Etihad Airways A330 Business Class Nagoya to Beijing

published: 2017-05-14 14:09:04Nagoya airport is one of the three artificial island airports in Japan and it is a lovely little airport that has a big role in aviation. Nagoya is a major aviation manufacturing center and produces the wings and the forward fuselage for the 787. It is from Nagoya Chubu Airport that they are shipped to the US by the Dreamlifter. It is certainly very interesting to learn that Japan and China make a fairly large majority of the parts on every Boeing aircraft from the tiny 737 to the iconic 747 and 777. If anyone can find out why one of the original 787 is still parked at Nagoya Chubu Airport I would love to know. Since my time was not until 10:30PM, I spent a few hours spotting from the SkyDeck. It is amazing to be at an airport that welcomes photography although there were definitely a lot of security cameras and security patrols on the deck. Skip until 3:50 for the start of the flight review. The lounge was a Star Alliance lounge and while it is a very nice cozy lounge with great views, there wasn’t anything good to eat. There are lots of eateries pre-security. This Etihad flight was in every way the opposite of my flight coming in. It is interesting because both flights were full in business class, and both crews were fresh, but the differences were huge. The crew went around and introduced themselves. They were full of smiles and absolutely meticulous and professional in the way they interacted with passengers. No one was standing around and doing nothing. The focus was clearly on the passengers. I manage to have a chat with two of the FAs and they were both lovely people. One was Japanese and the other appeared to be Eastern European. They told me about how a short flight like this with a full business class limits the interactions they have with the passengers, which makes service difficult. The Japanese flight attendant appeared really relieved as she changed out of her apron while talking to me. I assured them that they were excellent and a great crew. They were very proactive during the entire flight and after seeing how much I was enjoying sipping on the white wine, they refilled my glass without me asking three times. The only letdown was the catering. I was surprised that the food was rather mediocre coming out of Japan compared to the meal I had from Beijing. Either way I would not recommend the rockfish on this flight since it was bland and not memorable at all. Overall, it was a comfortable and on-time flight with an excellent and dedicated crew.

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