Etihad A380 Route Update: Next Destination Will Be Melbourne, Award Space Wide Open

The hottest First Class product in the market today is probably the Etihad Apartments, which are currently only available on flights serviced by the Airbus A380. And those routes are limited currently to London and Sydney, with A380 service to New York commencing on November 23rd.

Currently, Etihad has only received 4 out of the 10 that have been ordered, so 6 more routes will be featuring the A380 once those shiny new planes roll off the production line. And according to this report from Australian Business Traveller, the next route will be between Abu Dhabi and Melbourne, Australia, beginning June 1st, 2016 and replacing the current Boeing 77W on flights EY 460/461.

The Etihad A380 features 9 First Class Apartments, along with 70 of it’s flat-bed Business Class Studio seats. And the best news? Award space on the A380 is WIDE OPEN!

This is just an example below, but I was able to find 2 First Class Apartments available for almost all dates. Award space on the Boeing 77W flight is wide open as well, and I was able to find 4 or more seats in many cases as well.

I’d jump on this quickly for those that are even speculatively planning a trip to Australia starting in the latter half of 2016. If using miles, this is bookable using Etihad Guest miles, but the best currency is probably American Airlines miles where the cost of a one-way First Class redemption is 60,000 miles or 45,000 in Business Class.