Etihad EY41, Bag drop and check in time?

rameire

Flying out on EY42 Dublin to Abu Dhabi March 26th

Just wondering do Etihad have the facility to drop the bags off the night before, and also do I really have to be there 3 hours before hand or will 2 hours be sufficient.

trying to find the easiest solution as travelling with a 4 year old and dont want to be hanging around for longer than needed.

cheers.

sleepingghost

I am a regular traveler and have flown with Etihad on numerous occasions over the last few years.

As far as i'm aware Etihad do not operate a bag drop facility. Beware they are relatively strict on weight, and will tag and weigh all hand luggage.

Yes 3 hours does seem excessive but a few points to bear in mind. Check in tends to be slow as everyone has luggage. Also mornings are by far the busiest time of the day in Dublin Airport (term 2 does tend to be OK). As Etihad operate larger aircraft they tend to board their flights early (approx 50+mins before scheduled departure). In my opinion if you arrive early you will spend less time queuing at check-in / security. Then just find a quiet corner to have a tea and relax before boarding.

Also FYI Etihad offer specialist kids meals (burgers, chicken nuggets type food) but these must be ordered in advance. There is also some sort of kids pack provided if they know in advance a child is traveling. I believe you can do this online through the manage booking facility.

I also recommend joining their frequent flyer club. You can convert their point to cash via a prepaid debit card. I got approx €15 credit the last time i was traveled to Asia.

rameire

nicely detailed, thank you for your time, really appreciate it.

I have signed up for the flyer miles club, going to China so might aswell get as much out of it as possible.
kids meal is also booked in. the travel agent did it thankfully.

I suppose if I get to the airport in good time, at least we can sit and relax and have breakfast.

we will be packing light as we have an internal China flight and checked baggage only allows 20kg, so we will be watching what we take in our bags.

Jude13

sleepingghost wrote: »

I am a regular traveler and have flown with Etihad on numerous occasions over the last few years.

As far as i'm aware Etihad do not operate a bag drop facility. Beware they are relatively strict on weight, and will tag and weigh all hand luggage.

Yes 3 hours does seem excessive but a few points to bear in mind. Check in tends to be slow as everyone has luggage. Also mornings are by far the busiest time of the day in Dublin Airport (term 2 does tend to be OK). As Etihad operate larger aircraft they tend to board their flights early (approx 50+mins before scheduled departure). In my opinion if you arrive early you will spend less time queuing at check-in / security. Then just find a quiet corner to have a tea and relax before boarding.

Also FYI Etihad offer specialist kids meals (burgers, chicken nuggets type food) but these must be ordered in advance. There is also some sort of kids pack provided if they know in advance a child is traveling. I believe you can do this online through the manage booking facility.

I also recommend joining their frequent flyer club. You can convert their point to cash via a prepaid debit card. I got approx €15 credit the last time i was traveled to Asia.

Very good post. I didn't know about the points to cash, I have 77k miles with etihad must have look see.

sleepingghost

I forgot to mention in my original post that Etihad's morning flight is regularly delayed. Generally if the delay is significant (not unusual!), they will reschedule the flight time and then text and email the new detail. The will also provide a revised itinerary if you can't make a connection in AUH.

Jude13 wrote: »

Very good post. I didn't know about the points to cash, I have 77k miles with etihad must have look see.

From memory 77k miles is worth in the region of €500. Just link your Etihad Guest Account to the PointPay website (Google because I cant post links). PointsPay are a legitimate Etihad partner and you will be able to see your balance in real time. Having said all that, if your like me you will probably save the points for upgrades.

rameire

I noticed that the flights around the start of the year were delayed quite a bit, but thankfully lately they have all been leaving withing half an hour of scheduled flight time.
my connecting flight has the same 30 min delay, but we have a two hour lay over, so unless something goes bad, it all looks good.
fingers crossed it all stays good.

Jude13

I do use them to upgrade a bit when its available however this route is usually full.

I booked my EY flights in Feb for my Apr trip home and the time has been changed, slightly, 3 times since then. Weird. They are also using Air serbia now to transfer to Abu Dhabi.

LXFlyer

Where are they using Air Serbia to transfer to Abu Dhabi from? You weren't clear about that.

Jude13

I don't have a list but Muscat for one.