It was in January when I travelled to Basel, Switzerland on business.

Company policies changed and we ( me and a colleague) booked on Etihad in Business Class.

Planning started a couple of months before and I already possessed a Schengen visa valid for two years.

It was in the second week of January when were started, had been to office that day and came back home early. 

Etihad offers Chauffeur service for business class customers and was surprised to find a long Merc standing all ready for me at 6pm.

Started off to the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport and reached in an hour’s time navigating through city roads.

As we entered airport were ushered to a separate business class line and moved then to the Immigration. This was a bit time consuming affair due to multiple Middle East and international departures.

Post which we headed to the premium lounge to start experiencing the perks a business class provides.

We started with a drink and had some good food and juices.

This was a flight with a stopover in AbuDhabi with flight #EY 277 (Airbus A321) and EY73 from AbuDhabi to Zurich (Boeing 787-9).

The overall travel time was HYD-AUH was 3.55 hrs. and AUH-ZRH was 6.5 hrs.

We entered our first leg of journey at Hyderabad and as we entered the flight and ere greeted with fresh fruit juice.

This was followed by some delicious Indian food and some drinks.

In no time around 3.5hrs we came closer to our first leg destination AbuDhabi.

There is a challenge with this airport which being the busiest often forces the flights to park at a different location and you are ushered in a bus to the terminal and you would be surprised to see the traffic at this huge busy airport.

Business class travellers had a benefit here with a separate carriage taking them to the terminal and we had around 2 hours before our connection.

The Immigration and checkin was at super fast the counters with separate lines for business travellers.

We then decided to explore the Etihad First and Business Lounge and were there in no time. We had some coffee and deserts and really enjoyed.

After a while of relaxation, we went to the gate and were taken to the aircraft again at a distance from the Terminal. We boarded the flight and had a pleasant surprise seeing the business class.

The journey was overall very relaxing with a flat bed in the AUH-ZRH sector.  The entertainment options on the big screen were great as Etihad tries to match up with Emirates.

The Airhostess were kind enough to refil the drinks and food was very good having selected Asian Veg meal.

We reached Zurich and were picked up by our Chauffeur who would be taking us to our destination in Basel around 100 kms.

We set out to find snow everywhere and nice chilling weather out.

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