Businessman reveals what it was REALLY like to be first to fly in £14,000 'penthouse in the sky'.

UK Daily Mail ^ | December 31, 2014 | Chris Kitching

[C19fan]

Miami businessman Gino Bertuccio is one of the world’s luckiest flyers – and one of the most thoughtful as well. The 52-year-old became the first person to fly in Etihad Airways’ £14,000 ‘penthouse in the sky’ at the weekend, and he shared the one-of-a-kind experience with friends and strangers. While flying from London's Heathrow Airport to Abu Dhabi Mr Bertuccio opened the three-room private suite to first-class passengers, who were in an adjacent cabin, and invited a traveller from economy into the exclusive cabin, which boasts the world’s first in-flight butler.

[C19fan]

Given the choice between upholding Islamic morals and making a profit both Etihad and Emirates chooses profits. They sure hire hot flight attendants and designed very nice uniforms for them.

[Rodamala]

This is standard Pullman service... The railroads once had this level of service and it was ordinary.

These people, however, have brought it back:

https://www.travelpullman.com/

[Lurker]

I intend to take one of those trips one day.

[RGF]

Was that a real knife and fork?

Reminds me of one time I upgraded for $10 (yes, $10) to first class on a LA-NY 747 flight. There was a prime rib cart that looked like it came from Lawry’s serving lunch. Oh, how times have changed.

[az_gila]

I think the female “butler” would be better off in a French Maid outfit...:^)

[SES1066]

The Residence is the jewel of Etihad’s new Airbus A380 superjumbo jet, which made its inaugural commercial flight between London and Abu Dhabi on Saturday.

An interesting side note to this story - Airbus is giving serious consideration to suspending or canceling production of the A380 as it is not selling well. I can remember when there was real speculation in the 1990s about Airbus choosing to build this Super-Jumbo while rival Boeing decided to not compete there but to build the 787 and now the extended 777 as fuel-efficient aircraft.

While the 787 has had DEFINITE problems with its lithium-ion battery pack, I flew on one to Europe this last September and it felt to be a very nice airplane. Time will tell but I can see the decision matrix that Boeing looked at about the need for 500+ passenger airplanes and what routes would support such.