Flying Etihad Airways to Japan: What is it like?

Not another Japan flight you may say. Etihad Airways to Japan? Japan again, really? The reality is… I had a week off work available, and I wanted to go somewhere safe, easy, stay in control of my budget… I loved my previous trip to Kansai so much, I decided to go to Kansai again. I knew what to expect from Japan, and I love Japan. I flew Finnair in May 2024 and quite liked it, but Finnair wasn’t the best option for this July departure, which, in Japan, is considered shoulder season.

So, off I went looking for reasonably priced flights on from Berlin that don’t involve four transfers or fly over Russia. I also prioritise good safety ratings. And I found Etihad Airways. For 850 Euro bought from the airline, including 25kg check-in luggage, this looked like the perfect ticket.

The photos in this post are all from this trip that Etihad Airways to Japan made possible, for which I am grateful. I was too knackered to take photos inside the plane, especially without people in it, as pretty much every flight was full, so I just have a few crappy mobile shots.

A few facts about Etihad Airways

Etihad is the national airline of the United Arab Emirates (whereas Emirates is the national carrier of one of its Emirates, Dubai) . It is a very young airline, being founded in 2003, and has its hub in Abu Dhabi Zayed Airport, a relatively new airport.

 They fly relatively new aircraft from both Airbus and Boeing – most of their aircraft are Boing 787 “Dreamliner”. The Airline Ratings web site considers them one of the world’s Top 10 safest airlines.

Obviously, the flight path from Europe to Japan does not involve the Arabian peninsula, so any flight from Europe will include a detour via Arabia, at sometimes dead of the night inconvenient times. But then, flying with such a highly rated airline at such a good price seemed like a superb deal

So, what’s not to like? Nothing, except the trip duration of 21-24 hours compared to 15-16 hours between Berlin and Kansai for Finnair or Lufthansa/All Nippon Airways. Plus, an extra stop in Vienna as Etihad is not flying to and from Berlin.

Web site and Mobile App

I almost always book direct after having been burned with a third party agent more than one, Booking being a notable exception so far. So, after finding this great deal on Google flights, off I went to Etihad.com after shifting back and forth a couple clinics and comparing prices carefully.

It was super easy to book, except for ordering vegetarian meal. As much as I tired, I simply could not find that option.

I also downloaded the app, and checking in for my flights was a breeze. I had to keep an eye on departure times myself, and on the return flight I was unable to get a boarding pass for the Vienna to Berlin leg. Also, the blatant upselling options on the app annoyed me a bit. Look, if I want to drop 2.5k on a Business Class Upgrade, it is fine to tell me once, not repeatedly, ok?

I had been allocated aisle and middle seats (couldn’t be asked to pay extra for seat selection, which would have been 300 Euro for the entire trip). At some point, Austrian Airlines got into the game and emailed me, so I checked in via Austrian Airlines web site, where I changed my seat to window seat, only to have it returned to the previous seats.

Another thing I like with Etihad is that the cheapest fare automatically includes 25kg check-in luggage. So the fare you see is usually the fare you get, and furthermore, even the cheapest fares are somewhat flexible / partially refundable- when booked directly from the airline.

Departure, Arrival and Transfer in Vienna and Abu Dhabi

Well, I guess I don’t need to say too much about Berlin BER Airport, which to me remains one of the worst major airports in Europe, despite being relatively new. This time, I travelled during the time if the European football championship and was pleasantly surprised how well everything worked in the airport. The security screen staff was suspiciously friendly – wondered if they had been given a good dressing down before the tournament as to not live up to preconceptions of Berliners being a bit curt and not speaking English very well.

I made a second attempt to change my seats to window seats at the automated check-in machines – after three error messages, I gave up. The bag drop was unmanned, so I gave up on enjoying a window seat until Vienna, where I made a third attempt and was fairly unhelpfully rebuffed and just gave up.

I flew to Vienna on Austrian Airways, an hour flight were we were given a cup of water and a chocolate. I really wonder what is the point of flying a full service airline when you can’t even get a free cup of coffee on an early morning, but this was merely a feeder flight, so I am not complaining.

Vienna Airport is cookie-cutter European not-too-pretty but fairly functional airport. Being a rather traditional European nation, they appear to love their newspapers, and I was pretty impressed with the free national and international newspapers everywhere.

At the boarding gate, I made my final attempt to change seats. The ladies working for Etihad were the most bored-looking, unhelpful airport workers I had encountered for a long time, thankfully this was a first world problem only, so I didn’t bother them any longer.

While I did okay with my 90-minute transfer, passing through passport control, on the return I accidentally took a wrong escalator, and boom, I was out of the transit area. No warning, nothing and obviously no chance to return other than running up the escalator like a maniac. Probably would have been okay as there was nobody around at all.

Abu Dhabi’s Zayed Airport is a huge modern construction that looks a bit like an octopus in its layout. We exited the plane at the end of one octopus arm, went to the “body” for the mandatory security check and then off into another arm for the next flight. They provide free strollers for kids but not much for mobility-challenged people. I had enough time, so I walked just slowly. I saw one gold cart type transport, but had no idea how to call for one. The airport is definitely showing some wear and tear and is ice cold… I was so cold on the way back when I had the pleasure of spending 5 hours there. Duty Free and cafes are westernized and very expensive – about 8 Euro for a cup of Starbucks coffee.

My destination, Kansai International Airport, is a huge, modern, clean airport, frequently considered one of the worlds’ best but it appeared under a bit of strain with large visitor numbers. We arrived just before noon and Immigration had huge queues – very few inbound Japanese, all foreigners, most of them Asian. I know the drill now and happened to be one of the first to leave the aircraft, so I had a good start.

I had filled in the arrival form beforehand and obtained a QR Code but did not feel that this sped up Immigration and Customs.

Immigration appeared pretty clued-up with extra finger-print stations set up and all immigration counters staffed. Customs – a tiny queue this time that moved fast. Then I was let out into the bright Arrivals Hall.There were more than enough stands and vending machines for data SIM cards also, but I decided not to bother with a SIM. It would have cost about 5000 Yen for my Android phone.

I picked up a recycled umbrella, and walked into the airport train station. The Non-Japanese speaker queue in the Japan Railways Ticket Hall was humongous, so I boldly went up to the Japanese speaker counter and bought the Ise-Kumano Railpass, which I had read about before. It took less than a minute.

Routing when flying Etihad Airways to Japan

Coming from Europe, Arabia is not on the direct route to Japan. But since we don’t really fly over Russian Airspace any more, that little detour isn’t going to make a huge difference where it not for transferring planes

As mentioned, I needed to transfer in Vienna to get onto an Etihad plane. We landed in Abu Dhabi in the evening and had to pass through security, which went very swift. Then we took an interesting route across Northern India Bangladesh and China into Japan. Pretty muc avoiding the Bay of Bengal, which can get bad weather and turbulence. On both ways the captain did a pretty detailed greeting with info on weather conditions, which was great. I don’t know what happened but I have not experienced other than very mild anxiety even in moderate turbulence in the past half year and wonder whether the reassuring and informative flight commentary may have cured my fear of flying?

Aircraft

Etihad Airways operates a fleet of modern aircraft from both Boeing and Airbus, with an average age of between 6 to 12 years according to Airfleets, and an average age of 8 years, so a relatively young fleet.

Etihad Airways is one of the safest airlines in the world, coming in at No. 4 in an Airline Ratings analysis.

They do not match the great Finnair Marimekko and Moomin designs, but we flew in a 787-10 “Greenliner” with a slight colour permutation of the Etihad livery using a special oil seed eco fuel that allegedly reduces carbon emissions by 70%, according to Etihad.

On the Flight

Berlin to Vienna was a standard Economy flight in a full cabin, thankfully only an hour.

Both Vienna to Abu Dhabi and Abu Dhabi to Osaka were in 787 with a relatively new cabin. Somewhat meh beige colour scheme, but by stroke of luck, I had been randomly assigned an “XL” Economy or “Economy Space”seat. As Etihad does only do two classes in most of their long haul fleet, Business and Economy, some of their long haul cabins have some rows on front of the Economy Cabin where they use standard Economy seats but pitch them at 91cm (35.8in) instead of the standard 81cm (32in). They were not terribly wide, but then I am not terribly fat, so the 17.1in width was fine except on the return when I had a bulkhead seat – great to stretch legs, not so great trying to sleep a bit sideways.

The cabin was very bright, clean, and I had the aforementioned extra legroom seats, which made the trip a lot more comfortable.

Very nice big screens on the in-flight entertainment with an okay choice of films. I guess not many Japanese films. Lots of Chinese and American mainstream movies and TV>

In terms of amenities, you get a lot: Firstly the headphones are very nice over-the ear headphones – which obviously must be returned. Then, you get a lovely little shopping bag in Etihad colours, containing a blanket, hand cream, ear plugs and an eye mask. Quality of all looks quite decent. The shopping bag is genius thing – everyone needs a reusable bag, and it’s instant advertising. It also means the blanket doesn’t come in plastic.

Also – lovely pillows – plump, with a fresh cotton pillowcase. Very nice.

What else can I say about two back-to back, rather boring long haul flights? I flew in a 787 for the first time, the aircraft was nice and quiet, the flight was smooth, I slept an hour or two, it was surviveable. We got to Kansai on time, which always helps if you have onward travel plans and a sightseeing schedule.

The flight attendants were okay – very young, Eastern European and Middle Eastern mostly, efficient but not overly nice of helpful. Given it was full flights most of the time, they did their job and it was mostly okay.

Bu they didn’t seem to care beyond that. On the night flight, one singular passenger undimmed their window when the plane was still in sleep mode, illuminating half the cabin. Did anyone bother to tell them off? No. I felt too self conscious to call them, but probably should have done. These passengers also spoke really bad English, they were barely able to communicate with the crew.

On the return I was unable to pull out my screen, so when the service came, I asked the flight attendant he could not sort out the screen either, so I asked him to come back later which he never did. I guess I could have used the summon button, but it did not seem too important.

It sounds a bit strange now, but I used to have really bad fear of flying, and I really did appreciate the verbal reassurance from a member of cabin crew every now and then, so I have had better experience with lovely reassuring crew with other airlines.

Secondly, quite important: Less than halfway into the long Abu Dhabi-Osaka leg, the toilets looked absolutely filthy, with no toilet roll on one occasion. It was a smooth flight, so I am unsure why some people appear not to hit the toilet bowl, but it was filthy.

Food and Drink

So, on short-haul, you get the super grand menu of still water in Economy. And a little chocolate at the end. On the long-haul leg, there were three options including one vegetarian, on all flights, which was always pasta.

The pasta started off pretty good, but got a bit stranger in flavour and consistency. My last meal on the inbound route, I had pasta as my breakfast after a night flight… not ideal. On the return, the breakfast option was some rather soggy French toast, everything else had meat in it.

All in all, it as okay. I had stocked up on water and drinks before the flight, so the relatively infrequent drinks service did not bother me. Definitely stock up, as there is nothing out for self-service during the long flights.

Etihad Airways to Japan: Yay or Nay?

Overall, I would fly Etihad Airways again if the ticket is cheap enough, because they have excellent safety ratings. I definitely would not check in anything I couldn’t replace easily.

However… I cannot count on getting an Economy Space Seat all the time, the regular Economy seats looked rather cramped, so I rather not gamble.

While the flight attendants were perfectly adequate, I would miss the reassuring attitude from someone the somewhat older KLM or Finnair attendants, especially when we hit a bit of turbulence.

Transferring in Abu Dhabi was a bit of a chore for me, and the 5-hour layover in the dead of night was rather unpleasant.

And last not least, an item I checked in has still not appeared after three weeks, and I am becoming increasingly frustrated with them. Austrian Airlines is supposed to handle it, but it was checked in with Etihad, and I travelled on a single ticket. The Austrian Lost Luggage system did not work for me, my reference number appears to have been deleted from their system, and when I try to make a new report, it will not recognise my ticket number. If that were anything perishable or valuable ( buy pretty valuable kitchen knife that I have no choice but check in) , I would be extremely disappointed, and I will not buy or check in anything valuable if I fly Etihad again.

So guess what… my next Japan flights will be Finnair (again). It was also the cheapest flight that did not involve Ryanair ir Wizz with non-protected transfer in Shenzen.

We also booked flights for 2025 which will be with KLM, whom I flew in Economy to Bali and liked them. But that is a different story… we initially thought about pushing out the boat and buying Business CLass tickets, well my mum flies Business Class while I am a convinced Economy Flyer but my mum wanted to fly in the same cabin… a decent routing would have cost 5000Euro (compared to 780-920 I normally pay) or some crazy routings with 90 minutes in Haneda and flying into Kobe and absolutely no flexibility, so we, my mother and I made a compromise to fly Premium Economy. Quite interested how that pans out, it was about 150 Euro more than the regular return ticket (cherry blossom season and all)

The Small Print

I flew Etihad Airways from Berlin to Osaka (Kansai International) in July 2024. I paid 857 Euro for my return Economy flight, as always, all paid by myself. I am signed up with Flying Blue (KLM Air France) and in theory you can collect miles with Etihad, but it did not work automatically for me, so I have submitted my boarding passes and have not heard back yet. but I can’t say much about that yet. I wasn’t asked to write this review, all opinions are my own etc.

I hope this helps in your decision whether to use Etihad Airways on your next flight.