As an update to this post from a couple of weeks ago, points transfers from Amex and Citi to Etihad Guest are once again working as they should.
The issue with Amex was resolved last week, and the issue with Citi is now resolved as well.
Below is the original post in its entirety.
Earning transferable points is awesome, though yesterday I wrote about how frustrating it can be when the transfers don’t go correctly. I provided the example of how I was trying to transfer Amex and Citi points to Etihad Guest, and in both cases there were issues.
Amex let me transfer out the points, but they didn’t instantly show up in my Etihad account, as they’re supposed to.
Meanwhile Citi didn’t even allow me to initiate the transfer, and instead there was a message stating “When we tried to complete your Points Transfer, we encountered a system error. Please try again or contact Customer Service for help.”
I was confused if something was just wrong with my Etihad account, or what exactly was going on. Well, after sharing my experience, many of you chimed in with your experiences, and it seems like I’m in good company, for better or worse.
At the moment it doesn’t seem like Amex and Citi points transfers to Etihad are working as they should. I’m working on figuring out what exactly is going on, though for the time being I wouldn’t recommend transferring points.
So while Citi doesn’t even allow you to initiate the transfer, Amex will let you transfer points, but then 2-3 days later they show up again in your Amex account, and show as “cancelled partner transfer.”
I’m working on figuring out what exactly is going on, and will report when I know. The issue is that at least among frontline staff, people don’t seem to be aware of the problem. So you have credit card reps stating that everything is happening as it should, and you also have Etihad reps saying that the mileage transfers just aren’t showing up.
I’ll update this post when I find out more or when this is resolved, but in the meantime I wouldn’t recommend transferring points. Just look at all the comments from readers who are having issues in the previous post.
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