probably the first ever dish on an airline that I actually enjoyed.
The service in the Chicago to Abu Dhabi leg was good but on the Abu Dhabi to Chennai leg it was ordinary.
Overall, I was satisfied with the experience which was nowhere near the Gulf Air trauma that I faced a few years ago.
Etihad Airways image courtesy: wikipedia.org
