Inside the Most Over-the-Top $32,000 (One Way!) Airplane Suite

While most of you know me as the guy who travels the world (almost) always for free by maximizing my airline and credit card points, I recently splurged on Etihad’s new Residence cabin…for a whopping $32,000. And it was completely worth the experience. Here are the reasons why.

First, I had the honor of taking the airline’s new A380 inaugural route from JFK to Abu Dhabi. And of course the elite nature of the three-cabin suite is hard to beat. My butler (yes, butler) Eren, a well-spoken Englishman from Birmingham, catered to my every beck and call, providing me my favorite Double Cross Slovakian vodka — and even got my name and flight number labeled on the bottle.

That’s Eren, my fantastic butler. (Photo: The Points Guy)

My Italian chef, Enrico, told me that he would do anything in his power to make this the most memorable experience. He prepared a Thanksgiving feast, including stuffing, turkey, mashed sweet potato and pumpkin pie (a request only a guest of the Residence could ask for). It was an incredible holiday meal at 35,000 feet.

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However, there were some constraints because of the fact we would be 35,000 feet in the air. For example, he wasn’t able to make any flambé. Shucks — I was really expecting a flambé. There was also caviar service — which turned out to be one of the few disappointments on this trip. It included a farm-raised Abu Dhabi caviar. Maybe it’s just me, but there’s something not so appealing about the name “Abu Dhabi farm-raised caviar.”

Hanging with my butler in the living room. (Photo: The Points Guy)

The living room, private bathroom shower, and bedroom — with a full-size bed — made me feel like a king in the sky. The living room is the first of the rooms you walk in to when you enter the Residence. Its leather couch is soft and comfortable, perfect for watching entertainment on the 32-inch TV.

The Residence has its own separate bedroom with a double mattress. I nearly forgot I was 35,000 feet in the air. The mattress itself was so comfortable that I felt like I could have been in a luxury hotel. It was big enough for my 6’7″ frame to stretch out, and I slept like a baby for my four-hour nap.

A view of the bedroom. (Photo: The Points Guy)

My very, very expensive nap. (Photo: The Points Guy)

Of course I had to try out the shower. In fact, between myself and my cameraman Andrew, we used it twice. Eren was extremely accommodating in allowing me (us) to use the shower twice, something you’re only allowed to do once on Emirates’ product and after making an “appointment” with the attendants. I decided to take a shower before I went to bed and it was fantastic.

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Great products for my shower. (Photo: The Points Guy)

I did some calculations and came to the conclusion that each hour I spent on the 12.5-hour flight cost me approximately $2,500. So, my four-hour nap cost me roughly $10,000. Wow. I once fell asleep during a Broadway show on a ticket that cost me $150 and my parents joked that it was the most expensive nap I had ever taken. Little did they (or I) know that a few years later, I’d be sleeping in a (very expensive) airplane bed.

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But perhaps the best part about this trip was how I maximized the purchase. For a $32,000 one-way airfare, I used my Amex Premier Rewards Gold Card, which gives you three points for every dollar spent on airfare, netting me a cool 96,000 Amex Membership Rewards points. With those points I have a lot of options including transferring 62,500 miles to Aeroplan to redeem a first-class seat from the U.S. to Europe on Lufthansa (and these tickets are usually in the $8K range. And, because the Residence fare is the most expensive, you receive the highest mileage value for your flight purchase, which is four times the number of miles flown, and in my case that was 30,000 Etihad miles. I can use these miles toward a future flight with Etihad and their partners, and transfer additional points from my Citi ThankYou Premier Card.

Moral of the story? Being the Points Guy, I loved experiencing the Residence as a splurge, but it made me realize that redeeming miles for “regular” first class is just as good, and while I like a full size bed in the sky, it doesn’t feel nearly as good as using miles to get a first-class suite nearly free.

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