 Etihad Guest is updating its mileage expiration policy from 07/31/2020 where-in rather than expiring your miles after 3 years from the date they are earned to a more consumer friendly policy where as long as you have earn/redeem miles activity on your account the miles will be extended for 18 months!
Also in the current climate of COVID-19, Etihad is providing customer friendly change/re-booking policies which can be accessed from this special page. In addition Etihad Guest is currently running a promotion where you earn 1 Tier mile for every point transferred from partners such as Amex Membership Reward Points, Citi ThankYou Points and Capital One Miles into Etihad Guest miles. Etihad has few great options for redemption such as American Airlines domestic redemption. You can find the details redemption chart for American Airlines here. It also partners with slew of other airlines on some of which you can get great redemption values. All the redemption options can be found here. Here are terms of new expiration policy from Etihad which will be applicable from 07/31/2020:
Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website.
0 Comments
 Due to COVID-19 most airlines are in survival mode and coming up with various promotions to keep them afloat or to get the much needed cash infusion. Etihad Airways is running a promotion which started on 10th of June and valid till 24th of June where you would get 50% more in value when you purchase a travel voucher which could be used for booking any flights starting 1st August 2020.
You can purchase the travel voucher in any amount from $250 to $65,000 and it would be valid for 2 years from the date of purchase. One of the best thing is that you can use the voucher for booking flights for any friend or family and till the end of schedule from the date of booking which could be the last date of expiration of the voucher. You can also book your tickets online and see the voucher value while booking so you do not necessarily need to call. You will need Etihad Guest Account to have travel voucher deposited to the linked travel bank account. You would also earn miles and elite points on the actual ticket purchase. Do keep in mind that although highly unlikely Etihad can also go out of business and you would wind up holding "zilch" or $0 in value for the voucher. Also you cannot use the travel voucher for paying taxes and fees for the award ticket. Below are the terms and conditions of the voucher:
You will need to call the Etihad call center here to make the purchase and in the process they will create the travel bank account for you loaded with the travel voucher purchased. More information on travel bank can be found here. Etihad has vast network of flights and has highly rated Business Class and ranked in top 10 of the world's best business class seats in 2019. So, there could be quite number of opportunities where you can travel with Etihad using the voucher. Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website. While we all collect miles/points to travel better or make a great redemption during peak travel times, lot of times we are faced with expiring miles in program which we do not frequent often. While some airlines miles never expire (for e.g. Delta Airlines Skymiles), and some programs miles/points expire only when there is no activity on the account within 12/18/24/36 months, there are quite a few programs where miles expire within certain time frame with no option to extend them free of cost beyond their expiration date The good news is some of those programs which have hard expiration do provide alternative redemption options (although at poor value, but hey they are expiring anyways!!)). Let's look at some of these programs. Turkish Miles & Smiles: Turkish Airlines Miles expire 3 years after they are earned regardless of earning activity. The good news is that you can redeem your miles for Star Alliance Award ticket within a region for just 7500 miles one way. Alternatively if you have no plans on upcoming travel you could use the expiring miles for some shopping at Turkish shopandmiles website. While the value you will get for shopping will be terrible it is still better then expiring miles!! Etihad Guest Miles: Etihad Airways recently announced a change in policy for expiring miles but if you have miles expiring 12/31/2019 you better hurry up and use them as the new policy will not apply to those expiring miles. The good news is Etihad miles can be redeemed for Amazon gift card starting at just 800 miles for $5 USD. Alternatively you can also get a virtual visa reward card loaded with money to use at any of the U.S. online merchants with miles converted at $6.4 USD for every 1,000 miles redeemed. Lufthansa Miles & More: Lufthansa miles expire 36 months after they are earned (unless you are certain elite or have/use their credit card). The good news is they too have option to redeem the miles for gift cards although at a terrible value of ~$3.33 for every 1,000 miles redeemed. Also you need minimum of 3,000 miles in your account for gift card redemption. They do sometimes provide discount of 10% on the mileage cost for gift card redemption (by using promo code on redemption page, but you still need to have full miles available to add the redemption to the cart). Here is the link for gift card redemption. Above are some of the examples where you can get some value of those expiring miles. There are other programs not listed here, but you can look the redemption page for them and hopefully find something to use your expiring miles for.  Miles & More gift card redemption options Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website.
 Etihad Airways and Jet Airways are close partners for earning and redemption of miles on each other. One of the overlooked value is on the Indian domestic flights on Jet Airways. Although the domestic flights in India can be quite inexpensive, the last minute tickets can become expensive. In addition the cancellation fees for domestic fares in India are quite high (almost the entire fare is usually forfeited). Also if you plan to travel in premium cabin the prices can be quite high. Below is an example of Mumbai to Goa flight where you can see the ticket cost along with change and cancellation fees.  Mumbai to Goa fare where change/cancellation fee eats up the entire cost Interestingly Etihad Guest applies its own terms on changes and cancellation on Jet Airways flights. Below are few reasons why you should use Etihad Guest miles to book any flights which are expensive or which you might have to cancel.
As you can see from above there are lot of advantages on booking Indian domestic flights on Jet Airways using Etihad Guest miles. So, next time you are looking to travel within India and your plans are not fixed, remember to use Etihad Guest miles. Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website. Etihad miles have great value proposition for redeeming them on inspirational awards such as A380 First Apartments. Also there are great business class redemptions you can get on Czech Airlines and Brussels Airlines along with some Indian subcontinent domestic redemptions on Jet Airways. We talked about general details of the program a while ago which can be found here. Despite these great redemptions being there Etihad miles for lowest tier level member expires 2 years from the date they are earned regardless of any activity on the account. But the good part is you can still get reasonable value out of expiring miles if there are no travel trips where you can use those miles. Most of the airlines have reward shop where you can redeem your miles for variety of merchandise. Etihad Airways also have similar reward shop which can be accessed here. But rather then spending miles on any over priced merchandise you can redeem your miles for two items at a redemption rate from 0.6 cent/miles to 0.66 cent/mile. Below are the two options: Amazon gift cards: There are several denominations of gift card available starting from $5. Below are the links to few of those options:
Etihad Reward Card: Etihad reward card comes in two flavors. Physical visa card and Electronic or virtual visa card. The Physical card has a one time cost of 2955 miles (so not worth it in my opinion) whereas the Electronic or virtual visa card has no upfront cost. There is 0.99 cent load fee which is included in the mileage redemption cost. These reward card's have validity of 72 hours and any unused funds are converted back to Etihad miles. These cards are like any other visa e-gift card and can be used at any online merchants (I have personally used it at Amazon.com and to pay Energy bills). You can load these cards online at a redemption rate of ~0.66 cents/miles depending on how many miles you convert. The good news is you can load the reward card with $5 for just 880 Etihad miles. You need to provide the physical address and phone number the very first time you subscribe for the reward card and the verification can take 3 to 5 business days for processing. But once this processing is done the loading going forward is instantaneous. You can see below a snapshot of the interface where you can choose the amount to load.  The load interface for Etihad Virtual Visa gift card As you can see this is not one of the best of redemption rates, but if you have those expiring miles; getting them to use at any online merchant of choice at ~0.66 cent/mile value is a great redemption option. Here is the direct link to the reward card page.
Hopefully this will help avoid those left over or expiring miles from going to waste! Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website  Every mileage currency has some sweet spots and "Etihad guest miles" are no exception. Ideally folks would not want to collect the "Etihad guest miles" but knowing where the value lies you might be able to decide if it's worth having them for specific redemption. As of starter if you are based in USA you can transfer Citi ThankYou Points or SPG Points in "Etihad guest miles" program at 1:1 ratio. In fact as with other partner airlines transferring SPG points in 20,000 increment will fetch 25,000 miles so your ratio could be as good as 1:1.25.
The focus of the post is to list the Etihad guest airline partners and how to get value out of your Etihad guest miles. First of all let me list the airline partners for redemption: You can click "know more" on each of the partners on this link to see redemption details. Preferred Airline Partners:
Airline Partners:
As you can see that's a pretty long list. Also mind you each partner has their own redemption chart, so it might take you some time to wade through the redemption tables for each one of them, but in general below are the rules of award redemption for partner airlines (Mind you that these are general rules for all airlines and there might be additional rules specific to given airline partner): Award Redemption Rules (general):
How to book partner airline award redemption? Unfortunately you cannot do partner award redemption online. You need to call Etihad guest support on +1888 8 ETIHAD or 877 690 0767 and luckily they are open 24 hours. It would also be prudent to verify if the award you are looking for is available (usually saver level awards is what Etihad can book) by checking on the partners web site or paid tools like Expert Flyer or KVS. How many miles does Etihad charge? Most of the partner redemption chart are distance based (except few airlines including American Airlines). That means short distance flights which are otherwise expensive can give you best buck for your miles. That being said, below are few examples airlines, redemption on which could be a good value: Jet Airways Award redemption for International or Domestic Travel: You could book one-way from Colombo (CMB) in to Chennai (MAA) in Coach for just 3103 Etihad guest miles and with NO Colombo Sales City tax of ~$60. The same would cost 4500 British Avios with additional $60 if redeemed on SriLankan Airlines. Garuda Indonesia redemption for short distances: For e.g. you can book Bali (DPS) to Surabaya (SUB) flight for only 5000 Etihad guest miles. American Airlines for North America to South America (Zone 1): You can redeem 17.5k Etihad guest miles for travel from North America to South America (Zone 1) one way in coach. As you can see from some examples there are definitely some value to be had with Etihad partner redemption if you do not mind calling their redemption center. So, there are definite sweet spots that can be utilized using Etihad guest miles. Ever wondered, which airline flies which route and what are the flight options for the given city? Would that not be much easier if there was single source or page listing all the flights departing a airport? or showing flight details between two city pair?. Although no single website exists which could satisfy this needs there are several resources which could help you find that info. Below are some of the useful websites which can help you get that info, which would help you finalize that missing puzzle of your successful award or revenue travel. Flightconnections.com Currently in beta flightconnections will help you find what are the "destinations" served from the airport of your desire and if you key in source/destination pair the available airline/flight options between those two airport/city pair. Of-course you could click on one of those airlines and go to one of their "affiliate" booking web-page, but at least you get the info you need.  Sample flight routes from SFO-LAX on flightconnections.com OpenFlights.org Open Flights is like a wikipedia of flights. As it is open-source it is maintained by community of volunteers, and thus would have good info albeit some of the info might be wrong. The interesting part is you could view or list flights from a given "airport" or "city" and the data could be either seen as a map or read as a list. You can even sort the data as well as filter per the "airlines". As seen from below snapshots!  Sample search for departures from San Francisco Airport on openflights.org  All routes from SFO listed on openflights.org  Routes shortlisted to the one on American Airlines on openflights.org QuickTrip.com This tool would be useful if you know the source and destination as well as the dates of your travel and want to know all the available flight options. So, although limited compared to open flights or flightconnection it is still useful as it can quickly list all the options on various airlines as can be seen from below search.  QuickTrip.com flight options from SFO-LAX AirlineRouteMaps.com This website requires a little more info before spitting out the route-map but it is useful if you are looking for a route map by "region" or "airline". You could plug in your short-listing criteria and get set of route-maps which are available. You can see a simple search for American Airlines below yields links to various route maps by region as well detailed info on the "hubs".  Airline Route Maps for American Airlines various destinations Airline Route Mapper
Airline route mapper is another tool which was created by flyertalk member cockpitvisit. You need to download this tool but it does list a fairly comprehensive and updated route map. So, if you are one of those who do lot of search and do not mind installing this tool on your laptop/desktop then this is for you. Apart from above there is a route map (which might be a little limited in its usage but still useful) for One World Alliance routes which can be found here and Star Alliance routes which can be found here.  If you ever thought about getting the retroactive miles/points credit for any of your past trip, the first most important thing you need is the "boarding pass". Most of the time we do not care about keeping the boarding pass once we board the aircraft. But most often you could still get those miles for your air travel if you have your boarding pass. One of the best way is to take a "picture" of the boarding pass so that you still have proof of boarding the aircraft in case you need it at a later date. In fact sometimes the airlines miles/points might not post even though you might have entered your Frequent Flyer (FF) number. In such situations as well you might need to have the boarding pass from the trip to email/fax the customer support.
The other important aspect of air travel is to know what "fare bucket" your travel was booked into. For commoners all we know are the "classes" such as Economy, Business and First. But there are many fare buckets from which your ticket might originate and those determine how much "miles credit" you get for your trip. Fare bucket information is usually displayed on your itinerary right beside the the "class" information. This is important to know as it would "save you hassle" of contacting the airlines if you know before hand (by looking at airlines website) if your "fare bucket" earns any miles or not. So, once you have above two pieces of information and provided the airline you flew allows retroactive miles credit (which most airlines do), you can earn the miles for the trip you took in the past. Ideally airlines have partners or belong to alliance so you could potentially credit your miles to those partners or alliance airline provided you enter that airline Frequent Flyer number in your reservation (This could be done online or by calling the airline you are flying). But, when you do not enter this info before taking your flight and would be doing retroactive credit majority of airlines will only allow you to credit the miles to their "own frequent flyer program". Below is the information regarding the time frame you can get retroactive credit for your flights. Before you "contact the airlines", you would need to create the Frequent Flyer account in their program if you do not have one. I have listed only few airlines here, but you should be able to easily look up this information on the airlines website:
So the next time you travel, make sure you enter your Frequent Flyer number in your reservation record (can be done after booking your reservation) and always "keep your boarding pass" to ensure "airline mileage credit". |
AuthorI love traveling / backpacking. This blog focuses on below 3 aspects of travel: Archives
December 2020
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed
