Etihad’s Airbus A380 first class is one of the best premium products in the world. While Etihad partners with American, it can often be tough to redeem AAdvantage miles for travel in Etihad’s A380 first class. However, at the moment there’s wide open availability, all the way through the end of the schedule, as reported on Reddit and flagged by View from the Wing.
In this post:
Etihad first class award space is plentiful
Currently Etihad has a ton of Airbus A380 first class award availability. The airline consistently flies the A380 from Abu Dhabi (AUH) to London (LHR), Paris (CDG), and Singapore (SIN). On top of that, the airline flies the A380 to New York (JFK) through June 23, 2025, and will then move the plane to Toronto (YYZ).
These flights have pretty wide open availability through the end of the schedule, including for multiple seats. This availability won’t last, so this is a great opportunity to redeem American AAdvantage miles. In terms of one-way first class award costs:
- An award between New York or Toronto and the Middle East costs 115,000 miles
- An award between London or Paris and the Middle East costs 62,500 miles
- An award between Singapore and the Middle East costs 50,000 miles
If you have time in your schedule to plan an adventure to Abu Dhabi or beyond, this could be a fun opportunity. This will also allow you to check out the new terminal at Abu Dhabi Airport, including the new Etihad First Lounge and Etihad Business Lounge. AAdvantage has no change or cancelation fees on awards.
Ordinarily, Etihad only makes first class award seats available to AAdvantage close to departure, so this is why it’s such a good opportunity. Etihad Guest gives you access to this space further out, though with much higher award costs, carrier imposed surcharges, and punitive policies for canceling tickets.
Do note that if you want to fly The Residence, you can’t upgrade a partner award ticket, so this wouldn’t be a pathway to flying that.
These redemptions highlight the value of AAdvantage
Using American AAdvantage miles for premium cabin redemptions has become tougher over time. That’s largely not even American’s fault, as airlines like Cathay Pacific, Etihad Airways, Japan Airlines, and Qatar Airways, have all changed how they release award space.
However, there’s no denying that when you find a good redemption with AAdvantage, it’s in a completely different league than what one could book with Delta SkyMiles or United MileagePlus.
Etihad’s A380 first class is one of the world’s best first class products, and experiencing this on a long haul flight is such a fun opportunity.
Bottom line
Etihad has wide open first class award availability, including for travel on the A380. Etihad typically restricts this award space to members of its own program, at least in advance, but at the moment, it’s bookable with American AAdvantage miles as well. This is an awesome opportunity, so if you’re interested, I’d recommend making a booking ASAP. This space won’t last.
Anyone snagging some Etihad first class award availability?
I have done the A380 Etihad first via AA points but someone told me that its cheaper points with Asia Points (Cathay). Is this correct and how do you book them?
I am considering a trip between MEA and JPN next month and had booked a trip like AUH-DOH-BKK-HND, I tried to search for the availability in order to reconfigurate my ticket as AUH-SIN-KUL-BKK-HND, but just got failed because no availbility for EY F in my selected date. What a pity.
Ben,
brillant stuff. Managed to book SIN - AUH, 50.000 points, 52 Dollar. Classy stuff. Your site is making me happy :-)
Great work,
Andreas
This was either a fluke or all the availability was booked in last few hours. I did a search on seats.aero and found a bunch of first class seats (as of 5 hours ago), however when I updated the flights showing availability, everyone of the flights I checked then said it was no longer available. I lean more to this being a fluke since it is very unlikely that wide availability on American would all...
This was either a fluke or all the availability was booked in last few hours. I did a search on seats.aero and found a bunch of first class seats (as of 5 hours ago), however when I updated the flights showing availability, everyone of the flights I checked then said it was no longer available. I lean more to this being a fluke since it is very unlikely that wide availability on American would all of a sudden appear. I think Ben may have jumped to the wrong conclusion that this was a real opportunity.
It’s definitely a fluke. I was following a bunch of flights mainly because I am aiming to do The Residence next year. This was irrelevant to me as I need to use Etihad Guest and not AA to book. Checked the seat map on every flight concerned the residence got taken on the flights I need and not a single apartment or residence seat booked but all saver availability is gone. Checked a bunch of...
It’s definitely a fluke. I was following a bunch of flights mainly because I am aiming to do The Residence next year. This was irrelevant to me as I need to use Etihad Guest and not AA to book. Checked the seat map on every flight concerned the residence got taken on the flights I need and not a single apartment or residence seat booked but all saver availability is gone. Checked a bunch of random flights as well. Not a single 1st class booked. Seat selection is free, so unlikely that many people just didn’t want to pick their seat.
They just yanked it off the site. Likely will go back to the standard 14 day releases. Just hope for those that booked it doesn’t get cancelled.
Not available from the West Coast
Couldn’t find it. But that’s par for the course for me. I only see offers with huge mileage requirements and never see what the gurus see.
Tried several dates in Jun, Jul, Aug and October from JFK and IAD and could only get a routing via LHR in business with a combination of BA and Etihad with $1,110 in fees.
The deal clearly passed me.
My money is on Ben booking something with his large stash of AA miles :).
@Dave
How large do you think Ben’s AA stash is ? 2.2M ?
Booked and ticketed 2X CDG-AUH-SIN in November. Thanks!
Phantom award availability. All of them are about to get cancelled.
Yeah, spread that FUD so there will be more seats for yourself, good job
I don’t think it’s phantom, but just a mistake. The seats are there, but someone likely messed up at Etihad and the chances of every single one being booked up that fast are pretty slim, so the most likely scenario is Etihad caught on and shut it down. The question is if they will honor the bookings or not. My guess is given how not customer friendly their policies are already, they’ll try and cancel the redemptions somehow.
Thanks a bunch, Ben! I just booked AUH-YYZ in conjunction with JNB-DOH-AUH on QR for 2 - all with AA miles.
Thanks, Ben! Was able to book 2 seats in apartments for YYZ-AUH, and also AUH-SIN. It's already been ticketed and selected our seats. Can't wait!
Nothing seems available now! False inventory updated? Or everything got sold?
It was real but got booked up in a matter of hours.
I saw it when it was posted and got one leg but quickly was eaten up and no more avail anymore.
I saw it when it was posted and got one leg but quickly was eaten up and no more avail anymore.
Looks like this was a mistake. All of the availability is gone.
If I go to aa.com and try a flight from BOS to NRT, the only airlines available in the drop down is AA and JAL. How do I get the Etihad flights included?
I don't think North America to Asia via Middle East is a legal routing for AAdvantage awards
Crap. I didn’t plant enough trees.
Crap. I didn't gift enough BBJ 747-8i.
Thanks! LHR-AUH-SIN: both segments on The Apartments, 90k AA miles + $387USD
CDG-AUH-SIN 112k + $193. I guess the mileage difference is because I added an extra night stopover in AUH.
Most likely. AA doesn't allow stopovers on one award, it would have been ticketed as two separate flights.