Things you knew (and didn't) about Etihad’s The Residence

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to experience the best flight of my life so far - LHR-AUH on Etihad’s First Apartment on the A380 morning service. Because of a variety of reasons that I won't get into, I've not been able to write about that experience, but I will...soon. But here's something else.

Credit: AirlineTrends.com

Now that I was flying Etihad's First Apartment, the next thing was to try and get a peek at The Residence, Etihad’s (and the entire premium flying experience’s) over-the-top exclusive first class offering, touted as Your Private Three-Room Suite in the Sky! 

As it happened, The Residence on that flight was going empty, and so courtesy the Savoy-trained butler who was to serve The Residence (who was assigned to my apartment and who, for reasons of his privacy, will remain unnamed), I got a dekko. The only condition was, no pictures, which I was OK with at that time as I didn’t plan on returning to blogging. So the pictures you see below are courtesy Ben aka Lucky, from One Mile At A Time, who very graciously let me use these. Good on you, Ben!

Before we get into what you didn’t know, here’s what you may already know about The Residence.

You don’t book a ticket, you book The Residence. More like booking a hotel room in the sky for the duration of the flight. 

Seating area - luxurious Poltrona Frau leather double-seat sofa with ottoman, two dining tables, chilled drinks cabinet and 32-inch flat screen TV.

The Residence can accommodate 2 passengers, so you can book it and take a companion along. Because of this, everything inside The Residence is built in twos – the seat for two, double bed...

Bedroom - decorated with delicate fabrics and furnished with natural fibre mattress double bed, Egyptian cotton sheets and choice of pillows.

Even two separate televisions...and you can continue watching the same or different program on the two TVs!

TV display in the bedroom

And you get your own en-suite shower and washroom. No waiting, and no 5-minute time limit for a shower!

En-suite bathroom with shower, exclusive toiletries and bathrobes

However, there are a few things that you may not have known about The Residence. I heard of these from the butler, and cannot confirm which of these are fact and why are apocrypha. Having said that, they are totally in keeping with the over-the-top experience that “The Residence” is all about! So, here goes:

• The Residence guest is picked up at their collection point by the butler, in a car that has a divider between the driver and passenger sections. Essentially, the driver does not know who it is that’s being picked up. 
• There is a separate entrance at each of the airports where the Residence service is offered, through which the guests is brought into the airport terminal. 
• There is no separate checking-in to be done. All bags are automatically taken care of, as are boarding passes, etc, by the butler. 
• There is a separate arrangement for security checks, which is an exclusive facility for The Residence guests. 
• A separate, exclusive lounge is operated for The Residence guest…even First Class lounges won’t do. 
• The butler will do all the duty free shopping for the guest (I’m not sure how payments are handled, but I suppose that’s a minor point in the scheme of things). 
• The Residence guest decides if he wants to be the first or last passenger to embark the aircraft. Same goes for disembarking. 
• If the guest chooses to be the first to board, then nobody else (except the cabin and flight crew, and operational staff) gets into the aircraft before the guest. Not even first class. If the guest chooses to board first and is delayed, all boarding is kept on hold. Even if that means a delay in flight timings (though I’m guessing here that there has to be an outer limit to this). 
• The butler is the only person to interact with the guest throughout the flight. In effect, the only other person you need to encounter if you’re a Residence guest, is the person at the security check! Which gives the guest maximum privacy. 

Check these out too:

• The Residence - Etihad Airways (information from Etihad website)
• Exploring The Residence - A380 (Etihad video)
• Tour of The Residence (private video) 

In all, a guest of The Residence is the king of the flying castle (barring the folks up front in the flight deck, I imagine). But then, when you pay upwards of $30k on average for a flight segment on The Residence, nothing else will do, would it?