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Transfer Amex to Etihad with a 20% bonus until 4/4/24
Great News! For a limited time you can get a 20% bonus when you transfer Amex points to Etihad Guest. You may not be familiar with Etihad Guest, but there are some strategically great uses that can stretch your Amex points if you know where you to look. Etihad just changed their award chart to make it a bit more appealing to loyalists – let’s take a look!
One thing I want to point out – Etihad changed their cancellation policy – and it’s painful
- Cancel more than 21 days
- 25% of the miles redeemed
- Cancel 8 to 21 days
- 50% of the miles redeemed
- Cancel within 7 days
- 75% of the miles redeemed
. Refunds are permitted up to 24 hours before the flight departure. A refund fee of 75% will be charged on the ticket fare for the refund if you request to cancel within 7 days of departure date, for cancellations 8 days to 21 days before your departure you will be charged 50% and for cancellations more than 21 days before your departure you will only be charged 25% of the ticket fare for the refund. Applicable taxes and carrier charges/fees are excluded
For a limited time Transfer Amex to Etihad with a 20% Bonus
- 1000 Amex = 1200 Etihad Guest
- Runs until 4/4/24
Some great Etihad Sweets Spots
Ordinarily when you think of a mileage program, you probably look to fly the airline it’s attached to, and you can definitely use Etihad miles on Etihad. But, the best deals are actually on the partners of Etihad: American, Royal Air Maroc, Oman Air, Air Serbia, and Brussels Airlines
Using Etihad MIles on Etihad
Etihad has two of the best first class products in the sky – but the Etihad Apartment is just insane, and they release a lot more space to their own loyalists than they do to partners like American or Aeroplan. For instance, you can find award space for two people between JFK and Abu Dhabi for 200k via Etihad that doesn’t appear for partners. You can fly it starting April 22nd from JFK to AUH
- 200k Miles from AUH to JFK
- 167k with the transfer bonus
Using Etihad miles on American
You’ll need to find AA space bookable by partners, and call into Etihad to book, but these rates could be attractive within the US. Unfortunately, the days are gone where you could fly to Europe in first class for just 62.5k miles…it’s now all distance based.
You could fly from JFK to LHR for 80k miles… or 67k with the bonus. Not the best, but not terrible either.
Other great sweet spots
These are a little bit more niche redemptions, but worth noting uses of Etihad miles
Royal Air Maroc
JFK to Casablanca for 80k miles… 67k with this bonus.
Other Partners
It’s worth poking around the other Etihad partners. Etihad has changed the program quite a bit over the past couple of years, eliminating many of the sweet spots that once populated partner charts when they were constructed as city pairs or regions vs the pure mileage based charts they now have.
Recap
I didn’t even mention redemptions on Etihad itself, which can be useful; however, I find the redemption rates better when using Aeroplan vs Etihad itself ( both are Amex partners). This is a niche program that you really need to phone in to take advantage of and be prepared to do a bit of legwork to find the award space. If you manage it… it can be quite valuable.
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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