Just today the US American Express Membership Rewards has added Etihad Guest as a transfer partner. This means points earned on cards like The Platinum Card® from American Express, Amex EveryDay® Preferred Credit Card, and American Express® Gold Card can now be transferred to Etihad at a 1:1 ratio, in thousand point increments.
Etihad Guest is the 16th airline partner of the US American Express Membership Rewards program. My other favorites include Air Canada Aeroplan, Air France/KLM FlyingBlue, ANA Mileage Club, Delta SkyMiles, and Singapore KrisFlyer.
American Express is the second transferable US points currency to partner with Etihad Guest (the other being Citi ThankYou). Those points, earned with cards like the Citi Premier® Card (review) or Citi Prestige® Card, can also be transferred to Etihad at a 1:1 ratio.
Etihad is of course a great airline, with the incredible First Class Apartments on their Airbus A380 aircraft.
Etihad A380 First Class Apartment
Even their standard first class, available on many of their A340s and 777s, is top notch.
Etihad A340 First Class
However, as any savvy mileage redeemer knows, the best way to redeem miles for the airlines you most want to fly often isn’t directly through their own program, but rather through a partner program.
Etihad doesn’t publish a single award chart, but rather has a mileage calculator on their website (access it by clicking the “GuestSeats” tab and then clicking the “By destination” heading), which shows how many miles you need to travel between various city pairs. The award chart is roughly distance based, though not exactly.
Just to give a few examples of one-way mileage requirements:
- New York to Abu Dhabi — 88,391 miles in business class, 117,560 miles in first class
- London to Abu Dhabi — 65,964 miles in business class, 87,732 miles in first class
- Los Angeles to Abu Dhabi — 108,076 miles in business class, 143,741 miles in first class
Etihad Airways A340-500 in Abu Dhabi
So the rates are definitely on the high side, and I’d still prefer to redeem through the devalued American AAdvantage award chart, since they partner with Etihad. For one-way travel between the US and Middle East, American AAdvantage charges 70,000 miles in business class or 115,000 miles in first class, and that includes connecting flights.
That being said, it’s worth keeping in mind that the Amex EveryDay® Preferred Credit Card can earn 1.5x points on everyday spend (and up to 4.5x points on US supermarkets and 3x points on US gas stations), while the American Express® Gold Card earns 4x points at restaurants, 4x points at US supermarkets (up to $25,000 each calendar year), and 3x points on airfare purchased directly from the airline or at amextravel.com. In other words, you can earn points at a really fast pace.
If we ever see a transfer bonus (which we sometimes see from Membership Rewards to partners), then I could see this being a very good transfer option.
Dinner in Etihad’s A380 First Class Apartment
Bottom line
Ultimately more transfer partners are always a good thing. Now that we’ve seen devaluations across so many airlines, the gap in redemption rates between various programs is narrowing. If you’re looking to fly Etihad, Amex points transfers to Etihad Guest could indeed be the best option, especially if you’re earning points at an accelerated rate through your credit card, and if there’s a transfer bonus.
Do you see yourself transferring Membership Rewards points to Etihad Guest?
@Todd
Try this link - scroll down for Etihad Guest
http://catalogue.membershiprewards.ca/l2Category.mtw?categoryName=ca_frequent_traveller_participants&parentCategoryName=ca_travel_1&newCategorySearch=true&linknav=ca:mr:vrp:shoppinglanding:travelmenu:cafrequenttravellerparticipants
@AndyNYC I have had great success booking business class and also using miles to upgrade an economy ticket to business class
@Gaurav I have seen MR credited to Etihad Guest within 48hours
@Todd
Try this link - scroll down for Etihad Guest
http://catalogue.membershiprewards.ca/l2Category.mtw?categoryName=ca_frequent_traveller_participants&parentCategoryName=ca_travel_1&newCategorySearch=true&linknav=ca:mr:vrp:shoppinglanding:travelmenu:cafrequenttravellerparticipants
@AndyNYC I have had great success booking business class and also using miles to upgrade an economy ticket to business class
@Gaurav I have seen MR credited to Etihad Guest within 48hours
Tell us more about the Citi Prestige card, which you can transfer Etihad to?
@Nick, thanks. I've found TY points to transfer pretty quickly as well but EY seems to be an outlier so was curious.
@Gaurav, MR transfers are instant or are generally less than 24 hours.
SPG points seems to take a few days but reports vary.
sub
Ben--any idea how long transfer times are? Citi takes a very long time... Also does EY charge YK on award tickets? Some of the currency figures look high when I've searched for award availability but I've never bothered to do the conversion since I wasn't booking with them.
Could anyone comment on how easy (or difficult) it is to get a free first class ticket using miles for someone who has had no activity on Etihad and whose miles solely come from Amex transfers?
@Canada Points Guy
Where do you see EY as a transfer partner on the Amex Canada site?
Here's screen shot of all airline transfer partners as of 1 minute ago from my account: https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=24BCE36D12E18F2D!15420&authkey=!APRG4juYoTZWHvw&v=3&ithint=photo%2cPNG
Didnt realise EY was not a Transfer Partner for Amex in US as we already had it in Canada but at a low rate where 1,000 Membership Rewards points is equal to 750 Etihad Guest Miles. However they do have promos with 25% bonus occassionally.
Now if only EK would become a Transfer Partner for Amex in Canada.
@Mileage Man. That sucks. I thought if it was available on AA then it could be booked. So you are saying AA releases more space to thier own program than to partners? Yhat makes sense but makes it much harder to find awards.
Correction: I said Cathay when I meant Etihad. Etihad is not part of Asia Miles nor Amex Canada.
(note to self: don't type a response to a blog one one page and check flights to HKG on another)
Aeroman380 - "This is one partner that amex Canada already had"
Say what now?
We have BA, Aeroplan, Asia Miles, Delta and Alitalia. Cathay is not an Amex Membership Rewards Transfer Partner because we have to go through Asia Miles at a brutal ration of 1:0.75. The US Amex also has Asia Miles, but now they have a direct transfer (at a 1:1 ratio) to Cathay.
I stand to be corrected on the timeline, but...
Aeroman380 - "This is one partner that amex Canada already had"
Say what now?
We have BA, Aeroplan, Asia Miles, Delta and Alitalia. Cathay is not an Amex Membership Rewards Transfer Partner because we have to go through Asia Miles at a brutal ration of 1:0.75. The US Amex also has Asia Miles, but now they have a direct transfer (at a 1:1 ratio) to Cathay.
I stand to be corrected on the timeline, but I don't think Amex Canada hasn't added any new airline transfer partners in over decade.
@Nick, Yes and No. I have 25K Etihad miles expiring in 2 months and I have been trying to find award space on a weekend travel transatlantic to/from JFK on those Lie flat seats in AA. However the availabilty I see in AA is much better than the ones I see on BA website which is what Etihad sees. I guess its either a Hit or Miss scenario.
Some interesting AA redemption options on AA metal using EY points...... Go Figure. But don't understand why the redemption chart has so many region options when AA doesn't fly to any of them, especially the within country options where AA obviously only flies within the USA!
Is this not a way to use MRs for American Airlines? If so, than this is a great!
@Eugene -- unfortunately you can't extend EY miles. It is not like US programs where any activity in the account extends the life of all the miles -- instead each individual mile has its own expiration date, and that can't be extended. Though having transfer options like this could at least let you top up an account enough to be able to make a redemption.
This is one partner that amex Canada already had that I didn't realize the US didn't. Now what would it take to have klm or Singapore for amex Canada?
Do you know if there is anyway to extend soon to be expiring EY miles, for instance via this new Amex transfer?
Also you haven't mentioned all the partners that EY has where one can in theory redeem EY miles on. Can you comment if reports of it being almost impossible to take advantage of EY partner redemption awards are true?