Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Get 30% off Etihad flights in all classes AND triple or quadruple miles

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

There is a lot going on with Etihad and Etihad Guest at the moment.  Regular readers will already know about:

25,000 miles for taking out the FREE Etihad Guest UK credit card, and

25% bonus on transfers of American Express Membership Rewards points, HSBC Premier credit card points, hotel points and Heathrow Rewards points into Etihad Guest

My review of the Etihad A380 Business Class Studio shows what a fantastic product it now has – and Heathrow will be 100% A380 by August.  The icing on the cake of their redemption offers is that you only need to have 75% of the required miles for a reward – you can buy the rest at under 0.6p per mile (read more here).

Etihad 350

If you need more miles, Etihad is running two great deals at the moment on flights which should combine.

Save 30% on Etihad cash tickets in all classes

Etihad is running two offers to stimulate travel on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  The deal is simple – fly on a Tuesday or Wednesday and you will save 30% on your ticket price.

The small print of this deal is not known although it still works fine at the time of writing for departures into the Summer.  If you are flying on a Tuesday you must use code flytues11 at etihad.com.  For Wednesday departures, use code flywed01.

You can get some pretty low economy prices using this code (sub £400 to much of Asia) – it even works on The Residence private apartment on the A380 if you want to try that.

Earn triple or quadruple Etihad Guest miles

The second deal, which should combine with the one above (although – be aware – Etihad reps are saying that it won’t), is a VERY generous bonus miles deal.

Economy tickets earn TRIPLE Etihad Guest miles

Business and First Class tickets earn QUADRUPLE Etihad Guest miles

You could generate some very serious amounts of miles indeed if you can move some upcoming business travel to Etihad.  At the most extreme, London to Sydney in Business Class would generate 114,000 miles – and that is before any status bonus kicked in.  That is enough for a First Class return ticket between London and Abu Dhabi.

Make a careful note of the small print:

You must book by June 4th

You must fly by 29 February 2016

Blackout dates are 15 July to 15 August and 15 Dec 2015 to 15 Jan 2016

You MUST register in advance via this page

The main Etihad website is here but for registration use the link above.

As I mentioned, there are reports of Etihad telling people that the 30% discount will not trigger the quadruple or triple miles.  I don’t believe this, unless the tickets are somehow booking into a separate ticket bucket, but you should bear it in mind.


How to earn Etihad Guest miles from UK credit cards

How to earn Etihad Guest miles from UK credit cards (April 2024)

Etihad Guest does not have a UK credit card.  However, you can earn Etihad Guest miles by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.

Cards earning Membership Rewards points include:

Membership Rewards points convert at 1:1 into Etihad Guest miles which is an attractive rate.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, which converts to 1 Etihad Guest mile. The Gold card earns double points (2 per £1) on all flights you charge to it.

Comments (45)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • James says:

    Etihad guest seems like a decent alternative to avios for those heading east. I wonder if there are any good ex eu fares to be had?

    • Phillip says:

      Etihad Guest is fantastic, just remember that the miles do have an expiry date – 2 years for basic Guest members and no activity can reset them. So make sure you set your collection targets and redemption goals!

      They have good redemptions on American which classes Hawaii as part of the general USA, so only 100k miles needed for a return from the UK in Business. They also have a really good distance based award chart for South African Airlines, which can save a lot of money on domestic flights, and is one of very few schemes that allow you to redeem on Oman Air.

      • littlefish says:

        Is there any way else to keep the miles beyond 2 years? The Credit Card (a la M&M), status?
        I very briefly had a go with Etihad 7 or 8 years back; they sound a better outfit these days.

        • Phillip says:

          Unfortunately, as it stands, no. If you become Silver or Gold the expiry is extended to 2.5 and 3 years respectively.

      • Phillip says:

        Yes. This is specified in the Terms and Conditions:

        “Stopovers are permitted. American Airlines will not provide hotel accommodation for the transit period.”

        One date change is also allowed free of charge, subject to reward seat availability.

  • sandgrounder says:

    Remember AA offer 100% miles flown on Etihad, even for discount economy. Check your fare class of ccourse, buy this would be my preference if paying to fly in the back with EY.

    • James67 says:

      Very good point. I missed that despite being AA member. However, I will still try my luck with triple EG miles mainly because it will mean instant silver having just taken out credit card.Benefits of status at Etihad seem not that great though from what I’ve read.

      • sandgrounder says:

        If combining with the credit card this is a great way to earn a decent chunk of miles quickly.

  • James67 says:

    My £316 (£406 breaking deal – £90 flytues11 discount) has booked into E class which supposedly attracts 50% miles. So, if it does work over 20k miles return. For those wondering why I am doing economy it is because I want to experiment with the various forms of upgrades to determine whether I can do a UK-Asia return in J for under £1000 including cost of original flight. I think it might have been easier from SGN, HKT or KUL but decided to try BKK as it is most useful to me.

    • Monty says:

      How did you find the fare class before booking?

      The offer seems only valid for departures before/on 30 September 2015 but the return can be anytime on any day after that.

      • James67 says:

        If you check fare rules I believe it is the first letter of the fare base code but don’t quote me on that, I’m not 100% sure.

        • Phillip says:

          With very few exceptions, it generally is the case.

          • Monty says:

            If that was the case most of the breaking deals would book in T but checking ITA Matrix and Expedia suggest it is E?

          • Phillip says:

            Expedia is notorious for selling IT fares (fares that can only be booked as packages with ground products) as flight only, and could therefore still be using E as the booking class. Also, don’t be surprised if EY uses a completely different fare bucket for their promos. That said, there are cases where the first letter of the fare basis is not necessarily the same as the booking class. This usually happens when the airline wants to dictate stricter terms on a fare, and therefore separates the conditions within the same class by using a different basis. These are usually restricted chronologically.

    • Polly says:

      Look forward to your results then! We are just finalising our Kaligo hotel bookings today, so looking forward to our trips. I too agree with trying to find tkts sub1k as any much more defeats the purpose.

  • CV says:

    For those who status matched to Air Berlin (Gold) there are status benefits with Etihad. Anyone able to explain how Air Berlin status works on a ticket booked with Etihad (and wanting to earn Etihad points)?

  • James67 says:

    Do any of our regular Etihad flyers have any idea what the going rate is for an auction upgrade between MAN or DUB and AUH? Also, can it be cheaper at the airport, and best to enquire at ticket counter, check in or gate? Thanks.

    • Phillip says:

      Have you tried the offer strength indicator? I imagine that the lucky number will usually be driven by the remaining availability in Business or First.

    • Phillip says:

      One thing to keep in mind with airport upgrades, if lounge access is important to you:

      “Chauffeur services and lounge access are not available when upgrading from Economy Class to Business Class.”

      Even if you pay cash for an upgrade, “Etihad Guest Miles are accrued as per the original cabin booked.”

      • James67 says:

        Thanks Phillip I didn’t think I could check that until I got an email inviting bids. I have priority pass and not fussed about car so not an issue.

  • Jon says:

    Wow. The residence is £10k each way. With discount.

  • JJ says:

    A couple articles recently have stated LHR is going all A380 from August, this is only temporary to fill the gap between deliveries, once they have enough frames to launch New York (December) the schedule goes back to 2 x A388 and 1 77W daily.

    • Rob says:

      Thanks.

      • Phillip says:

        It is expected to eventually go back to an all A380 service to London by the time they take most of the A380 deliveries, but I believe the earliest this might revert to an all A380 for LHR is end of 2016.

  • Sebastian says:

    Rob, with the avios devaluation and all these Etihad deals, maybe you should do a full review of the programme breaking down all its best deals like Abu Dhabi and Hawaii?

    • Rob says:

      Not a bad idea.

      • Sebastian says:

        Do it!

        • Modern Day Sinbad says:

          +1

          I got Etihad Gold as a match to Aegean Gold and trying to make the most of the status and collection opportunities. Really keen on the 100k redemption to Hawaii.

    • Oscarthegrouch says:

      Terrible idea. Move on to another airline and stop gushing about etihad. :o/

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.