My first ever award flight on Etihad was booked through ANA Mileage Club. This was back in 2011, when I flew roundtrip from New York to Abu Dhabi in Etihad first class for 140,000 ANA miles. At the time that was one of the only practical ways to redeem partner or transferable miles for travel on Etihad. The good news is that since then more opportunities have opened up:
- American and Etihad launched a partnership, making it possible to earn and redeem AAdvantage miles for travel on Etihad; unfortunately with American’s award chart devaluation last year, this isn’t as lucrative as it once was
- Etihad Guest has become an Amex Membership Rewards transfer partner, making it easier for people with transferable points to redeem on Etihad
So while the ability to redeem ANA miles on Etihad isn’t as important as it used to be, it is worth noting that it looks like the ability to do this changed as of last week. Per a notice on ANA’s website, as of December 8, 2017, it’s no longer possible to redeem ANA Mileage Club miles for travel on Etihad Airways. There is one exception — you can apparently still redeem ANA miles on flights on which they codeshare, though that only includes a few regional flights, and most likely not the flights you’d actually want to redeem on.
While I’m going off of a translated website here, it appears as if these redemptions are being “temporarily suspended,” which is to say that this change isn’t necessarily permanent. Personally I wouldn’t count on the partnership resuming anytime soon (we’ve seen a lot of partnerships be permanently “temporarily suspended” over the years), though I certainly hope I’m wrong.
Etihad’s website makes no mention of redemptions on ANA being suspended, though those redemptions were never much of a deal anyway. Etihad Guest has a distance based award chart for travel on ANA, though the costs are steep.
In almost all cases you’ll find that redeeming Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles on ANA is a better value.
So this is worth being aware of, though I don’t view this as a huge deal, assuming you have transferable points.
Has anyone redeemed ANA miles on Etihad in the past couple of years?
(Tip of the hat to @Ricardo_UAFlyer)
Are Etihad flights still suspended when using ANA points?
@ Johnny -- Yes, unfortunately.
I’m taking DFW>AUH>JNB in February, which I used 104k ANA miles to fly Etihad. They are stopping this route in March. Worth noting that they couldn’t see the routes from JFK or IAD even though Etihad showed availability, so maybe they’ve been phasing this sweetspot out.
Ugh, I was eyeing a r/t LHR-AUH-JNB redemption on Etihad via ANA for 120K miles. Glad I didn't transfer SPG points to ANA just yet.
I was trying to get from ORD/JFK/Wash to SEZ (Seychelles) with Etihad through AUH. Of course, I transferred 208K AMEX membership rewards to ANA, and this happened. While they say its as of Dec 8, I had actually found availability before thanksgiving and they were having "system" problems. I called them every single day, until I finally saw this notice on their website a couple of days ago. What a bummer. For now, just so...
I was trying to get from ORD/JFK/Wash to SEZ (Seychelles) with Etihad through AUH. Of course, I transferred 208K AMEX membership rewards to ANA, and this happened. While they say its as of Dec 8, I had actually found availability before thanksgiving and they were having "system" problems. I called them every single day, until I finally saw this notice on their website a couple of days ago. What a bummer. For now, just so I dont ruin my wife's trip, I booked a flight from US to Zanzibar through Istanbul on Turkish Airways business (using the ANA miles) for the 208K + $1150 surcharge. Feels steep. Did I get a good deal? Should I use my AMEX MR points another way to get there?
Man I really wanted the us-south Africa J award.
Finally got enough amex for 4 rt’s
Australia to Europe for 136k was way too lucrative to last, especially given the level of abuse. Surprised it lasted this long.
Would expect to see it come back sometime in the future at much higher levels, likely around 300k RT.
Isn't it obvious?
This is all clearly a precursor to Etihad admitting that their bespoke alliance isn't sustainable and that the best way of getting a break from the vitriolic attacks from the US is to offer Delta an equity stake and to join SkyTeam.
Either that or the economics of the various loyalty program partnerships in place are being reviewed.
@DC apparently if you had already linked your Flybuys membership to Etihad Guest you still will earn the status credits but can’t convert Flybuys points to Etihad Guest points anymore (or temporarily). Seems to me with the ANA announcement there is possibly more to this?
A supermarket loyalty program in Australia called flybuys (offered by Coles supermarkets) also had a partnership with Etihad for the last 2 years which allowed flybuys members to transfer points to Etihad Guest.
Like the ANA partnership above, this flybuys-Etihad partnership was also “temporarily suspended” two days ago.
Is anyone aware of other Etihad partnerships being “temporarily suspended”?
@David
What sweet spot?
Etihad redemptions for ANA F travel were EXTREMELY generous basically mistake fare level for a good 6 months or more a few years ago. I flew a couple times LAX/SFO - TYO in ANA F for 27,000 Etihad Miles one way:) I’m sure it’s in the annals of flyertalk history somewhere
we’ve seen a lot of partnerships be permanently “temporarily suspended” over the yeras *years
Still valuable. There’s a sweet spot from NA to Africa on Etihad with no YQ
The Japanese does indeed imply a temporary suspension for Etihad awards using ANA miles, but it doesn’t give an explanation for why, or anything about how it might change in the future. I couldn’t find any other Japanese websites discussing this change, but hopefully it is only temporary...