With news reports suggesting that Ethiad's A380s are essentially goners, this also means the ends of The Residences (and a nail in the coffin for inflight showers, among other things). With the industry moving on to smaller and more efficient jets and the decline of first class even pre-pandemic, is it now unlikely that a product like The Residences will ever grace the skies again? Would it be technically feasible to include perhaps a smaller version of it in, for example, a 777X? Even assuming that premium demand is now permanently lower moving forward, had the pandemic not happened, would another Residences-like product been launched by another airline other than Etihad, or was the whole idea, as cool as it was, doomed from the start?

I think q-suite is the best you are gonna see

The three-room suite on Etihad was an attempt to use the space creatively. The whole front end of the A380 wasn’t quite right, lot of wasted space on both decks but especially upstairs either side of the staircase. Emirates put the shower room, Etihad put the Residence, Qantas had a little lounge, Air France had an “art gallery” (a couple of iPads showing Wikicommons photos of waterfalls), none of them really worked. Well Emirates got the closest. F class was bookable for $500 BKK HKG which is about 2h20, I loved having a hot shower 35,000 ft above the South China Sea. But yeah, the Residence was an attempt to wrestle some cash out of that space rather than a response to a market sector. As long as aeroplanes go back to being straight tubes like the A350, no more Residences.

Doubtful. Unjustifiable waste of space for most routes, airlines, aircraft, and business models.

Essentially was a gimmick that appeared on one airline, on what: 3-4 routes in total?
Heck, even Concorde service had better utilization/appeal than that.

It was a too-rich-to-be-judicious Arab airline. They were an exception to begin with, pandemic or no pandemic.

I agree it was a smart marketing use of tricky cramped space up front. The emirates showers seem to be the optimum use for it
A truly private first class "lockable room" for two might still find a future business case if evacuation and smoke detection requirements can be met. Say between London and New York or LA to Shanghai or Tokyo.

Emirates probably got the best amenity value out of the space (though Qantas's refresh was OK, in the first version the left side was a CSM station).

But Etihad actually tried to monetise it.

Though it'd be interesting to see if they got much paid utilisation out of the space.

It took wasted space in the aircraft and got everybody talking about Etihad. It was all over the mainstream media for ages, and cemented the image of Etihad as a premium airline. Selling the occasional ticket in it was an extra bonus.

PR masterstroke.

LAX772LR wrote:

Doubtful. Unjustifiable waste of space for most routes, airlines, aircraft, and business models.

Essentially was a gimmick that appeared on one airline, on what: 3-4 routes in total?
Heck, even Concorde service had better utilization/appeal than that.

Looking at youtube every video blogger in the world seems to have gotten some free ride. That doesn't indicate too much paid utilization. It still might have worked PR-value-wise. And it brought back the A380 in a more positive light when the program already visibly eroded.

Doubtful we will ever see Etihad flying their A380 again. Great Marketing for them, a very rarified product.

Something similar might be a good use for the center area between the aisles inside a 777 first class? A "box" with walls and privacy to sleep or work in, and talk on the phone, without everybody listening in.

There is a big cost gap between first class and using some long range private jet.

It might take a while, but my guess is it is only a matter of time. Didn't someone recently announce a 1-1-1 configured first class for the 777X? Only a matter of time before we see something like the 1-1 configuration on the Singapore A380, but in an A350 or 777.

stl07 wrote:

I think q-suite is the best you are gonna see

Although they will shrink with the introduction of smaller aircraft, there are a lot of First Class products that already exceed and will continue to exceed the Qatar Qsuites by miles. And although a fantastic product that I love to fly in, the Qsuite isn't even the top of business class products.

Think about what a pilot's main deck crew rest looks like. About like a sleeper railway car. Two bunks...You would need to open the door only for takeoff and landing. Maybe no shower and no private restroom but it would work.

I guess it depends how you define ‘like.’ In my lifetime (middle age), SpaceX will probably have some pretty sweet ‘private’ accommodations if they do start up commercial travel aboard the starships, but it won’t be for 12+ hour flights, so probably no showers (unless they do manage to send a bunch to Mars).

Armodeen wrote:

and got everybody talking about Etihad.

"Everybody" talking, lol? ...what evidence is there that even 0.1% of the flying public knew about this?

Or heck, if we're going to be fair, what would show that even a significant number of entities that book exclusively J or higher for themselves/clients, knew that this was a thing?

I've explained the concept to people here in L.A. at horse shows, who *definitely* could afford it, and they had no idea what it was, nor any real desire to do it:
Most common response being, "If you're going to pay that, why do it on their schedule?"

And that's a legit question.

LAX772LR wrote:

Armodeen wrote:

and got everybody talking about Etihad.

"Everybody" talking, lol? ...what evidence is there that even 0.1% of the flying public knew about this?

Could it be that "everybody" is just a colloquialism used by, well, "everybody" in the know about a referenced topic.

aeromoe wrote:

LAX772LR wrote:

Armodeen wrote:

and got everybody talking about Etihad.

"Everybody" talking, lol? ...what evidence is there that even 0.1% of the flying public knew about this?

Could it be that "everybody" is just a colloquialism used by, well, "everybody" in the know about a referenced topic.

....which would make it no less inaccurate of an expression; so while I guess you have a point with this, I'm at a loss as to what it would be.

LAX772LR wrote:

aeromoe wrote:

LAX772LR wrote:

"Everybody" talking, lol? ...what evidence is there that even 0.1% of the flying public knew about this?

Could it be that "everybody" is just a colloquialism used by, well, "everybody" in the know about a referenced topic.

....which would make it no less inaccurate of an expression; so while I guess you have a point with this, I'm at a loss as to what it would be.

Yeah...I often make pointless points.

Why be pedantic? Ok, it got a lot of people talking about it. That better? Media coverage in the UK was significant, and I had conversations about it with a whole bunch of non av geek friends. You also only had to look on EY's social media in that timeframe to see the effect it had had. It made EY an aspirational brand.

LAX772LR wrote:

Armodeen wrote:

and got everybody talking about Etihad.

"Everybody" talking, lol? ...what evidence is there that even 0.1% of the flying public knew about this?

Or heck, if we're going to be fair, what would show that even a significant number of entities that book exclusively J or higher for themselves/clients, knew that this was a thing?

I've explained the concept to people here in L.A. at horse shows, who *definitely* could afford it, and they had no idea what it was, nor any real desire to do it:
Most common response being, "If you're going to pay that, why do it on their schedule?"

And that's a legit question.

Armodeen wrote:

Ok, it got a lot of people talking about it. That better?

Well, no.... as the point remains: to what end?
So that a bunch of YouTube types or online magazines could show it to random people, 99% of whom could never afford it?

What did that ACTUALLY accomplish?

Armodeen wrote:

Why be pedantic? Ok, it got a lot of people talking about it. That better? Media coverage in the UK was significant, and I had conversations about it with a whole bunch of non av geek friends. You also only had to look on EY's social media in that timeframe to see the effect it had had. It made EY an aspirational brand.

LAX772LR wrote:

Armodeen wrote:

and got everybody talking about Etihad.

"Everybody" talking, lol? ...what evidence is there that even 0.1% of the flying public knew about this?

Or heck, if we're going to be fair, what would show that even a significant number of entities that book exclusively J or higher for themselves/clients, knew that this was a thing?

I've explained the concept to people here in L.A. at horse shows, who *definitely* could afford it, and they had no idea what it was, nor any real desire to do it:
Most common response being, "If you're going to pay that, why do it on their schedule?"

And that's a legit question.

Sadly for fans, Etihad was already moving away from being a premium airline even before the pandemic thanks to all of the losses and strategic mistakes they had. The Residences did raise eyebrows and were loved by those who flew them (I would have too if I had the chance), but I can imagine that its existence was a factor in those heavy losses.

It was silly as a business case. Most in the market for something like that likely have access to G-V, GlobalEx or something even bigger.

Aaron747 wrote:

It was silly as a business case. Most in the market for something like that likely have access to G-V, GlobalEx or something even bigger.

There is a massive price difference between the residence and even a tiny business jet like a Citation Jet. Big jets like the Gulfstreams aren't even close in terms of price.

Sorry to bump this month-old thread, but with news of Etihad removing any mention of the A380 or the Residences from their website, I was still wondering: is there no reason why Etihad or another airline could have put something like the Residences on a 777X or A350-1000? I'm aware part of the reason why they existed in the first place was to make use of dead space, but in theory could a (perhaps) scaled-down version work on smaller aircraft? And can 777Xs and A350s also have even a small in-flight shower if airlines really wanted them, or are they just too gimmicky? Like I can imagine SQ could have put an inflight shower on their A359ULRs but they never did.

In the earlier days of flying, airliners had full suites for their 20 hour flights across the pond. Not really necessary today.

But once travel becomes available to places other than planet earth, we will certainly see luxurious options again!

VSMUT wrote:

It might take a while, but my guess is it is only a matter of time. Didn't someone recently announce a 1-1-1 configured first class for the 777X?

CX has had 1-1-1 on their 777-300s in the First cabin for years now. Since the introduction of the current F seat in 2007/2008.

Part of the reason Etihad created the Residence was for lower level VIP transport, where they didn't want to use the UAE's non-commercial fleet.