As I mentioned in my Batik Air review, we were incredibly late alighting from our flight inbound from Kuala Lumpur, leaving us next to no time to make it to our onward, separately-ticketed, Etihad flight EY499 from Singapore to Abu Dhabi. Once again, we were in Business Class, but even with whatever grace that might give us, we had no time to collect our luggage.

So the pressing question – skip on the luggage and leave it to chance, or collect it and almost inevitably miss the flight by not making it back to check-in quick enough?

Singapore Changi airport is such a carefully thought-out airport that – we know – puts passengers first and tries so hard to get things right, that we actually went with the almost ridiculous-sounding first option.

There is also the benefit in Changi that there is no ‘airside’ until literally the boarding gate so when you’re in arrivals, you’re also already in departures – and this means you can at least try to make it to the boarding gate knowing there’ll be no transit security checkpoint holding you up along the way.

We ran to the Etihad transfer counter in Terminal 2 to at least register our presence, for whatever that might do for us, and after a few moments of confusion by the agent, we were not only issued our boarding passes, but he also very kindly took our ex-Batik luggage tags, made some calls, and arranged for our luggage to be picked up and transferred onwards for us – warning us, which was fine, that because of the tight timeline, it was very unlikely the bags would make our flight.

Can you imagine another airport in the world where one airline is willing to find, retrieve, and take the separately-ticketed bags directly from another airline? Major kudos to Etihad, their ground handling agent (led at the gate by a ‘Mark’ – kudos if you ever happen to be reading this, Mark!), and the facilities at Changi for enabling this.

As a result, can you believe it – but about 25 minutes after landing, this was already our view as we stood in the boarding gate.

We were shortly onboard our spacious Etihad A380, having boarded directly upstairs by the bar area; and were seated soon after.

The A380 carries Etihad’s ‘older’, but still very lovely, business cabin – and we had elected to take the two middle seats for the evening hop to Abu Dhabi.

Pre-departure beverages were offered, and considering the size of our giant jet, we were underway quite promptly, taxiing to the runway behind a collection of other aircraft. And that’s where it all went very wrong…

After stopping on the taxiway, before being moved to an adjacent taxiway, we were soon informed of a fault that would require us to return to the gate. I could see the already-lengthy trip home to Dublin becoming longer by a day.

Back at the gate, a soft drink-based beverage service was offered, and after a total ground delay of pushing close to 3 hours, we were ready to set off again – unfortunately having all but eradicated our connection time of 3 hours 20 minutes. I almost accepted that we’d be bumped to another flight, and assumed the default option would be a likely reroute via Heathrow, Paris, or direct on the following flight the following day.

Once in-flight, service was prompt and professional, and the main course of beef fillet was excellent; and as I say, very, very quickly delivered once in the air. Along, of course, with a delicious glass of wine (one of several).

After our lengthy delay, one would assume the bar might be a quiet affair but you’d be very wrong – I got up once to get another glass of wine and to be honest, found it entirely uncomfortable; several men trying to chat up the few flight attendants trying to do their jobs. I wondered for a moment had I stepped back through a curtain into the 1980’s. Surely we can get our drinks and leave people alone?!

After a final nightcap, I turned in for a few hours – sleeping excellently as usual in my compact lie-flat quarters. I know this older business cabin doesn’t necessarily have the privacy of the new Etihad suites, but I have to say, I remain a big fan of this cabin layout.

Unfortunately, I woke up to an in-app update wherein I discovered we had all been bumped to the same flight to Dublin the following day, having been pro-actively offloaded from that evening’s departure – and shortly thereafter, a member of the crew came by to inform me of the same thing, insisting Abu Dhabi would be nice to visit for the day.

I’m sure it is (and I know now that it is), but was determined with work due the next morning, that we’d have to try our best to get home. So as we landed, much like in Singapore just earlier that same evening, I was resigned to playing another game of ‘will we or won’t we’ at another transfer counter.

Would this be successful? Stay tuned for what turned out to be a fascinating evening.