Flown with them before and they were excellent! Had a great time so far with Virgin (see 'Troppo' thread update!) will let you all know once I am back how they are this time I promise! In the bar as I type ha ha!!!!

Aha! There are mixed reviews on the Skytrax website from passengers who've flown with them... Good to hear that it's got off to a great start!

http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/etihad.htm

I guess you've already been in transit at Abu Dhabi airport which is your next stop....what a weird place, all those garish green tiles but it looks cool compared to any other airport I've ever transited in lol! I was amused by the veiled Arabic women going behind the screens for their ID checks...

Yes have been to Abu Dhabi before and wtf is it with those tiles lol!!!! Traveled a lot in the middle east, really liked it and they are hiring UK paramedics at a rate of knots atm. Who knows one day it could be Betty in a burka ha ha!

The flight from Melbourne to Abu Dhabi took off on time:

http://uk.flightaware.com/live/flight/ETD461

If it has 'timed out' then you can go to http://www.flightaware.com

See 'live flight tracker' on the left hand side of the home page....the airline is Etihad - ETD and flight is 461)

602 miles gone, 6,650 to go.

That looks like the longest flight ever! And still another leg after that! Hope you've had enough to drink, Miss Betty, that you can just pass out and sleep all the way

still 11hr 30 to go on this leg..

Still 7 hours 7minutes to go Miss Betty...hope you've drank the plane dry and are snoozing away merrily... lol Gosh I remember those long flights! Hope the rest of the journey is as smooth as anything. Sleep well..lol

Just about half way into this leg now, clear of the Australia coastline.. You've escaped..

Thanks for keeping us posted on Miss Betty's journey. I hope she is having a good sleep before the next leg of her trip.

Yes, thanks. I lost track of the day and time! What a long haul!

4.5 hours, 2,600 miles to go

What a long journey. I do hope she has been able to sleep

I think MissBetty stil has about 3 hours of a 13-hour flight to go before she reaches Abu Dhabi, followed by a 7-hour flight to London. WHEW!!

How wonderful that we can be all cheering on Miss Betty!