In February 2024, Etihad Guest updated its change and cancellation fees for award tickets, introducing the world’s most punitive policy. This was announced as part of a larger overhaul of the Etihad Guest program. Then in June 2025, the program updated these fees again. Now in November 2025, the program has updated the fees for a third time.
The sad thing is, through all versions of these changes, the policy has been the most punitive in the industry. It’s just a question of which aspect of the policy is the worst. While other frequent flyer programs have largely eliminated change and cancellation fees on awards, Etihad Guest is increasingly aligning award ticket policies with revenue ticket policies, so it’s outrageously complex.
In this post:
Details of Etihad Guest award change & cancellation fees
For tickets issued as of November 13, 2025, Etihad Guest has updated the change and cancellation policies for GuestSeat award tickets. The idea is that award tickets are available in the Value, Comfort, and Deluxe fare bundles, just as is the case with revenue tickets.
Each of those fare bundles comes with a different policy when it comes to award ticket change and cancellation fees.
For tickets issued or reissued as of November 13, 2025, below is the Etihad Guest policy for changes and cancellations on award tickets. Note that while economy and business class awards are valid in Value, Comfort, and Deluxe fare classes, first class awards are only valid in Comfort and Deluxe.
So to simplify this a bit:
- Within 72 hours of departure, no award tickets can be changed or cancelled, which is massively punitive; some programs don’t allow changes within 24 hours, but 72 hours is quite a long window
- More than 72 hours before departure, Value awards in economy and business class can’t be cancelled at any cost, but can be changed for a fee of 600 AED
- More than 72 hours before departure, Comfort awards in all classes of service can be cancelled for a fee of 25% of the miles redeemed, or can be changed for a fee of 200 AED
- More than 72 hours before departure, Deluxe awards in all classes of service can be cancelled or changed for free
I just find it incredibly restrictive that no changes or cancellations can be made to any award types within 72 hours of departure. And while the higher award fare classes afford some flexibility, you’ll pay quite the premium for those awards.
If you’re curious, below are what the previous policies were like for both cancellations and changes.
These policies make me avoid Etihad Guest
As you can see, Etihad Guest has updated its change and cancellation fees on award tickets, though I’m not sure they’re necessarily better or worse than before, they’re just different. You now have zero flexibility within 72 hours of departure, while you potentially have a bit more flexibility more than 72 hours before departure.
For me the simple reality remains that Etihad Guest has the strictest cancellation policies of any frequent flyer program in the world.
With many loyalty programs, airline award ticket cancellation fees are lower than ever before, reflecting how we’ve seen many tickets become a lot more flexible. Nowadays many programs don’t even charge any fees to cancel an award ticket, which is a great option to have.
Etihad Guest’s policy, meanwhile is the opposite extreme. On the one hand, I see where Etihad is coming from. The idea is that revenue fares and award fares are aligned in terms of policies. At the same time, when that’s counter to the industry norm, it’s a serious competitive disadvantage.
You’d think that Etihad would want to make its frequent flyer program a competitive advantage, given its smaller scale than Emirates and Qatar Airways, so the program has to play “catch up” a bit. But instead, the policies are not only very strict, but honestly, quite confusing and hard to keep track of, especially given the pace at which they change.
I’d engage in the Etihad Guest program a lot more if it weren’t for this policy. I value flexibility a lot, and I simply don’t want to risk basically forfeiting the entire cost of a ticket if my plans change within 72 hours of departure (never mind that even outside that window, the fees are potentially significant).
Bottom line
Etihad Guest has updated its change and cancellation fees on award tickets for the third time since early 2024. The program has the industry’s most stringent policies on this front, and that applies both before and after the most recent changes.
I wish Etihad award tickets came with more flexibility, but I guess that’s not a change Etihad is planning on making. The key detail to understand is that award tickets now have zero flexibility within 72 hours of departure.
What do you make of Etihad Guest’s award change and cancellation fees?
As far as I'm concerned, Etihad is Middle East's low-cost airline. I fly them because they can get me from Europe to Asia and back for 2000€ in J. At that price I don't expect anything other than a flat bed seat and somewhat decent food (that's why I'm willing to suffer through their terrible schedule which forces me to do morning arrivals in Asia). The state of their FFP more or less reflects it,...
As far as I'm concerned, Etihad is Middle East's low-cost airline. I fly them because they can get me from Europe to Asia and back for 2000€ in J. At that price I don't expect anything other than a flat bed seat and somewhat decent food (that's why I'm willing to suffer through their terrible schedule which forces me to do morning arrivals in Asia). The state of their FFP more or less reflects it, it would be a wasted of money for airline that primarily competes on price.
I credit their the flights to Flying Blue instead. There are some sweet spots there since FB failed to update the earning chart for EY for quite a while :)
Honestly, I would appreciate is US carriers (and others globally) had some incremental aspect of this kind of cancellation policy. I'm tired of fighting to find award space that people just sit on speculatively until the day of departure, only to let it go to waste. The booking policy is far too lenient for how many miles are out there now, and people who have tools to exploit it.
Just in Time for the 50% extra miles when purchasing miles. what a SCAM! By the way the Luggage stories are very True. If you "know" the Indians working at the AUD Airport, you can slide even after your Luggage is over 20KG, But if they are not "Friends" of yours, they will make you pay extra for .5 kg that is over weight. I went through this personally.
Also forgot to mention I emailed this article to AA discussing the gaming of their cancellable partner award space. Found a few exec loyalty folks on LinkedIn. Hopefully they see the value in introducing steep cancellation charges.
Come to think of it. Need to send this to Alaska too
Honestly hope all airlines up their fees and cancellation policy. Too many Karen's and Darren's booking 10 flights just to "hold" them in case
TBH...the gaming of points, blogger posts as to such, and speculative bookings are driving these choices by EY.
It's only a matter of time before they all start doing this to curtail the booking of seats as a speculative hold until something else better becomes available. How many times have you booked a J itinerary a few months in advance and canceled it the second an F became available two days before? As one...
TBH...the gaming of points, blogger posts as to such, and speculative bookings are driving these choices by EY.
It's only a matter of time before they all start doing this to curtail the booking of seats as a speculative hold until something else better becomes available. How many times have you booked a J itinerary a few months in advance and canceled it the second an F became available two days before? As one example. I'm not judging, I do it all the time. The end result is that you are less likely to do that if you have severe penalties.
The 72 Hour rule fits directly into this scenario as it's exactly when a number of seats at lower redemption rates appear on other airlines. They are just gaming back the gamers.
That in turn opens up J for people who want it. Is that such a bad thing? Airlines put placeholder schedules and change them closer to departure, do they give us 25% back when that happens?
@Points Adventure. I actually am agreeing. I would rather have a sane system rather than this constant gaming. It costs time and lack of genuine award space you want. I give EY accolades for having the courage to fight back and level the field.
Gaming the gamers, for sure. It's a bit rich holding onto a redemption for weeks, knowing all the while that you're probably going to cancel it the day before departure. This is an attempt to level the playing field and make the program fairer for members who don't have 1M points sitting around to book a whole mess of tickets months in advance. The players have played themselves into this one, and I'll wager EY...
Gaming the gamers, for sure. It's a bit rich holding onto a redemption for weeks, knowing all the while that you're probably going to cancel it the day before departure. This is an attempt to level the playing field and make the program fairer for members who don't have 1M points sitting around to book a whole mess of tickets months in advance. The players have played themselves into this one, and I'll wager EY won't be the only airline who tightens their program like this.
All of this makes sense but what doesn't is the fact that these restrictions don't apply to partner awards. The speculative bookings are mostly held by those users. Its as-if the airline decided to hurt their own loyalty program the most.
@Jo Or protect their own seat management of seats. With that they could care less about partners. They are just looking to have better control over speculative bookings internally on their own metal.
Ah, I understand….partners the other way. That is a good point.
Where did you get the information about partner award change and cancellation policies?
When I searched for an award on American Airlines within the US, both the economy and business options showed the same changes and cancellation policies, which were Etihad's new "Value" policy.
I also called Etihad Guest about an American Airlines flight I was considering that isn't searchable on Etihad's website (as is the case with many flights to or from smaller...
Where did you get the information about partner award change and cancellation policies?
When I searched for an award on American Airlines within the US, both the economy and business options showed the same changes and cancellation policies, which were Etihad's new "Value" policy.
I also called Etihad Guest about an American Airlines flight I was considering that isn't searchable on Etihad's website (as is the case with many flights to or from smaller US airports), and the agent told me that my economy flight was non-refundable and had a 600 AED change fee for changes made at least 72 before flight departure. When I followed up to ask if all partner flights (regardless of airline or class of service) followed this policy, he said that they did. There was some language barrier with this agent, and I didn't feel that he was too knowledgeable about partner awards, so I'm not convinced he knew the policy for other partner award flights but assume he gave the correct information for the specific AA flight he checked for me.
Well, it makes every step towards a sky team partner lol
Which is a particularly moronic statement, seeing as it's lost multiple Skyteam-aligned partners in just the past 2 years.
Loyalty programs are quickly becoming irrelevant for driving behavior. They've gutted programs so much that loyalty is a meaningless factor. Not nearly as bad as hotel programs, but a shadow of what they used to be.
… and don’t forget about their crazy baggage charges on award tickets!
I almost redeemed some miles for an intra Middle East - it didn’t include luggage and I couldn’t find information about the cost, but assumed it will be something in the $50-$100 range.
Then I came across all the stories on FlyerTalk of people learning at the airport luggage fees go in high hundreds or thousands of dollars…
More details or examples needed? Thousand dollar luggage charges? Yikes
The change fee of 200AED outside of 72 hours at least gives you a method of retaining your miles on a higher mileage award. Beyond this I have to agree that Etihad award change and cancellation policies are a tough pill to swallow. I never use the program. To fly through the Middle East, Qatar is the sweet spot today.
I almost always book my award travel with United because they don't charge to cancel or change the flight.
What are the fare rules for redeeming on partners? They certainly aren't easy to find on their website...
Actually, Etihad’s inflexible policy can be advantageous.
In case you are 100% sure you want to take a flight except if you get sick.
Then some travel insurances might need to reimburse you for the award. It might be the cash price on the high end or if possible the purchase cost for the miles.