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If you’ve following along the saga of our failed Indian Visas ( the biggest travel mistake of my life ) then you’ve known an Etihad Apartments review was coming. To those of you who haven’t been, here’s the low down. My fiancee and I were on a trip around Southeast Asia and got denied boarding of our flight to India. The long and short of why is this: we didn’t have a single leg of the 3 week trip booked until 2 days before our first flight, and in the chaos of it all, booked Singapore Suites to Delhi because I found space for us. In the fog of the it all, I’d only given the visa situation a quick goolge and saw it said Visa on Arrival. Big Mistake. It’s not, you need to get it processed online prior to departure and present a paperwork showing such processing, and we had nothing. In highsight, I think the Indian trip would have been quite hectic at the end of a trip that was already proving to be a bit tiresome, and as this video shows…not all mistakes have bad endings.
After running around Singapore in search of getting a visa quickly issued ( this included the Indian embassy and alternate processing centers ) we threw in the towel. Luckily, I have quite a bit of practice in award booking, and within roughly 60 minutes had found us alternate flights that I hoped would prove to be as fun and cool as Singapore Suites. What were they? Etihad First Class aboard the 777-300ER and Etihad Apartments aboard the A380. Both of these were booked using AA miles ( 90k ) and roughly $30. When the dust settled we found ourselves leaving within a couple hours of our original departure, flying in two incredible first class cabins, a night in Abu Dhabi, and 3 nights in Paris. As luck would have it, while we were waiting for our departure to AUH, I also landed us two first class tickets back from Paris on Lufthansa using 70k Aeroplan miles.
Here’s a look at our flight from Abu Dhabi to Paris aboard Etihad Apartments on the A380.
If you’d like to see our Etihad First Class flight on the 77W from Singapore to Abu Dhabi, you can do so here:
This wasn’t the first time I’d been in Etihad Apartments, although this was the first time it was booked for me. Both my parents flew in Etihad Apartments on my Mom’s Around the World trip in 2017.
I’ll have a full written review of Etihad Apartments posted soon and will update this post when it’s available!
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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