Stainless steel cutlery!

' Heathrow chaos '' screamed The Daily Mail

'' UK at a standstill '' bellowed the The Times

'' A disgrace'' said The Sun

You can therefore imagine it was with some trepidation that I turned off the alarm at 5.15am and stumbled into the study to check the latest update on our flight from London to Abu Dhabi. '' On schedule'' was what greeted me as I logged onto the Etihad website and so to the airport I went with not a lot of confidence that what I had read would prove to be the truth in reality. It was a reservation with some credibility.Stories had been circulating in the press the previous evening of over 500,000 people stranded at various UK airports and of people settling down to their 3rd or 4th night inside any one of the 5 Heathrow terminals. All of this a consequence of some seasonal weather that had included snow over the past 2-3 days.

Arriving at T4 we were greeted with countless number of people bunkered down on the floor wrapped in silver space blankets and long queues of people seemingly going nowhere fast. They all had one thing in common. That desultory look on their faces that told you they were both tired and lost in a vacuous state of mental numbness bought about by a lack of communication from the airlines as to when they would be leaving what had become their temporary home.

With all the deftness of a rally driver on ice I manouvred the trolley cart between hundreds of bodies lying prostate on the floor and approached the Etihad area for check in. Somewhat surprised that we were the only ones in the queue I doubled checked to ensure that we were both in the right area and this was in fact the flight for Melbourne via Abu Dhabi. Correct on both fronts. 

As I slumped my bag onto the weighing tray I expressed my surprise at the lack of queue to the Etihad staff member.

'' We don't do queues at Etihad '' came the curt response. 

Checked in, it was a hurried and almost guilt laden walk through to security lest one of the hundreds of lost souls grappled me to the floor demanding to know how I dare circumvent the misery they had been through. Security was a barren landscape of staff waiting to check the occasional passenger who might have lucked their way into the departure area. 

Elapsed time from kerbside to check in to clearing security? 9 minutes.

Now I have never flown Etihad before but at this stage they were getting all the credit for this dream like and somewhat surreal experience. 

State owned and run, it is clearly an airline that can afford to provide the travel experience we all enjoyed in the past and desperately wished for in the future. 

You might say it was the check in that impressed me. Or you could say it was the friendly nature of the staff. Conversely was it the spacious aircraft or the expansive entertainment system? 

It was all of the above and more. What was the ''more''? 

Stainless steel cutlery with your meals and a meal you could legally call food. 

I haven't eaten with stainless steel cutlery in economy on any airline since the days when you could also smoke on a plane. I remember those days of a bygone era with unexplainable nostalgia. Battling your way through the haze of smoke wafting above rows 49 through to 55 as you made your way to the toilets at the rear has left an indelible mark on my memory of travel. 

Airlines have for a long time passed off the necessity of plastic cutlery on the need for improved security following 9/11. Never mind the myriad of contradictions this policy entails. For instance you still use stainless steel in First Class (what? terrorists can't afford to travel at the pointy end?) and they still serve you wine in minature glass bottles that could easily be broken and used as a weapon. 

Security has become a facade for cost cutting.  

I wonder what excuse then for the often served dross they call food?

Fear no longer though. Etihad's menu is extensive and broad catering for your every need. They even offer a selection of different coffees ( cappuccino , latte or espresso ) with your post dinner chocolates.

You'd think my corporate drooling over this experience was perhaps bought about by a sponsorship deal with the airline. But unfortunately it hasn't. It's just being such an incredible experience that I felt compelled to share it.

Not QANTAS or BA or Cathay for me going forward when I have to do the London-Australasia trip. Etihad all the way baby. Can't recommend it highly enough.