Inside Etihad's Swarovski first class in-flight amenity kits
By David Flynn, June 9 2011
Etihad Airways is bringing a little extra luxe to in-flight amenity kits, with new First Class kits boasting brand names such as Swarovski and La Prairie now available on flights between Abu Dhabi and Sydney, Melbourne, London, Paris and Geneva.
This is the first time that Swarovski has lent its name and design to an airline amenity kit. Etihad says the company was responsible for the design of the female kit, which can be used as a cosmetics purse once you land.
A hand cream joins the obligatory moisturiser and and lip balm, and they're all from the premium La Prairie range.
Also on the checklist: socks, eye mask, toothbrush and ear plugs.
The cases which the latter two items come in are also useful post-flight: the former for your travel toothbrush of course, while the later is well suited to all manner of oddments.
The soft case for the female kit is finished with a small grid of Swarovski 'crystals' and can later be used for cosmetics or your travel documents, iPhone and such.
The men's kit is a stylish soft top-opening box finished in black leather (although to our eyes it seemed more of a very dark chocolate brown) with caramel stitching.
Inside are La Prairie moisturiser and lip balm...
... and in addition to the same assortment of items as in the female kit...
... there's also a Schick Xtreme 3 razor and shaving cream.
Etihad promotes the kit's post-flight use as a cufflink box, assuming you still have the tiny boxes into which you can pack each pair of your cufflinks.
As you can see from the photo above, this kit is quite large and we're sure you would find plenty of other ways to make use of it. We usually suggest empty amenity kits make a great 'gadget bag' for chargers, cables, USB memory keys and what-not, but this slick leather box is just too good for that, don't you think?
David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
05 Jun 2011
Total posts 38
I notice that the La prairie creams offered in this F kit are identical to what i rceived in NZ's new amenity kit.... I didn't realise NZ was using F quality products!
24 Oct 2010
Total posts 2560
Really? I've not got an AirNZ kit in yet, must remedy that - thanks for sharing the info! :)
Qantas
24 Oct 2010
Total posts 177
Meh, I agree with the person on Twitter who said Swarovski reminded them of suburban shopping malls.
I'm more impressed with the Schick Xtreme 3 razor... not sure I'd consider paying first class prices a good value way to get one though ;-)
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