For most passengers, departing from or travelling via an airport with United States Customs and Border Protection Preclearance — and thus conducting all passport, immigration and customs checks before getting on their flight to the US — is a net positive. Lines on arrival for non-citizens can be hours long, and checks are often invasive. Preclearance solves all that, with passengers using the time between checkin and boarding to take care of all the formalities.
Only fifteen airports in six countries — Aruba, Bahamas, Bermuda, Canada, Ireland, and the United Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi) — offer preclearance, with many non-US citizen travellers in particular choosing to connect to the US from Europe via Ireland or eastern Canada in order to speed up their arrivals process. Once processed by US officials, passengers must wait in a separate, sterile zone before boarding their aircraft.
Abu Dhabi is the Middle Eastern hub standout in the list, of course, since its facility opened a decade ago in 2014. After hometown carrier Etihad moved to the new Terminal A late in 2023, the US preclearance facility followed in October 2024.
The airline is now offering a new premium lounge for first class, business class, and frequent flyer cardholders as they wait the 90 minutes that the airline recommends they leave between heading to the preclearance zone and boarding.
On the frequent flyer side, alliance-eschewing Etihad says the only cardholders to get in will be “Platinum and Emerald Etihad Guest members”, so it is unclear whether this is included for either its Silver and Gold passengers as part of their “Custom Benefits” lounge option, or for certain frequent flyers of its nearly two dozen partners.
The lounge takes away a pain point for those premium passengers allowed in, who would otherwise spend a substantial part of their pre-departure or layover time without the benefit of a lounge to relax, snack, and work. As a general rule, the spaces in the post-preclearance zones tend to be either just a gate area of general airport seating, or where lounges do exist these are less premium than what you’d expect for an international flight.
Etihad’s new space is light, bright and airy, and feels very premium indeed. Located within the “bulb” at the end of the C gates arm of the new terminal, a feature welcome station reflects the “Facets of Abu Dhabi” triangle brand element from floor to ceiling, with seating towards the windows and a variety of light features.
The lounge is bright and spacious, with a variety of seating including individual pods. Image: Etihad
One such feature is the large internally lit stone bar, which has high-top seating and a liquor display wall, while opposite are low leather banquettes and restaurant-style dining armchairs.
The bar area is on-brand and beautifully lit. Image: Etihad
Etihad promises “a refined selection of beverages and light dining options”, although only the bar’s liquor wall goes into any detail, with no photos — not even the classic buffet shot — of the food options, and only a distant shot of what must surely be the buffet itself above a bank of low fridges.
In the more open area are a variety of seating spaces, with a good number of individual pods that create a good amount of privacy, while power sockets are visible at ankle level in the banquettes, including in the large mushroom-shaped structure in the centre of the lounge space.
Etihad says that “select flights offer the convenience of direct boarding from the lounge, enhancing the seamless journey” but it’s not clear which of Etihad’s US destinations — Boston, Chicago, New York JFK, Washington Dulles (and from July 2025, Atlanta) — will be eligible. Naturally, in order to keep US officials who run the scheme happy, a sensible airline would ensure Dulles is always on that list.
Related Articles:
Featured image credited to Etihad
