NEW YORK ( TheStreet) -- Give the MidEast airlines credit for this: They are serving the luxury end of the airline business, where the U.S. airlines -- despite their rush to install lie-flat seating -- are not yet fully competitive.

Etihad Airways said Wednesday that starting Dec. 1, it will fly Abu Dhabi-New York with an Airbus A380 that includes a luxury, three-room private suite, complete with butlers.

The one-way fare will be about $32,000, which will cover one or two passengers.

"The Residence by Etihad" penthouse is available because Etihad plans to upgrade one of its two daily Abu Dhabi-JFK flights from a Boeing 777 to an A380, as two of the three MidEast airlines ramp up service to New York.

Starting Sunday, Emirates will operate four daily flights to John F. Kennedy International Airport, including three from Dubai International Airport and one from Milan.

In 2014, Emirates was the ninth busiest airline at JFK, carrying 808,257 passengers, according to statistics compiled by the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey. That is up 25% from 2013, when Emirates carried 645,373 JFK passengers and ranked 10th at the airport.

The third Gulf carrier, Qatar Airways, flies a single daily Doha-JFK round-trip with a Boeing 777-300ER. It has no current plans to expand New York service. Neither Qatar nor Etihad were among the top 20 airlines serving JFK in 2014.

Etihad said it fills 80% of the seats on its New York flights.

"The United States is a strategically important part of Etihad Airways' growing global network," said Etihad CEO James Hogan in a prepared statement. "New York marks the first U.S. destination where we will introduce our industry-leading A380 aircraft products and experience."

"The Residence" penthouse measures 125 square feet in area and includes a private living room with a Poltrona Frau leather lounge chair and an ottoman, a shower room, a bedroom with a double bed and "a dedicated Savoy Academy trained Butler to look after the needs of its discerning guests," the carrier said. Both the living room and the bedroom have TVs. Each A380 has a penthouse suite as well as nine first class apartments, each with a leather lounge chair and an ottoman that opens to become a bed.

The Etihad A380 also has 70 "business studios" with lie-flat seats, a lounge and bar area for first- and business-class passengers, and 415 economy class seats with headrests, lumbar support and personal TV monitors. Etihad's first A380 entered into service on December.

Travel writer Joe Brancatelli called the penthouse suites "a halo product. 

It's more about PR than selling per se," Brancatelli said. It doesn't "mean anything real in the marketplace," but "it makes Etihad look like an inventive, creative airline," he said.

The announcement of penthouse service comes as big three U.S. carriers have inaugurated a campaign to convince the Obama administration that massive government subsidies to the Gulf carriers amount to violations of Open Skies treaties.

The governments of Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Abu Dhabi and Dubai, the two largest emirates, have provided about $39 billion in subsidies to the airlines -- Qatar, the flag carrier of Qatar; and Etihad and Emirates, flag carriers of the UAE -- according to extensively researched report, compiled over two years for American (AAL) - Get Report , Delta (DAL) - Get Report and United (UAL) - Get Report and provided to TheStreet by an airline industry source who asked not to be identified.

Aviation consultant Bob Mann said he sees some truth in the MidEast carriers' claims that if the U.S. carriers want to compete, they should improve their products. Shaikh Ahmad Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, CEO of Emirates airline, told Bloomberg last week that U.S. carriers should "offer the best to the passengers and people will fly with you."

In fact, Mann noted, U.S. carriers are improving their products because "after decades of not being able to invest a dime in their operations, they have the cash flows to invest in compensation of employees and in the improvement of first class service. " But "it's a work in progress," he said.

Executives of the big three U.S. airlines were questioned about the report by analysts at the J.P. Morgan transportation conference.

"This is data that's hard to get," said American President Scott Kirby. "We hired a forensic accountant to help us find data around the world." Delta President Ed Bastian said the report will be publicly released shortly; it apparently will be released to the media during an online press conference Thursday morning.

United Chief Financial Officer John Rainey said Delta initiated the effort to document the subsidies, and "both American and United are now participating." Rainey said, "The valuable traffic rights granted by the U.S. are taken advantage of."

"There are very few things you can get American, Delta and United to agree on," Bastian said. "But one thing we agree on: We want a balanced playing field."

This article is commentary by an independent contributor. At the time of publication, the author held no positions in the stocks mentioned.