There are flights that one simply regards as a means of transport.

There are flights that people look forward to because of business class, good food or a comfortable bed.

And then there’s theEtihad Residence.

It’s a product that’s hard to describe without sounding like you’re exaggerating. You essentially have a living room, a separate bedroom, your own en-suite bathroom with a shower, fully lockable doors and the feeling that the rest of the aeroplane has ceased to exist.

The flight from Singapore to Abu Dhabi marked the end of our trip around Thailand and Singapore. The main plan was to spend New Year’s Eve on Koh Samui and Koh Phangan, add a few days in Singapore, and round it all off with something we’ll remember for the rest of our lives.

It worked out perfectly.

Why the Etihad Residence in particular?

For me, the Etihad Residence is the holy grail of commercial flying.

Not because it’s the most sensible way to spend money. It’s simply a product that completely defies conventional thinking about first class in the aviation industry.

Standard first class focuses on how big the seat is, how good the champagne is, whether the doors are tall enough and how comfortably you can sleep.

Residence is different.

Here, it’s not just about the seat. You’re deciding whether to sit in the living area first, go and lie down in the separate bedroom, or have a shower in your own bathroom.

Yes, we’re still on an Airbus A380 on a scheduled commercial flight.

And yes, it sounds absurd.

How much did the Etihad Residence cost?

We flew in the Residence class on the Singapore–Abu Dhabi leg, from where we continued on to Paris in Etihad’s standard First Class.

At the time of booking, the entire SIN–AUH–CDG route was one of the cheapest ways to try out the Residence.

The price was:

• 4 230 sgd for two people for flights from Singapore to Paris via Abu Dhabi,
• 3 239 sgd a supplement for Residence on the Singapore–Abu Dhabi leg.

The total was therefore 7 469 sgd for 2 people.

The surcharge for seats 1A + 1C (i.e. Residence) is usually similar across all routes and varies by no more than a few hundred dollars.

Is that a lot? Of course it is.

Could it have been booked more cheaply? In exceptional cases, perhaps, but when it comes to Residence, ‘cheap’ is a very relative term. Moreover, this was precisely the comparison I wanted: first Residence on the SIN–AUH leg, followed immediately by Etihad’s ‘standard’ first class on the connecting AUH–CDG flight.

Personally, I’ve never managed to find a better price with Residence. What’s more, this time it wasn’t even a ‘flight for the sake of it’; we actually needed to get from South-East Asia to Europe on a specific date during the peak season.

I also earned nearly 20,000 miles per person on the flight into the Flying Blue programme, the loyalty scheme run by Air France and KLM. You can also collect miles with Etihad via Flying Blue, which is a nice bonus.

How does booking a Residence actually work?

Formally speaking, the Etihad Residence is not a separate class of service.

It is part of First Class, but is a separately charged seat.

• 1A – if you’re travelling alone
• 1A + 1C – if you’re travelling as a couple

It is always better value to travel as a couple, as the price for 1A+1C is not double the price of 1A, but only slightly higher.

When booking your flight, therefore, always select ‘First Class’ and then choose the seats marked in gold on the seat map.

👉 What are the current prices for Residence? The easiest way to find out is on Etihad.com

Concierge service before your flight

With The Residence, the experience doesn’t begin on board.

Shortly after booking, passengers are assigned a personal concierge on WhatsApp. They can use this service to sort out travel details, any changes and special requests.

I mainly used the concierge to arrange transport from the hotel to the airport and to sort out the details regarding a special meal. In the end, we didn’t order the special meal, and I easily arranged the transfer to the airport via the online booking system directly on the Etihad website.

By limousine from the hotel to the airport

All Residence passengers (note: this really does mean only Residence, not ‘standard’ First Class) have a limousine transfer to the airport included in the price of their flight.

In Singapore, we stayed at the Marina Bay Sands hotel, which was in itself one of the highlights of the trip – I’ve written more about our stay in my MBS review.

I booked the transfer for the earliest possible time – 5 hours before departure. We wanted to explore the beautiful Singapore airport a little more.

Of course, I’d pictured a Rolls-Royce in my mind. A Toyota Alphard turned up.

Practical, very spacious. But a bit ordinary.

I’m joking, of course – a lift in a Rolls-Royce would really be far too decadent.

The service was brilliant – about 20 minutes before the car arrived at the hotel, I received a message on WhatsApp saying the driver was already on his way.

Check-in in Singapore: escorted from the counter to the lounge

Check-in at Changi Airport in Singapore went very smoothly.

Everything was quick, relaxed and very personalised. An Etihad staff member took us from the check-in counter and escorted us all the way through passport control to the lounge.

Thanks to this, passport control took about 3 minutes.

Here, Etihad demonstrated that the Residence is truly about more than just a seat on board. The ground service was flawless.

No wandering about, no searching for the right queue, no waiting, no “somewhere over there to the right”. You simply arrive, someone takes you in and looks after you.

The lounge in Singapore: the first major disappointment

And then came the lounge.

Etihad does not have its own lounge in Singapore, but uses a contracted lounge instead. A separate area is set aside for First Class and Residence passengers.

The service was good. The gentleman who looked after us was very friendly and really went the extra mile.

However, the atmosphere was a let-down.

The lounge looked dated, lacking in atmosphere, with no view, and overall felt cramped and old-fashioned… The refreshments were also nothing to write home about, hardly befitting the start of the most luxurious cabin in commercial aviation.

If I’d been flying standard business class, I’d probably just have shrugged it off.

But when you’re flying Residence, you expect a slightly different start.

I’ve seen far worse lounges around the world, but even so, this wasthe weakest part of the whole experience on the ground.

Boarding the plane as the very first passenger

An Etihad member of staff escorted us out of the lounge once again.

In Singapore, security checks take place right at the gate, so we were escorted through this process as well. Once again, it was quick, stress-free and hassle-free.

Boarding was very strictly organised.

We were the very first to board the plane.

But now comes the part that’s the reason I bought this ticket.

First impression: I’ll never fly any other way again!

With some luxury products, you see so many photos and videos beforehand that reality can’t really surprise you anymore.

That wasn’t the case with Residence. My first impression was simply ‘wow’.

Even compared to the Residence, Etihad’s first class is brilliant in its own right. Large, spacious, elegant. But the Residence is in a league of its own.

It’s not just a better seat.

It’s a small flat at the front of the Airbus A380.

Even other first-class passengers came to have a look at The Residence before take-off. That perhaps says more about the product than any description ever could. Even people sitting in one of the best first-class cabins in the world go to see what lies above them.

And, to be honest, I can’t blame them.

It might sound a bit too uncritical, but we were genuinely thrilled.

I’d thought the bedroom would be separated from the corridor by just some sort of symbolic partition. But there really is a solid wall and a floor-to-ceiling door between the bed and the corridor.

Complete privacy!

Living room: a sofa, a minibar and plenty of space

The first part of the Residence is the living room.

Well… the living room. Basically, a large two-seater sofa for two passengers, a huge amount of space and plenty of storage.

I was surprised, for example, by the private minibar stocked with soft drinks.

And a giant screen.

The seat itself is comfortable, spacious and perfectly adequate for eating, working, watching films or simply sitting back with a drink. But the Residence’s greatest strength isn’t the seat. That alone wouldn’t be enough to account for the legend that has grown up around this product.

The real difference lies behind the doors.

The bedroom: this is where the real decadence begins

Behind the living room is a separate bedroom.

Not a ‘bed created by folding down the sofa’

Not a ‘suite’.

A proper bedroom.

With its own bed, separated from the rest of the cabin by a wall and a lockable door. Floor-to-ceiling, no ‘pretend doors’. The moment you close them, you can’t see the aisle, and nobody can see or hear you.

This is the main reason why the Residence has no rival in standard commercial aviation.

Two months earlier, I flew first class on Lufthansa’s Allegris from Japan. And I must say, I really liked the Allegris. It’s modern, well-designed, beautiful and, for a first-class cabin, very well executed.

But the Residence is in a completely different league when it comes to travel.

Allegris is top-of-the-range first class.

Residence is somewhere between first class and a private apartment in the sky.

Dinner: top-quality, though the service could have been a bit quicker

The flight departs from Singapore at 19:25, so the in-flight service begins as soon as the aircraft reaches cruising altitude.

We are given the menu before take-off, along with a welcome drink, nuts and Arabic coffee.

Dinner itself beginswith a serving of caviar. To be honest, I don’t treat myself to caviar every day, so this is a real treat for me.

This is followed by a four-course main menu. I opt for the following combination:

• Tomato soup
• An interlude in the form of a small ice cream
• Chicken breast (my girlfriend chooses pasta)
• Blueberry cheesecake (my girlfriend has a warm chocolate and sour cherry tart)

I’ve got no complaints about the food, but I’m still not fully enjoying my dinner.

The time between courses isagonisingly long for my liking. We wait. And wait some more.

Yet on short night flights, speed of service should be the priority.

Especially as the crew know how we want to organise our time on the flight – they asked us about that as soon as we boarded the plane.

After dinner, off to the bar for a drink

Fancy popping into another bar for a cocktail after dinner?

In everyday life, it’s quite normal. On a plane, it’s a bit absurd.

Not so on Etihad’s Airbus A380.

At the far end of the first-class cabin, there really is a bar counter with a table – just like on Emirates’ Airbus A380s.

Before going to sleep, we have two cocktails and are really enjoying this flight.

Private bathroom with shower

The residence has its own bathroom with a shower.

Not a shared first-class shower where you book a slot for a few minutes, as is the case with Emirates. Or like in the classic Etihad first class, which we flew on from Abu Dhabi to Paris.

Here, the bathroom is part of the bedroom.

After dinner, a flight attendant prepares the shower for me; the process takes about 5 minutes. The shower is available for a maximum of 10 minutes per passenger.

After a drink at the bar, I go for a shower on the plane. I would never have believed this would actually happen.

My girlfriend is tired and goes straight to bed. After all, she’ll have another chance to have a shower on the connecting flight from Abu Dhabi to Paris, although there the shower will be ‘just’ shared amongst all first-class passengers.

The shower is surprisingly spacious and the water pressure is perfectly normal. Just like in a hotel. That really took me by surprise.

Of course, I’m also given a towel and a bathrobe, and there’s a hairdryer available too.

Bizarre. But brilliant.

In the shower room, we also have a private toilet with a washbasin, which is also accessible only to Residence guests.

Sleep: the greatest luxury wasn’t the shower, but the peace and quiet

After my shower, I too finally head to the bedroom to get at least a little sleep.

Just like at home. Put away the bathrobe, change into the comfortable black pyjamas we’re given before take-off. Close the partition between the corridor and the seating area, the door between the seating area and the bedroom, and off to sleep!

How big and comfortable is the bed?

The bed is 208 cm long and 120 cm wide. It’s not a standard double bed, but two people can sleep comfortably on it.

Standard hotel bed linen is provided, and there is additional storage space under the bed for hand luggage.

There is, of course, another screen with an entertainment system.

Unfortunately, due to the relatively short flight from Singapore to Abu Dhabi, I only managed to use the bed for about three hours. But they were three wonderful hours of very good quality sleep!

Meal before landing: small, but just right

A second meal was served just before landing.

Breakfast? Dinner? On night-time flights across time zones, it’s easy to get a bit confused.

At first glance, it looked rather small.

But exactly what I wanted at that moment. Nothing unnecessarily heavy, no attempt to cram another huge feast into a short flight just because the product allows it.

We each choose a different option:

• I had an egg omelette with a sausage
• my girlfriend a fruit salad and a croissant

Drinks are unlimited, as they are throughout the flight.

Overall, I was very satisfied with the menu selection, quality and flavour.

Once again, however, if the service had been a little quicker, the whole experience would have been even better.

Other little touches that make the flight more enjoyable: a lovely amenity kit

All first-class passengers receive a card with a code for unlimited free Wi-Fi before departure.

It works throughout the flight, but you know how it is: it’s just that sort of aeroplane Wi-Fi. Fine for chatting, but useless for work.

As for the seat amenities, there’s hardly any need to mention them in a product of this calibre. You have access to:

• a universal power socket
• USB-A and USB-C ports
• headphones for the in-flight entertainment system
• slippers
• pyjamas
• blanket
• pillow

We both particularly like the lovely, large amenity kit bag, which you get to keep and can easily use as a laptop sleeve.

Inside the amenity kit are products from the ESPA brand:

• moisturising cream
• hand and body lotion
• pillow moisturiser
• deer tallow lip balm
• earplugs
• socks and an eye mask
• toothbrush with toothpaste

Before landing, we’re also given a small box of chocolate sweets and, most importantly, a lovely collectable mug for Arabic coffee – there are always several varieties, each named after the latest destinations in the Etihad Airways network.

Arrival in Abu Dhabi: the service continues even after disembarking

The experience didn’t end upon arrival in Abu Dhabi.

An Etihad concierge was waiting for us as we disembarked from the plane and escorted us through security straight to the lounge.

We were due to continue on to Paris in Etihad’s standard First Class, so it was the perfect opportunity for a comparison.

Residence on the Singapore–Abu Dhabi leg.

And then standard first class on the Abu Dhabi–Paris leg.

I’ll be writing a separate review of Etihad’s first class on the AUH–CDG route. But I can already say that it’ll be a bit of an unfair comparison. Not because Etihad’s first class is bad. Quite the opposite.

It’s just that after the Residence, almost everything else will feel like a downgrade.

What was the best part

It wasn’t just one specific thing.

It was the whole experience that was the best.

From the communication via WhatsApp, to the limousine from the hotel, the speedy check-in, the escort to the airport, being the first to board, the first glimpse of the cabin, dinner, the bar, a shower, a night’s sleep in a separate bedroom, right through to the escort on arrival in Abu Dhabi.

The Residence works because it creates a story.

But if I had to single out the main feature, it would definitely be the bedroom with a classic bed and complete privacy.

What was less impressive

So that this isn’t just a eulogy, there were two things that bothered me.

The first was the lounge in Singapore. The contracted lounge simply didn’t live up to what one would expect before a flight in The Residence. The service was friendly, but the ambience was lacking.

The second issue was the slower service on board.

On a normal flight, I might have let it slide. But not on a short night-time flight in The Residence. Here, every minute spent waiting means less time for what matters most: enjoying the space and getting some sleep in the bedroom.

It’s not a detail that would spoil the flight.

But it is a detail that prevents me from giving a perfect rating.

Is the Etihad Residence worth it?

For the price of the Residence, you could buy five economy class tickets.

But this isn’t the sort of product you buy simply because it makes financial sense.

Residence is an experience.

And as an experience, it works perfectly.

My girlfriend and I were both thrilled. Not in a ‘that was nice’ sort of way. More in the sort of way where, even a few days after arriving, you’re still wondering whether it really happened.

For us, it was the experience of a lifetime.

And for me, as an aviation enthusiast through and through, it was twice as special.

So yes: the Residence was well worth it for me. There’s absolutely no doubt about that.

💬 What about you? Would you pay extra for a flight with Residence?

Check Residence prices on Etihad.com

Verdict

Etihad Residence is the most exceptional product I have ever experienced on a commercial aircraft.

The ‘hard product’ (seats and other facilities) is absolutely unrivalled in the skies. A real studio flat on an Airbus A380.

The soft product was also of an exceptionally high standard. Excellent food, a very good crew, superb communication and a personal touch. The only major drawback was the somewhat slower service during a relatively short night flight.

So, is the Etihad Residence the best commercial flying experience in the world?

As far as I’m concerned, yes.

Review

• Ground services: 10/10
• Lounge in Singapore: 5/10
• Hard product: 10/10
• Privacy: 10/10
• Food: 8/10
• In-flight service: 8/10
• Overall experience: 9.5/10

If I had to choose one flight that I’ll remember for the rest of my life, it would be this one.