Major changes are being made to the Etihad Guest program. While some of the changes are positive, there are also some negative developments, like Etihad introducing a ridiculous new award cancelation policy. That’s not the only negative change, though, as Etihad is also worsening its mileage expiration policy.
In this post:
Etihad Guest miles expire after 18 months without a flight
As of June 2024, Etihad Guest is introducing a new mileage expiration policy. Etihad Guest miles will be valid for a period of 18 months, and that validity can only be extended if you take a flight with Etihad or a partner airline.
As a point of comparison, under the current policy, Etihad Guest miles expire after 18 months, but any mileage activity can extend the expiration of those miles. In other words, you could transfer over 1,000 points from a credit card partner, buy some Etihad Guest miles, etc., and that would prevent your miles from expiring.
It’s interesting to see this change, because in 2020, Etihad Guest improved its mileage expiration policy. Prior to that, miles expired 24 months after they were earned, regardless of any account activity. I’d much rather have miles valid for 18 months with an easy extension, than have a hard expiration of 24 months.
But the pattern here is strange — first Etihad Guest improved its mileage expiration policy, and now it’s worsening it.
This Etihad Guest change seems short sighted
The change to the Etihad Guest mileage expiration policy puzzles me. Airline loyalty programs can be a great way to engage travelers — members with mileage balances are more likely to fly with that airline, and there are plenty of additional ways that loyalty programs can profit off of people being engaged members.
The thing is, an 18-month expiration policy is really rough, when the only way to extend those miles is to fly with the airline. Etihad is primarily a long haul airline, and there are plenty of people who might fly with the airline every couple of years, traveling from Australia to Europe, for example.
With this change, Etihad Guest is no longer the program for those kinds of travelers, as their miles may very well expire between trips. This just seems counterproductive, and further incentivizes people to credit Etihad flights to partner frequent flyer programs.
Bottom line
Just a few years after improving its mileage expiration policy, Etihad is now worsening it. Miles will still expire after 18 months of inactivity. However, previously any mileage activity would extend the expiration of miles, while now only flying will extend the expiration.
I’ve been so impressed by the direction that Etihad has been heading in recent years, though some of these Etihad Guest changes are a real head-scratcher.
What do you make of Etihad Guest’s new mileage expiration policy?
Buy an award ticket, cheap AA 6000 pt. Points extend. Cancel award ticket within 24 hrs for free. Voila.
If you don't fly the airline at least once in 18 months, you're certainly not their frequent flyer, and their frequent flyer programme therefore obviously isn't targeted at you.
This is not the US where airlines turned into credit card companies.
The people who are angry or negatively affected are the us based customers with transfer points with no intention to fly ey on a revenue ticket. But from business point of view I think it is a smart move. Ey doesn't care about the customers who don't fly them because their main revenue is coming from flights, not ffp, which is contrary to the us airlines business model. So maybe americans don't understand it but...
The people who are angry or negatively affected are the us based customers with transfer points with no intention to fly ey on a revenue ticket. But from business point of view I think it is a smart move. Ey doesn't care about the customers who don't fly them because their main revenue is coming from flights, not ffp, which is contrary to the us airlines business model. So maybe americans don't understand it but doesn't mean the world revolves around America either ...
Most customers who are not able to utilize a small amount of miles they earned in a couple of years won't care much about the expiring miles either. And they are probably not the customers ey is after. So expiring these my miles look good on their balance sheet without much damage.
Theres no scenario that these changes are attractive to anyone that uses that airline tho.
Regular flyers now have a worse 'loyalty' scheme to go with high fees, poor points values. Im sure it is beneficial for the airline as will cost them less, if they have a monopoly on the market then they can do whatever they like. But if theres a more attractive alternate...
This change may not be attractive for anyone, that's true, but people who actually fly Etihad won't care or even notice because nothing is gonna change for them.
Etihad gold here and I do care and have noticed. I think you are focused solely on one aspect of the change, the expiration of the points and not the full changes. I was fairly loyal to Etihad but see all the changes as major downgrades. Now Etihad’s FF sucks and so does Emirates. I’m going to be a free agent after this. My loyalty to one airline means nothing to them so will go who with whoever gives me the best price.
This article is about miles expiration so I'm commenting on that. I don't see why anyone who actually flies Etihad would care.
Yes, I'm aware of other negative changes but there's a separate article on them :)
They are literally trying to deter people from using their program, I often travel from Dubai to AUH to fly Etihad but now what’s the point, I may as well fly Emrites and bank sky miles. They not trying to trick me out of my miles.
If you often fly from Dubai to AUH, this change won't impact you since just one flight in 18 months keeps your miles alive.
I don't think there're flights between Dubai And Abu Dhabi at the moment. Etihad has a bus service but I'm not sure whether you can book it separately or redeem miles of that segment.
I once took that bus and absolutely regretted it. This was all rationalized for the sake of flying on Etihad and visiting Dubai, and then saving on the taxi fare because the ticket included the bus transfer. Ridiculous. I got out of the bus on the first stop and booked an Uber directly to Al Seef. Had I to do it again, I would just rent a car in Abu Dhabi, there's no reason to want to go to Dubai or stay in an urban hotel. But there's also a bus to Al Ain.
In a nutshell: Fly Emirates.
Larger global footprint, more A380s with showers, more first class on more routes, more frequencies, great service, and a frequent flyer program that does that doesn’t hate their frequent flyers.
Thanks, Etihad!
Most people don't fly first class. And eks business class hard product is so bad, so I never fly them. Maybe you are super rich to fly ek first class all the time and if that is the case your statement makes sense.
Thank your for sharing this information.
Etihad's award policy changes are literally outrageous and ludicrous; and I believe as FF it's definitely legitimate to be opposed to that and somehow angry toward it considering how far they went. It's sad because I really appreciate their Business Class solid product and the upmarket efforts they've been making after the pandemic.
I left Air France when I rationaly realized that Flying Blue is a deeply and deliberately...
Thank your for sharing this information.
Etihad's award policy changes are literally outrageous and ludicrous; and I believe as FF it's definitely legitimate to be opposed to that and somehow angry toward it considering how far they went. It's sad because I really appreciate their Business Class solid product and the upmarket efforts they've been making after the pandemic.
I left Air France when I rationaly realized that Flying Blue is a deeply and deliberately dishonest program with hidden/voluntary illegal scams/frauds significantly disadvantaging members. I reported them them so several times to the Top Level Management with documebted copy-pastes. Yet, the issues were never solved til now and I've never got a beginning of an answer from them though thet solenly promise many times to do so (it was more than two years ago).
If I were not an Airlines Business Strategy Consultant expected some retaliation measures, I'd have nodoubtly taken the case legaly further at least our DGCRRF (French Government anti-fraud department), or to the Court.
They invest a lot in "lobbying" prominent Aviation Geeks and promoting the "Primes Promo" as generous. Yet these awards availability are often inexistant from scratch from the Revenue Management while appearing as bookable just to fraudly appeal the client. After clicking on it, it showes a mush higer price. As per French law, it's definitely illegal considering the situation is not a sporadic bug but "systemic".
The La Première award policy has besides become a spit on Flying Blue Gold members with extravagant and stratospheric Award Charts. 500000 Miles for a One Way, wonderful!
What do they mean by “partner airlines”? If it’s codeshare partner airlines this requirement wouldn’t be so hard to meet. They have a lot of codeshare partner airlines.
Just look at where Antonoaldo Neves (Etihad's CEO came from): both TAP Portugal and Azul Airlines have awful FF programs, with terrible redemption rates, high fees, little flexibility, etc. And even so, they're quite popular with the uneducated travellers in their home markets.
This has killed Etihad Guest for me, no way I'll be flying them (or likely a partner airline) at least once every 18 months. I'll be cashing out my Guest miles for a redemption some time soon then crediting all future EY flights I take to another program.
It's a shame because they were the only program (that I know of) to let you earn points on booking.com hotel bookings, which I use quite frequently - but no point if I can't save these miles up anymorwe.
Well did you actually fly them before? Or are you just ranting about your miles earned via booking.com? Aa allows you to earn miles on booking.com but I advise you against using booking.com. they have a terrible customer service, many last minute cancellations from the properties without much help. And the worst part is that your credit card information is most likely compromised. Someone will send you a link to confirm your booking when you...
Well did you actually fly them before? Or are you just ranting about your miles earned via booking.com? Aa allows you to earn miles on booking.com but I advise you against using booking.com. they have a terrible customer service, many last minute cancellations from the properties without much help. And the worst part is that your credit card information is most likely compromised. Someone will send you a link to confirm your booking when you use booking.com and then your cc info is out in the wild
Nope, I certainly flew EY before - admittedly only once every 2 years but always long haul and in J. This change (as Ben mentions in his article) essentially kills off the program for folks who might have gone out their way to pick EY for a journey that they routinely take but not quite every 18 months (e.g. visiting family overseas every 2nd year, which is my situation).
This change has basically turned...
Nope, I certainly flew EY before - admittedly only once every 2 years but always long haul and in J. This change (as Ben mentions in his article) essentially kills off the program for folks who might have gone out their way to pick EY for a journey that they routinely take but not quite every 18 months (e.g. visiting family overseas every 2nd year, which is my situation).
This change has basically turned Etihad Guest into a program that is only beneficial for people travelling EY's routes on a high-frequency basis. I get that it's a frequent flyer program, and if that's the only segment of the market they want their program to appeal to then that's fine for them - but it means there's a whole other cohort of travellers who will no longer feel any meaningful sense of loyalty to Etihad. I'll fly them again only based on a good price proposition, and if I do so I'll be crediting the points to another program.
I see other programs we can credit to also expire after 18 months. Which partners do you prefer instead?
Also I have a Business class z flight from Tokyo-Milan RT coming up. Initially I put my Guest # for credit. Now I can’t change it in the app. Will I be able to change the credit if I call before the trip, or ask at check in?
"However, previously any mileage activity would extend the expiration of miles, while now only flying will extend the expiration."
It was so easy: buy a few miles and your expiry date would be extended. Now, I will apply the miles I've earned over the last 5 years to my next ticket, and then I'll fly any airline with the best price.
I'm one of the people Lucky mentions, an infrequent flyer since the pandemic from North America.
Are they resetting the clock and giving everyone 18 months on existing balances from June? I think my miles expire later in the year, so do I need to transfer some points in May?
or even still - can I transfer a bunch of points over in May, and then have all those points grandfathered into a status where I can continue to extend just those points with another small transfer every 18 months? The bad news is that based on my past experience working with Etihad Guest is that you'll never get a straight or accurate answer as to how all of this will work by calling .