Are you flush with Etihad Guest miles and not sure what to do with them? Whether you’ve earned them from Virgin Australia or transferred them from Amex Membership Rewards, Etihad Guest miles can be used for a variety of reward flights. It’s not one of our top five programs at the moment, due to the lack of any decent redemption ‘sweet spot’, but it has its uses.
The relaunched Etihad Guest program means lower rates for some Economy and Business Class flights. You’ll also get a huge head start on Etihad’s reward seats as partner airline programs (such as Velocity Frequent Flyer) can now only access Business and First Class reward seats on Etihad-operated flights from 30 days before departure.
1. Flying with Etihad
| Value per mile: Around 1.5 to 4 cents per mile for Sydney-Abu Dhabi |
Etihad Guest miles can be used for redemptions on Etihad Airways itself. You can book two types of fares: GuestSeats and OpenSeats. GuestSeats are the reward seats you want to aim for, as they offer the best value with fixed, reduced fares.
Unfortunately, flying Business between Abu Dhabi and Australia costs more in Etihad miles than using Velocity Points. Another flaw is that awards are priced per segment, so Sydney-Abu Dhabi-London in Business Class costs 190,000 miles (120,000 SYD-AUH and 70,000 AUH-LHR), whereas the same flights are a flat 139,000 Velocity Points with Virgin Australia.
The upside of booking through Etihad Guest is that you get the first pick of the Business Class seats, as Velocity members can only book them 30 days before departure. You’ll also pay far less in fees and taxes as there is no carrier charge through Etihad Guest. Here’s how many Etihad Guest miles you’ll need to fly from Australia:
| Economy | Business | |
| Melbourne/Sydney to Abu Dhabi | 60,000 | 120,000 |
| Abu Dhabi to Athens | 20,000 | 50,000 |
| Abu Dhabi to Milan, Munich, Nice, Rome, Vienna, Zurich | 25,000 | 60,000 |
| Abu Dhabi to rest of Europe (Etihad destinations) | 30,000 | 70,000 |
For comparison, it costs 56,000 Velocity Points to fly from Melbourne/Sydney to Abu Dhabi with Etihad in Economy, or 104,000 Velocity Points for Business Class. We recommend redeeming Velocity Points for Economy as access to those seats aren’t restricted. You can use the updated Miles Calculator on the Etihad website to determine how many you’ll need.
At the time of writing, a Sydney-Abu Dhabi Business Class return fare costs around $9,979, so you’re looking at 4.05 cents per mile of value. For Economy, it drops to 1.5 cents per mile, which is nowhere near as good.
Keep in mind that Etihad has a restrictive (and costly) award flight cancellation policy.
2. Flying within Australia with Virgin Australia
| Value per mile: Around 2.6 cents per mile for Melbourne-Cairns |
The key Etihad Guest partner for Australia-based travellers is Virgin Australia. The best-value pricing can be found on a small selection of flights between 1,201 and 1,500 miles in length, as these will be slightly cheaper to book in Business Class with Etihad Guest miles rather than Velocity Points.
Routes that fall into this ‘sweet spot’ include:
- Perth to Adelaide
- Melbourne to Cairns
- Perth to Kununurra
- Sydney to Ayer’s Rock (Uluru)
- Brisbane to Ayer’s Rock (Uluru)
| Routes 1,201 to 1,500 miles long | Etihad Guest miles | Velocity Points |
| VA Business Class | 30,000 | 35,500 |
| VA Economy Class | 15,000 | 14,100-21,900 |
Melbourne to Cairns in Business Class (where available) is about A$860 one-way. Using Etihad Guest miles, you’ll end up with around 2.6 cents per mile of value for the same flight. You can find out how many Velocity Points you’ll need for a reward seat on the Velocity Frequent Flyer website.
Also read: How to use Velocity Points for Etihad flights
3. Flying within the USA with American Airlines or JetBlue
| Value per mile: Around 2.2 cents per mile for New York-Los Angeles |
For just 50,000 Etihad Guest miles, you can fly in Business Class on JetBlue or American Airlines between New York and Los Angeles. That’s not bad for a flight that’s usually just under 6 hours long. A one-way Business fare is around A$1,150, making your Etihad miles worth around 2.2 cents each.
| Distance Range | Economy | Business |
|---|---|---|
| 0 to 500 miles | 6,000 | 10,000 |
| 501 to 1,000 miles | 12,000 | 20,000 |
| 1,001 to 1,500 miles | 15,000 | 30,000 |
| 1,501 to 2,000 miles | 23,000 | 40,000 |
| 2,000 to 2,500 miles | 28,000 | 50,000 |
| 2,501 to 3,000 miles | 34,000 | 60,000 |
When using Etihad Guest miles for American Airlines or JetBlue flights, you can book directly on the Etihad website.
4. Flying between USA and Europe with Brussels Airlines, American Airlines or JetBlue
| Value per mile: Around 3 cents per mile for New York-London |
This Belgium-based Star Alliance member doesn’t fly to Australia, but Brussels Airlines offers a comfortable way to travel between Europe and North America. You can fly in Brussels Airlines Airbus A330 Business Class from Brussels to New York (JFK) or Washington DC. American Airlines and JetBlue also offer flights out of New York to London, Paris and more.
All of these routes firmly sit within the ‘3,001 to 4,000-mile’ zone with Etihad Guest miles, so you’ll need 45,000 miles in Economy or 80,000 miles in Business Class. Both airlines charge around A$5,000 for an equivalent return fare in Business, so that offers around 3 cents per mile of value in comparison.
To book Brussels Airlines flights using Etihad Guest miles, you must call the Etihad Guest call centre.
5. Using Etihad Guest miles for upgrades on Etihad flights
| Value per mile: Around 4 to 7.5 cents per mile for Sydney-Abu Dhabi |
You can use your Etihad Guest miles (or cash) to upgrade an Etihad-operated flight. However, you can’t use Etihad Guest miles to upgrade a flight on partner airlines, like Virgin Australia.
With Etihad Guest miles, you have two pathways to upgrade:
- Request in advance (subject to award/upgrade availability
- Instant upgrade at the airport (subject to last-minute seat availability)
Either way, you can check the upgrade costs on the Miles Calculator. It varies based on your original fare and the route.
For example, from Sydney to Abu Dhabi return, the price difference between Economy and Business is around $7,500 in total or $3,750 for each leg. The equivalent points cost to go from Economy to Business is:
- From Economy Value: 91,000 miles (about 4.12 cents per mile of value)
- From Economy Comfort: 68,000 miles (about 5.51 cents per mile of value)
- From Economy Deluxe: 50,000 miles (about 7.5 cents per mile of value)
Summing up
Etihad Guest miles aren’t the easiest to come by in Australia. However, if you do have access to them, they can offer easier access to reward seats on Etihad. Plus, you also gain access to some airlines that are not otherwise easy to book with points from Australia, such as JetBlue in the USA.
For most Australians, Etihad Guest miles are accumulated by transferring from bank rewards programs or Marriott Bonvoy. So, if you’re transferring to Etihad Guest with the intention of redeeming miles for partner airlines, you may want to compare the points required with other airline programs (for instance, Qantas Points on American Airlines flights), as they may be less.
But if you want to fly in premium cabins with Etihad, either by award seat bookings or upgrades from cash fares, then using Etihad Guest miles is the way to go.
Also read: The highest Etihad Guest miles-earning credit cards
Featured image: Fabian Joy, Unsplash. This article was originally written by Matt Moffitt and Victoria Kyriakopoulos.
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“Etihad has no branded credit card in Australia, instead partnering with American Express Membership Rewards for points transfers (with 1 Membership Reward point = 1 Etihad Guest Mile).”
Might pay to note that if you have booked your ticket through a travel agent, Etihad will not push upgrade you if reward seats become available (even if you have the points sitting there!). So unfortunately I now have 90,000 useless points after being told my ticket was eligible for upgrade and transferring across from my Amex…Also wondering if anyone knows why Australia doesn’t have access to Rewards cards (formerly PointsPay) to cash out points?
“We’re sorry
We regret that some flybuys member benefits with Etihad are not available.
Until further notice:
Linked members will be unable to redeem their flybuys points for Etihad Guest Miles
Members will not be able to earn flybuys points via the flybuys-Etihad booking portal
Members will be unable to link their flybuys and Etihad Guest memberships
Linked members will continue to earn 1 Etihad Guest Tier Mile for every $1 spent at Coles Supermarkets, Coles Online, Coles Express, Liquorland or First Choice Liquor, up to 2,500 Tier Miles per month
We’re sorry for the inconvenience to flybuys members.”
I hope this is not permanent…
There are currently no offers from Etihad Airways.
Has this partnership ended without any notice???
My daughter is booking a return flight to London and she is a member with Virgin and Flybuys. So she has linked her Virgin Account and Etihad Guest Account with her Flybuys. When she purchases her tickets today what what account does she use Etihad, Virgin or Flybuys to receive the best advantages.
Cheers
Kris
I assume she is looking to purchase an Etihad flight? It mostly depends where else she already has points. If she already is growing a Velocity balance, then check that the fare being bought will earn Velocity points and then credit to Velocity.
The only place flybuys come into it is if you choose to book via flybuys travel, then you can earn flybuys points from the purchase on top of Velocity points or Etihad Guest miles from the flight.
If you accrue to your Etihad Guest account you should be able to flash your Velocity Platinum card for lounge access, but make sure they don’t change it on the booking as well.
I wonder if the 25% off points & cash option also applies to partner redemptions like VA as you can with an Etihad Redemption as listed in the example above? Or is that option only for Etihad Award flights?
Yes you are right, I have used Etihad Guest Miles to redeem business class on Virgin Australia from Melbourne to Perth and it was much cheaper than Virgin Elevate points.
You can use Etihad Guest Miles to redeem other flights on Virgin Australia and the taxes are really reasonable.
Check the chart above to see what the sweat spots are, call the Etihad Guest Centre to make sure the route you want to fly is eligible and bear in mind that it takes 5 business days for the transfer to complete (with AMEX) and another 7 business days for Etihad to credit the bonus miles.
Etihad allows you to purchase up to 25% of the required miles for an award redemption at very favourable rates (the paid portion of the fare also earns points too). For example:
MEL-AUH First One Way
* Minimum miles 93,227 – Max Cash $690.63AUD
* Max Miles 124,763 – Min Cash $292.02AUD
Difference in Miles 31,536
Difference in Cash $398.61AUD
Notional value of points via purchase – 1.26 cents (to 2 d.p) per point
If you can tolerate the oft difficult path of partner redemptions via the Etihad Call Centre, there can be sweet spots (ANA table had some amazing redemption value, if you could get the ticket booked, and isn’t that bad now) but it is generally simpler to just book awards that can be redeemed online (and apart from the A380 flights, availability is typically decent – I tend to find the Etihad 777-300ER First Suite more ergomonically comfortable than the Etihad A380 First Apartment anyway).
“The table below indicates the miles required for a one way redemption ticket based on the distance traveled. Virgin Australia Long Haul awards are offered in Economy, Premium Economy and Business Class while Virgin Australia Domestic and International Short Haul are offered in Economy Class only.”