Last month I flew Etihad Dallas – Abu Dhabi in first class using American AAdvantage miles. The flight has been pretty easy to book using miles, much easier than New York JFK – Abu Dhabi on their Airbus A380, and living in Austin it’s much easier to connect to. US – Middle East ‘and Indian Subcontinent’ costs 115,000 miles one-way, though fortunately there aren’t any fuel surcharges. Taxes were $7 per person.

I checked in for the flight at DFW about two hours prior to our 7:20 p.m. departure. There was quite a line for economy, only one passenger in the queue for first class.

Etihad participates in PreCheck, though that was new after I made my booking, and American AAdvantage doesn’t push Known Traveler Numbers through to Etihad.

It was a bit of a challenge getting my number added to the booking. It wasn’t possible to do online and I rang up Etihad but two different agents said it wasn’t possible either (“you have to do that when making your reservation”).

Finally I reached out to @EtihadHelp on Twitter. They first told me to call. I told them that was unhelpful. Then they promised me a call from reservations, that call never came. Eventually they were willing to just add the numbers for me. My boarding passes printed with PreChech just fine.

At the security checkpoint there were bottles of water everywhere. I wanted to pull a supervisor aside, and let them know about these dangerous items. Water is an existential threat to airline security, so perhaps they might want to bring a hazmat team in?

The international D terminal at Dallas-Fort Worth airport provided me with myriad lounge options.

• American Airlines has an Admirals Club (there’s one in ech of the A, B, C, and D concourses) which I access using my Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite™ Mastercard®.

• There’s an American Express Centurion lounge, accessed with the Platinum Card by American Express, it’s the lounge I’ve used most often and the second one which Amex opened.

• There’s The Club which I can access via Priority Pass (I have one from both my Platinum Card by American Express and my Citi Prestige Card).

• Now Priority Pass even gets you into the Minute Suites.

Alongside The Club contract lounges are small lounges dedicated to individual international airlines, giving each a bit of that airline’s feel in some dimension. There’s little special about these lounges, but at least there was hot and cold food, friendly service, and an Etihad staff member at the entryway greeting guests and assisting with reservations.

Inside the terminal level entryway for the lounges there’s a set of couches and an elevator, I suspect that these couches would be a secret great place to wait for someone who didn’t have lounge access at the airport.

You go upstairs and there’s a desk, and a long corridor, and you get checked in inside each of the smaller lounges (‘rooms’).

When I entered the lounge there was a line to get in. Two customers were arguing with the Etihad agent. They were seated in business class and wanted to use their miles to upgrade to first, however the agent explained to them that they were ticketed in an ineligible booking class. They wouldn’t hear of it.

Finally I just walked by after 6 or 7 minutes of waiting, the agent stopped in her tracks, realized that I wasn’t being unreasonable and just asked me for seat numbers so she could mark them off. (The passengers arguing over an upgrade ultimately did a cash buy up and were seated with me in the first class cabin.)

There’s a dining area and beside it a variety of hot and cold items like sandwiches and soups, as well as self-serve alcohol.

The dining area is ‘separated’ by makeshift furniture from the seating areas.

Blinds were down to protect customers from the glare of the sun while I was there, but the lounge does feature windows with good views of the tarmac.

All in all the lounge was a place to sit and there was food, but was otherwise mediocre. Two years ago DFW airport was working on plans to replace these small lounges with one premium lounge perhaps co-branded with a hotel chain. That hasn’t happened.

I left the Etihad lounge and went over to the Centurion lounge which – while at least as busy – has better food and where there are a couple of spots that usually free up to sit with power.