Etihad Airways has a great inflight product in first class and business class, and historically it has been pretty easy to redeem points for these experiences. In particular, Etihad partners with American AAdvantage, Air Canada Aeroplan, and Air France-KLM Flying Blue, meaning you can redeem these points currencies for travel on Etihad.
Unfortunately over time, redeeming partner miles for travel in Etihad premium cabins has become increasingly challenging. In this post I wanted to cover the trends that we’re seeing when it comes to Etihad award availability, as there are constantly updates. Let me share how I view the current state of things, as it’s kind of complex.
In this post:
Etihad first & business class awards with partner miles
Historically, Etihad has generally made the same saver level award seats available to members of its own Etihad Guest program, as to members of partner programs.
That’s no longer the case, and the exact situation seems to vary depending on the partner program that you book through. Not only that, but the policies seem to be constantly evolving. So let’s talk about what you can expect when trying to redeem those currencies for travel on Etihad.
Redeeming American AAdvantage miles on Etihad
Historically, American AAdvantage has had access to most Etihad saver level award availability. Now, there have long been some quirks with these redemptions, with some awards being bookable online, and some awards requiring ringing up a foreign American Airlines call center to get access to the space. That seemed to be more a technological and point of sale restriction, rather than intentional blocking.
Earlier this year, we saw a new restriction added — American AAdvantage had access to most GuestSeat availability that Etihad Guest members had access to, but only within 30 days of departure. Unfortunately at this point, the situation has become way worse.
I’m simply seeing very little first and business class award availability, even within weeks of departure, and even on routes where Etihad has GuestSeat availability for its own members. For example, Etihad first started restricting award space between Abu Dhabi and the United States. However, now even premium cabin award availability between Abu Dhabi and Europe is next to impossible to find.
There are very few long haul routes where I see premium cabin award availability. I do currently see a smattering of dates over the coming weeks for the Seoul Incheon route in business class, but I don’t see a whole lot beyond that.
If an award is bookable through AAdvantage, you can expect that it will show up through aa.com. The call centers won’t give you access to more availability.
Redeeming Air Canada Aeroplan points on Etihad
Air Canada Aeroplan has been having partner award issues with Etihad for even longer than American AAdvantage. With the AAdvantage situation having gotten worse, Aeroplan is no longer that bad, by comparison.
As a matter of fact, Aeroplan even has some advantages. Aeroplan has access to a fair bit of Etihad business class award availability on short haul flights, including more than 30 days before departure.
I see plenty of situations where Aeroplan sees Etihad award availability when AAdvantage doesn’t, both less than and more than 30 days before departure. At this point, I’d even argue that Aeroplan miles are more valuable than AAdvantage miles for Etihad redemptions.
I don’t know what exactly is going on here, but I find it fascinating how the two programs have access to such different Etihad award availability.
Redeeming Air France-KLM Flying Blue points on Etihad
In late 2023, we saw Air France-KLM Flying Blue add add award redemptions on Etihad, which is exciting. Flying Blue seems to offer the best of both worlds when it comes to award availability, compared to AAdvantage and Aeroplan (which is a very low bar, admittedly).
Flying Blue has access to the slightly better award availability on Etihad within 30 days (like AAdvantage), while it also has access to the additional regional availability more than 30 days out (like Aeroplan).
You’re still not going to find a ton of space, but you will find the most space. So if you do want to redeem on Etihad without using Etihad Guest, Flying Blue will leave you best positioned.
What’s going on with Etihad award availability?
While it’s hard to know exactly what’s going on here, or how it will evolve, I do have a few observations.
Etihad’s own frequent flyer program, Etihad Guest, seems to have changed up how it releases award availability in general. Back in the day, Etihad would be generous with making first and business class seats available as awards at the last minute, when a cabin had a lot of unsold seats. That’s no longer consistently the case, even through the Etihad Guest program.
Perhaps this is actually what I find most frustrating. For example, between the United States and Abu Dhabi, there are no longer many saver business class award seats available, whether booking through Etihad Guest or a partner program. This is the case even in situations where the cabin has lots of empty seats close to departure.
Then there are the different situations with each partner program in terms of what award space they have access to. The evolving restrictions have made partner miles nearly useless for travel on Etihad in premium cabins… and that’s likely by design.
I suspect this is part of Etihad’s management trying to overhaul the Etihad Guest program and make it more profitable and engaging. I understand the logic trying to get people engaged in the “native” frequent flyer program, rather than engaged in a partner frequent flyer program.
As a consumer, I of course love when partners have access to all award space, since I like taking advantage of award arbitrage opportunities, and booking through the programs that offer the best pricing. But if I ran a frequent flyer program, I’d probably try to encourage direct bookings as much as possible, since they’re potentially much higher margin, and also have more upside in terms of engagement with the airline.
However, I think Etihad is going to the extreme here, and is taking it a step too far. There’s something to be said for letting people who belong to partner programs try a product, in hope that they’ll purchase it in the future. Clearly that isn’t the philosophy of Etihad’s current management team.
I also find the Etihad Guest program to be incredibly frustrating, as it has the most restrictive cancelation policy of any frequent flyer program in the world. It’s so bad that it makes me not even want to consider booking an award through the program.
Bottom line
Over time, Etihad has changed how it releases award space, and it’s bad news across the board for premium cabin redemptions.
American AAdvantage only has access to business class award availability close to departure, but even then, only a tiny subset of award availability is accessible, primarily for short haul flights. Meanwhile Air Canada Aeroplan has access to more short haul seats, including further in advance, but there’s no space on long haul routes. Lastly, Air France-KLM Flying Blue has the more generous situation, so if there’s availability through AAdvantage or Aeroplan, it should also be bookable through Flying Blue.
It’s disappointing to see the direction that Etihad Guest has taken with award availability. It’s one thing if Etihad Guest were actually a compelling program, but the cancelation policy plus mileage expiration policy really makes me not want to earn or redeem miles with the program.
What do you make of the current Etihad partner award space situation?
I'm disappointed the author didn't mention the giant caveat in the room, which is that Etihad is known for fake availability. When you do find availability, it's very important to call the airline and confirm before moving points because over 90% of the time the availability is fake and the seats don't exist. It's a well know fraud at Etihad and this website has a duty to warn readers. I nearly transferred 600k miles just...
I'm disappointed the author didn't mention the giant caveat in the room, which is that Etihad is known for fake availability. When you do find availability, it's very important to call the airline and confirm before moving points because over 90% of the time the availability is fake and the seats don't exist. It's a well know fraud at Etihad and this website has a duty to warn readers. I nearly transferred 600k miles just before seeing this warning on Reddit, I called the airline, and sure enough the seats showing up don't actually exist. I would have been trapped.
Did you call Etihad or Aeroplan? I'm in a similar position where I see availability on Aeroplan but worried about phantom seats
I used 70k Aadvantage miles to fly AUH-YYZ-MIA Business Class on 12.09. Lucky me!!!
On Aeroplan, Etihad f.ex. MLE-FRA shows in C sometimes, but when you go through the booking process there is an error message… so I suppose that’s „phantom space“. I tried three different dates/cities.
It's not just Etihad with American Airlines. Cathay Pacific and Qantas business award seats are rarer than a jackalope, Japan Airlines is getting there and Qatar is getting sparse as well. Aside from Royal Jordanian and the outrageously priced BA, the AA award program is pretty anemic when it comes to international partner redemption. And don't get me started on AA's ridiculous demand pricing on their own business award seats.
Both Etihad and AirCanada make booking flights on their own metal via their own FF programs prohibitive/a sick joke. At least AC Aeroplan has other reasonably priced partner awards. I can see no logical reason why any sane person would embrace Etihad Guest.
The management of Etihad Guest is ultimately doing their airline no favors as it slips off the radar of the flying public, especially the consumers of blogs such as this. A...
Both Etihad and AirCanada make booking flights on their own metal via their own FF programs prohibitive/a sick joke. At least AC Aeroplan has other reasonably priced partner awards. I can see no logical reason why any sane person would embrace Etihad Guest.
The management of Etihad Guest is ultimately doing their airline no favors as it slips off the radar of the flying public, especially the consumers of blogs such as this. A management shakeout would be welcome.
Oh, it's a bit dissembling to use Indian destinations in the AA and Aeroplan examples in this article. In way too many very available redemptions the likes of BOM and DEL feature as transits in long-haul itineraries on Aeroplan particularly. Quick 'n easy examples to fill out the blog maybe?
I noticed last year JetBlue had some decent Etihad business awards (minus any draconian cancellation fees) but now I only see economy. Lucky any reason you didn’t discuss JetBlue?
Etihad really screwed the pooch on this approach. Strange to even think that Aeroplan is SECOND in terms of being an absolute mess--so that's saying something.
At least Etihad has a better soft and hard product than Air Canada, so I guess that's a silver lining; sure, the reward program may be bad, but at least the actual product is good...different story with that dumpster fire of a mess they call Aeroplan/Air Canada.
Airlines would rather let seats go out empty than give them to their frequent flier members. It's great on paper but eventually people will stop wanting to earn points that can't ever be redeemed. I'm sitting on millions of points and it's hard to spend them on flights at any decent value.
Strange, that's not been my experience. then again, maybe you're trying to book weeks/months in advance. I never attempt to book flights with points, until 7 days before the flight. So I get "flights at decent value".
Millions? Like 20 millions?
Maybe I'm a little paranoid, but like FlyingHippo below, I wonder how many of those Aeroplan awards are phantom. I feel burned lately by Alaska - never used it before the Hawaiian merger, but I searched a bunch of awards that would be useful to me (on AA metal) and saw good prices on Alaska, so I signed up for a CC. Now that I have Alaska miles and try to book, I get a...
Maybe I'm a little paranoid, but like FlyingHippo below, I wonder how many of those Aeroplan awards are phantom. I feel burned lately by Alaska - never used it before the Hawaiian merger, but I searched a bunch of awards that would be useful to me (on AA metal) and saw good prices on Alaska, so I signed up for a CC. Now that I have Alaska miles and try to book, I get a "we can't reserve space on this partner flight, try another..." message over and over. Call Center is no help and didn't have a great explanation other than a reference to an internal memo about partner award issues. And this is despite the same AA flight awards showing available on BA, so it's not truly "phantom". Just an Alaska issue.
So now I'm paranoid that any time I see award availability I won't be able to actually book. But there is no way to know for sure until I've earned or transferred miles to the FF program.
OK here we go ;)
Aeroplan on Etihad.
Will allow economy and business even more than 30 days out if its within the middle east (Seychells and Maldives seem to be included) So TLV-AUH or AUH - BAH can be booked all year. And also as of very recently between middle east and India. So say AUH-DEL or even TLV-BOM Via AUH can be booked in J all year.
Any other region you...
OK here we go ;)
Aeroplan on Etihad.
Will allow economy and business even more than 30 days out if its within the middle east (Seychells and Maldives seem to be included) So TLV-AUH or AUH - BAH can be booked all year. And also as of very recently between middle east and India. So say AUH-DEL or even TLV-BOM Via AUH can be booked in J all year.
Any other region you can only book business within 30 days. Economy seems to be available throughout the year.
AA only allows business within 30 days even within middle east.
Funny quirk. AA is blocking all Etihad flights in and out of Israel. So TLV - AUH and vise versa is not bookable even within 30 days and even when partner awards are available.
@Lucky Will you also write an article how CX ist restricting award availability for all POS in the USA
@ Kevin -- Restricting award availability to partner programs, or for its own program?
My sense is:
- Near complete block on AA (& Sabre) with US POS in business class
- Fairly big block on all other partners but Amadeus GDS airlines (BA, Finnair, Qatar) seems to have some availability close in - a bit like AA pre-Covid.
Exactly! There is a massive discrepancy between award availibilty when booking between through sabre airlines (AA and AS) compared to e.g. BA
Is this a US GDS block or a geographic block? As in a VPN can be used to get around it, or AA/AS is blocked period.
Second above comment.
The nonexistent partner availability with the outrageous cancellation policy with Etihad Guest makes this airline a no-go for now.
If the Etihad program itself had a reasonable cancel policy this would be a non-issue. But as it stands I simply will not book through that program under any circumstances. It's insane.
Alaska has also been having visibility issues across partners as well. So many examples of AA showing a partner award and Alaska not.
Just part of the enshittification of the points world. Cathay F only available through their own program, Qantas is a crapshoot (although I did recently see a last minute award on AA), Lufthansa F awards shrinking from 15 days to 3-4 days out, etc.
and it seems like they are taking advantage that most folks forget the slow boiling pot they are sitting in is in fact, not a good place to be.
Remember AS blocked all awards within 3 days and promise it was "temporary"? Yeah, now months later, it is still the case for any award that does not touch North America. Intra-EU, South America, last minute QF domestic, JL awards for HND-LHR, you name it....
and it seems like they are taking advantage that most folks forget the slow boiling pot they are sitting in is in fact, not a good place to be.
Remember AS blocked all awards within 3 days and promise it was "temporary"? Yeah, now months later, it is still the case for any award that does not touch North America. Intra-EU, South America, last minute QF domestic, JL awards for HND-LHR, you name it. You cannot even book economy. Yet I do not see even one person that remembers this "temporary measure", let alone any big blogs talking about it.
Wow... all the last minute first class from AUH to Paris is no longer there. Bummer, I wasn't hoping to try it. At least I got to fly etihad first out of IAD in 2022.
Aeroplan has also been really bad about phantom availability on ethical recently. I’ve seen many flights from the US via Doha to Malè which don’t actually exist when trying to book or calling Aeroplan.
Huh? Via Doha??
Agree here, i transferred points to Aeroplan as I saw award space from DOH to JFK august 2025, which turned out to be phantom award space
lol -Abu Dhabi!
I am just happy that I tried its all premium products long ago when aa had full access and cheap rate. If I remember correctly I flew ey first apartment from auh to syd for 60k miles and to Tokyo for 40k miles....but the products are not that inspiring to do it again....