Buying miles & points strategically can represent a great value, especially for luxury travel. The Etihad Guest program is currently offering promotion on purchased miles. While I wouldn’t say this is a slam dunk, some people might still find this to be worthwhile, so let’s go over the details.
In this post:
Promotion on purchased Etihad Guest miles
Through Sunday, July 14, 2024, Etihad Guest is offering up to a 30% bonus on purchased miles. The offer is tiered, and you get a bigger bonus the more miles you buy, as follows:
- Buy 25,000-49,000 miles, receive a 20% bonus
- Buy 50,000-100,000 miles, receive a 30% bonus
How much does it cost to purchase Etihad Guest miles?
Etihad Guest ordinarily charges 2.0 cents per purchased mile, and there are no further taxes and fees. That’s before any bonuses or discount. With the 30% bonus, if you maxed out this promotion you’d receive a total of 130,000 Etihad Guest miles at a cost of $2,000, which is a rate of 1.54 cents per Etihad Guest mile.
We’ve seen better offers from the program in the past, though this is still better than nothing.
How many Etihad Guest miles can you purchase?
Etihad Guest limits members to purchasing 100,000 Etihad Guest miles per account per calendar year, before any bonuses. The exception is Etihad Guest Platinum members, who can purchase up to 150,000 miles per year, before any bonuses.
If you do buy Etihad Guest miles, it can take up to 72 hours for them to post to your account, but they ordinarily post much faster than that.
Which credit card should you buy Etihad Guest miles with?
Etihad Guest mileage purchases are processed by points.com, meaning they don’t count as an airfare purchase for the purposes of credit card spending. Therefore I’d recommend using a card on which you’re trying to reach minimum spending, or otherwise a credit card that maximizes your return on everyday spending.
In this case the best option is the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card (review) (Rates & Fees), which offers 2x miles and has no foreign transaction fees. Usually the Chase Freedom Unlimited® (review) or Citi Double Cash® Card (review) would also be good options for maximizing everyday spending, but the cards have foreign transaction fees, so wouldn’t be a good option in this case.
See this post for more on which credit cards are best for buying points.
- Earn 1% cash back when you make a purchase, earn 1% cash back when you pay for that purchase
- $0
- Earn 3% Cash Back on Dining
- Earn 3% Cash Back at Drugstores
- Earn 1.5% Cash Back On All Other Purchases
- $0
- Earn unlimited 2X miles on every purchase, every day
- No Foreign Transaction Fees
- Global Entry/TSA Pre-Check Credit
- $95
- Earn 2x miles on every purchase
- No Foreign Transaction Fees
- 10,000 bonus miles every account anniversary
- $395
- 2x points on purchases up to $50k then 1x
- Access to Amex Offers
- No annual fee
Is buying Etihad Guest miles worth it?
There are lots of ways to redeem Etihad Guest miles. While the airline doesn’t belong to one of the major alliances, there are many ways to redeem the miles on both Etihad and on partner airlines.
Below you can find the award chart for travel exclusively on Etihad. As part of the Etihad Guest overhaul for 2024, we’ve actually seen redemption rates on Etihad reduced in many markets, which is pretty cool. In reality, the program’s pricing was just too unattractive before, so this just makes it a bit more competitive.
The pricing is based on the one-way distance of travel. Note that these redemption rates are specifically for situations where there’s GuestSeat availability, which is Etihad’s capacity controlled, saver award space. If you see higher award pricing than what’s listed below, that means there’s not saver award space, and redemptions won’t be a very good deal.
Etihad Guest has a separate award chart for travel on partner airlines, which is also distance based, and you can find that below. This is based on the one-way distance, and you can’t mix airline partners on a single award.
The main reason to consider collecting Etihad Guest miles is because the program has access to a lot more Etihad award space than partner programs do. Partner programs, like American AAdvantage and Air France-KLM Flying Blue, typically only have access to premium cabin Etihad award space at most 30 days out (and even then, availability is often lousy).
There are two other major catches when it comes to Etihad Guest:
- Etihad Guest has a very punitive policy for canceling award tickets
- Etihad Guest has a strict mileage expiration policy
I’d really only recommend buying Etihad Guest miles with a very specific use in mind, if you know what you’re doing.
How much are Etihad Guest miles worth?
Everyone will value mileage currencies differently, but personally I value Etihad Guest miles at ~1.1 cents each. I tend to value points pretty conservatively, and there are many ways to get more value from Etihad Guest miles than that.
Do Etihad Guest miles expire?
Etihad Guest miles don’t expire as long as you have at least some account activity once every 18 months. Note that you can only reset the expiration of your miles by crediting a flight to the program every 18 months, so other activity wouldn’t help in that regard.
What other ways can you earn Etihad Guest miles?
The cost to purchase Etihad Guest miles here is really attractive, though I’d note that there are many other ways to earn these miles. For those with credit cards in the United States, Etihad Guest is transfer partners with Amex Membership Rewards, Capital One, and Citi ThankYou, so those are some great alternatives for earning Etihad Guest miles.
However, at a reasonable cost, some people may prefer just outright buying miles, rather than transferring them.
- 4x points at restaurants, on up to $50,000 in purchases annually
- 4x points at U.S. supermarkets, on up to $25,000 in purchases annually
- 3x points on flights booked directly with airlines or through amextravel.com
- $325
- Access to Amex Offers
- Redeem Amex Points Towards Airfare
- $375
- Earn 5x points on flights purchased directly from airlines or through Amex Travel (up to $500k/year)
- $200 Annual Uber Credit
- Amex Centurion Lounge Access
- $695
- Earn 1.5x on purchases of $5,000 or more in a single transaction on up to $2MM per calendar year
- Redeem Points For Over 1.5 Cents Each Towards Airfare
- Amex Centurion Lounge Access
- $695
- 2x points on purchases up to $50k then 1x
- Access to Amex Offers
- No annual fee
For those who don’t have access to lucrative credit cards and/or who would rather pay 1.6 cents per mile than transfer points, buying Etihad Guest miles could represent a good deal.
Bottom line
Etihad Guest is selling miles with up to a 30% bonus, which translates to a cost of 1.54 cents per mile. That could be a good deal for premium cabin redemptions. However, I’d recommend only buying miles with a specific use in mind, especially given how this currency has been devalued.
Does anyone plan on buying Etihad Guest miles with this offer?
I assume the city examples in the award charts are all to/from AUH.
That being the case a connecting flight MEL-LHR would involve 2 sectors (MEL-AUH-LHR) , or does this price out differently?
Pricing is additive? Those rates are not very useful for anyone trying to connect in AUH, which is probably most people