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Transfer Amex to Etihad with a 20% bonus – hello apartments!

a seat in an airplane

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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

a screenshot of a phone

 

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

a seat in an airplane

a screenshot of a website

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.

a screenshot of a computer

You could fly from JFK to LHR for 80k miles… or 67k with the bonus. Not the best, but not terrible either.

a man wearing a face mask on an airplane

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.

a row of seats in a plane

a screenshot of a computer

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.

a screenshot of a computer

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.

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Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards

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  • 2x on all other travel
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    • The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
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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.

The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

11 Comments

  • JAE PARK March 8, 2024

    Apply for an American Express Card with this link. With your new Card, you could earn a welcome bonus and your friend could earn a referral bonus. Terms Apply.
    https://americanexpress.com/en-us/referral/JAEPIuE1?XLINK=MYCP
    * Don’t forget to open the links in incognito. I was able to get 150k points on the Amex Platinum Card! *

  • Christian March 6, 2024

    Want 150k points to transfer?? Platinum currently has a crazy signup offer!

    https://americanexpress.com/en-us/referral/CHRISE5YkG?XLINK=MYCP

    Open in incognito window for the best offer

    Thanks!

  • Kenny March 4, 2024

    American Express Gold: https://americanexpress.com/en-us/referral/KENNYBi3t6?XLINK=MYCP
    The Gold card is currently offering a 60,000 sign up bonus after $6,000 spent in 6 months.
    I find the gold card to be most useful for food purchases, earning 4x points at restaurants and grocery stores. You can recover almost all of the annual fee for the gold card $240 of the $250 if you take advantage of the monthly credits from food delivery and Uber. I like to accumulate additional Amex points by using shopping portals like Rakuten.

  • Dave July 5, 2022

    How are the taxes and surcharges on these American business class redemptions to/from Europe?

    • Miles July 6, 2022

      Shouldn’t be too much different than AA

  • Peter July 4, 2022

    Thanks! Noticed a few weeks ago Royal Air Maroc saver availability US to CMN is about nil for these Etihad 44k redemptions (but reasonably available for 57.5k AA miles; go figure).

    Appears to be a targeted offer. I don’t see this Etihad 20% transfer bonus on my account but do see it on my wife’s account.

    • Miles July 6, 2022

      Hmmmmm did you phone Etihad to book and they said they didn’t have access? Good to know on the targeted element!

      • Peter July 6, 2022

        Yes. Called Etihad and they found no availability for same flight AA showed. Expert Flyer also showed zero availability. Didn’t book AA (so don’t know if it’s real or ghost availability). This was about two weeks ago.

  • Sho'nuff July 4, 2022

    “One easy way to check if an AA flight is bookable by Etihad is if it’s bookable on the British Airways site:”
    How? Are you looking for award space on AA through the BA site or just a flight by AA on BA site and it can be a regular cash flight as all you’re doing is seeing if AA is flying where you want to go?

    “call into Etihad to book”
    Is there a specific # to call?

    • Miles July 6, 2022

      I check on the AA site – if you see a leg that is 57.5k long haul, you’d cross reference it on the BA site to make sure partners have access. Not every ticket on AA is “ticketable” by a partner and BA is an easy way to see if it is. Once you see it is available, you can call into Etihad Guest Miles to book – a simple google will yield a list of numbers to call depending on where you are in the world. Etihad should have access to the same space BA does, but sometimes it’s not, so always call prior to moving points. Once you confirm it is, i’d keep the rep on the phone while you move points over to book

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