Mid Air Surprise on Etihad First Class B777 Flight

Got to step on board a Boeing 777-300ER. Timing is super critical on this flight. Yeah, this is a fresh piece of meat. Steak was cooked exactly medium, the way I like. Privacy is the best in first class. Incredible, incredible. I can see clearly the Emirates A380s in the sky over there. Vampires! That was a jackpot, isn't it? Breakfast menu, sir. Thank you very much. You're welcome. I'd like to try the masala omelette. Good morning from the AAF first class lounge in Abu Dhabi. Today, flying first class to Los Angeles. Had a quick breakfast and a quick spa in the first class lounge here. Way to start my day. See you next time. Always a pleasure here. See you next time. Yeah. I'm leaving the lounge rather quickly because there is a US pre-clearance of immigration and customs in Abu Dhabi. So you get pre-cleared and then there is another lounge to enjoy before boarding the flight. Super, super crowded at the airport in the morning here. This is one of the problems here. The constraint and the airport is beyond the capacity. I can't wait until the midfield terminal which is a brand new terminal open. We just don't know when at this point. It was a breeze. 15 minutes through security check and the pre-clearance in the USCBP here in Abu Dhabi. Man, how are you? Very well, how are you? There you go. Thank you so much. We're making announcements once we get there. All right, thank you so much. Thank you to your area. How are you today? How is your flight? Yeah, very good. Good morning. Oh, I have an area here. Hands down. Very nice. I've got to say, it's a pretty small lounge. Nice to have a small area for first class passenger. There's only four flights a day. LA, Chicago, Washington and New York. In the lounge, Mahesh, Meeraj from... Which part of India are you from? South India, Hyderabad. Hyderabad. Going to Los Angeles as well. Tell me, what do you think about that US pre-clearance in Abu Dhabi? I like it here. That way I don't have to deal with the crowds in Los Angeles. Absolutely. A time saver, actually. Don't have to deal with a crowd when we arrive. You can just go out. Yes, absolutely. See you later on board. Okay, bye. See you. Bye-bye. This is always the most exciting moment. Got to step on board a Boeing 777-300ER just in a moment. Look at this. Hello. Nice to see you. Back to my second home in the sky. Hi, how are you? Hey, welcome on board. How are you? Oh my god, I've flown with you before, didn't I? You're a French speaker? First time? Whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm showing my age here. Look at this. Woo. As you can see, this is not the latest product. The Etihad First Class has a better product on the A380 called the Apartments. But still, this one here, I like it too because it's spacious. One, two, one. Today we only have two passengers. Where are you from, sir? I'm from Jordan. Jordan. Yes, I've been here for almost 10 years in the country, so. And you cook the best Mansaf? I cook, oh, you know Mansaf. Of course. I know Mandi, Mansaf. I know all the Middle Eastern food. I love Middle Eastern food. Yeah, I love all the rice dishes, actually. That's amazing. I'm a rice eater myself. Good morning, Sam. Welcome aboard this flight 171 Etihad Airways to Los Angeles. My name is Bilal. I'm a captain, pilot in command aboard this 1777-300ER. Registration, Alpha 6 Echo Tango Romeo. I have Senior First Officer Daman Preet with us. Our flight time today to Los Angeles should take us about 16 hours and 10 minutes. Initial cruise altitude of 30,000 feet. And then we'll be going on step climbs of 1,000 or 2,000 feet to finally establish an altitude of 36,000 or 37,000 feet towards the end of the flight. We're expecting good weather today. Maybe occasional turbulence. Our flight track today should take us initially over the Arabian Sea, then on a northerly track over Iran. The Caspian Sea, then into Russia. We'll be probably overflying the area of Moscow. And then we go nearby to the west of Murmansk onto Finland. And then we go into the polar region. The most we'll fly north will be 85 north. And then we'll start going into a southern track to go into Canada. We will hit civilisation right about Vancouver, British Columbia. And then we fly along the west coast of the United States into Los Angeles. Last month I flew, we flew over literally 90 degree north over the pole. And today it's going to be 85 degree north. So what dictates the routing? The factor we consider in the routing is basically minimum time, minimum fuel. There are other considerations that come into play when it comes to flying over these regions. Namely, you have the cosmic radiation levels and also the suitable availability of on-route diversion airfields. So we are dictated by a diversion time of 207 minutes where we'd be flying ETOPS and the availability of airfields that we can divert to in case of an emergency. Is this flight very weight restricted? Most of the year it's not weight restricted. We do come into a period of the year during the summer time where the temperature in Abu Dhabi rises very quickly in the morning. Sometimes a temperature rise of two to three degrees might impose a weight restriction of about five to six tonnes on the payload. So if you have one hour delay with temperature rise a couple of degrees? Correct. You have 6,000... Kilos of weight penalty that we need to take off the aeroplane. So timing is critical. Timing is super critical on this flight. Some Arabic coffee? Yes, please. Thank you. You know my trick. Thank you so much, chef. So I've got you a pair of humidity bag with loungewear and slippers. I have taken the liberty of choosing the most comfortable size for you. If you need a different size, please do let me know. This is why first class flight attendants are different to all the others. So Mr. Shul, this will be the menu for you today. My chef's special for you today is going to be the beef tenderloin. Cook the way you like it. Cook any way I like? Yes. Rare, medium, rare, well done. Can you do all? Absolutely. Wow, great. Thank you so much. Fantastic, please. So we're taxiing to the active runway for takeoff. The weather deteriorated. It looks a little bit foggy, hazy out there. I've flown the same route last, just so scenic. And today we took a different route. So I want to introduce you to the many benefits of having a VPN. Personally, I use Surfshark VPN, which I think is one of the best value VPN out there. Why I need a VPN? Think about it, as a frequent traveller, we go to a lot of countries who has internet censorship, which is a big pain. Imagine you want to connect with your family, friends, or my followers on the social media. I use Surfshark VPN to connect to another country then to access all the internet, social media content I want. The other benefit using VPN is to encrypt your data during your travel. When you go on online banking, using the public Wi-Fi, you're not feeling secure. So it's better using a VPN to secure and encrypt your data. Last but not least, using VPN could lend you cheaper air tickets, cheaper hotel travel, or cheaper rental car. This is often the case if you use a VPN to hop on to different countries and check your prices. Here's the best deal for our viewers today. Get Surfshark VPN at surfshark.com slash SAM. Enter the promo code SAM, you'll get 83% off and one extra free month of VPN subscription. That is less than $2 per month. Thanks for watching. This video is sponsored by Surfshark. Joey, would you like to change into your lounge wear now? Okay, let's go change. Whoa. Oh, I just changed from my black outfit to the Etihad sleepwear black outfit. It's really, really long, like very Arabic kind of thing, but very smooth. It's a really nice brand, Aqua D'Bama. I put the lotion on my face just to keep it moisturising. Very nice smell, really. Yeah, I like this one. Caviar for today. Yeah, beautiful. Served with our bellinis and for our condiments. Close the door for you. Oh, yes, thank you. What a beautiful brunch, which every morning is like this. Caviar and champagne for breakfast. I'm going to show you how I'm going to cook your chef's special. Look at here. You actually got a real piece of meat coming. This is a fresh piece of meat and you're putting butter to it. Oh, nice. And a touch of sea salt. And this will go to our oven and it will be cooked. I guess the biggest complaint from people on board is the steak is always dry. It's always like really overcooked. One of the secrets, whenever you grill a steak or you roast it, is you have to rest it half the time you cook it. So all the juices, it stays inside and it will stay juicy and succulent. See if the steak is cooked by touching it. Or you're feeling it. Yeah, you're feeling it. Look at that. Look at this dish. It's beautiful, right? And then I do have also some of the confit shallots. So they give this nice sweetness to the dish. This is my last trick, is I'll take some of this butter. Oh, yes, I like that. And I'm just going to go drizzle on top. And voila. This is my chef's special for you today, Sam. It's the steak cooked medium with all the flavoured butter and paprika, herbed mashed potatoes and some beautiful seasonal vegetables. May I offer you our Bordeaux blend? It's a Petit Figaro 2012. This is divine. The steak was cooked exactly medium, the way I like, with the juice, truffle oil and beautiful plating. It makes such a difference, actually, having a chef on board in first class. The bed is good. It's long and wide. I think long enough to fit a six foot six. And also, this is the difference between business class and first class. First class, you've got much bigger seats and much bigger bed than business class. And business, you share with 40 other passengers. So the privacy is the best in first class. I think I'm going to take a nap and talk to you guys later. I'm having dinner right now. It's 7pm, Abu Dhabi time. Incredible, incredible. You see that? There's a trail. That is an A380. We're kind of catching up. So we're a few miles away, but I can see clearly the Emirates A380s in the sky over there. I'm from a region called Transylvania. Transylvania? Yeah. Never heard of that. Well, it's from a place, a very cool place, where you have a lot of vampires. Vampires? Whoa. I'm from Kenya, Mombasa. Today, I'm with Sam. And he's a very powerful character in Kenya, Mombasa. In Kenya as well? I'm powerful? Yeah. What is that? His name is Chewie. Chewie, yes. Chewie means leopard. Yeah. Caribou. Caribou? What's Caribou? Welcome to Kenya. Oh, great. I look forward to visit Kenya. So what do you think about Etihad? My first flight with Etihad was 2006. And I've been with Etihad almost for like day one. It's a family. I live in the UAE. The thing I came here is to appreciate about what cabin crew does. That's why I came here for a chat. Because you guys are all talented people. What I want to do is I want to bring the best out of you. Because the Etihad I know is very bubbly, very spontaneous. The passengers love it. I want to bring back the good old days of Etihad. Just makes Etihad goes even better in the future. And this is why I'm doing all this video. And I'm not even taking money. I'm doing all this for free, honestly. You know, because I enjoy Etihad what it was. It gives me a lot of opportunity. When my first big video on Etihad was the residents on the A380. And that's my cornerstone. And I became a YouTuber. So it's really, it means a lot to me. And I want to see Etihad goes to the next level. Much love, Chewie. Much love, babe. Much love, EY Etihad. I'm actually busy working on my footage. Chef, what did you bring me? So I decided to surprise you and make you a green tea latte. It's kind of off the menu. But I hope you will enjoy it. This is the beef burger slider. It is. And it has an Asian influence. So it has a sriracha mayo. Good comfy food. Burger. Yoghurt mousse with some fresh berries and peach with raspberries. Enjoy. After 16 hours, now we're on descent to Los Angeles. Man, what a beautiful flight. Did you see the footage where we're flying parallel? And we eventually took over the Emirates A380. That was one of my greatest memories from the window view. It's a beautiful flight. Our crew have wonderful hospitality. I really like to thank the crew. Approaching minimum. 30, 20. Hi, Sam. Good to see you again. It's a pleasure to have you in Los Angeles. I don't know if you noticed, but we were flying along Emirates 215. Bound for Los Angeles. And it was a nice coincidence to be able to cross paths with them. At one stage, we were 1000 feet below, just below them. So that's about 300 metres away. I don't know if you managed to catch the experience. It's one of those special things about flying and flying for a living. So I really hope that you enjoyed the flight. And we really look forward to seeing you on board Etihad Airways sometime soon. That was a jackpot, isn't it? It was amazing. We've been trailing him. When I woke up, I opened the window shade and I see there's a trail. And I knew something's in front of us. Close. I bet your TCAS came on. Actually, it did not. But if you have something funny, when I spoke to him on the air-to-air frequency, when we got close, I told him you had a really beautiful aeroplane. And then he said, are you sure about what you're saying? I told him the 380 is an acquired taste. So that's the beauty of flying. Thanks for flying me, Captain Bilal. Thank you, Sam. It's a pleasure. And we look forward to seeing you on board soon.