Etihad sale deals: £1500 to Oz ex-Istanbul, £1900 to Oz ex-Dublin and £1200 to Middle East ex-UK

I dropped in an extra article yesterday covering the Etihad sale.  I am partly repeating myself now for the benefit of our 7,000+ email readers although this article also contains some new information.

Deal No 1

If you are planning on heading to Australasia anytime soon, there is a stunning business class fare available from Istanbul to Sydney, Perth or Melbourne.  This is a two day ‘flash sale’ fare which only runs until TONIGHT, 29th August.

Istanbul to Sydney or Melbourne is pricing at £1,512 ($1,987) return.

These prices are available until mid 2017 although you might find peak weeks unavailable.

The best bit is that, if you pick the right flights, you will get a Boeing 787 connecting to an Airbus A380.  These have the best Etihad in-flight product.  I reviewed the A380 Business Class Suite here – it is probably the best business class product on the market.

There is also a dedicated Etihad A380 website here.

You can book via the Etihad site here.

Deal No 2

If you don’t fancy a trip to Istanbul, there is also an excellent sale fare to Sydney, Perth and Melbourne out of Dublin.

The list of Dublin sale deals is here.

Melbourne and Sydney are €2,320 (£1,977) return in Business Class.  You don’t need to book this fare today as the offer runs until 5th September.

You can travel until the end of June 2017 with the following exceptions:

Outbound:  11 December 2016 – 8 January 2017 and 6 April – 23 April 2017
Inbound:  2 January – 11 January 2017 and 17 April – 21 April 2017

The other stand-out deal from Dublin seems to be €1,485 to Hong Kong.

Deal No 3

Flying from Edinburgh, London Heathrow or Manchester, the sale deals are less impressive – you can see the list of deals here.

What did impressive me was £1,200 to the Middle East.  This fare is available for Manchester, Edinburgh or London for dates until June 2017.

Frankly, if you can get a cash ticket on an A380 in the amazing Business Class Studio (and all Heathrow flights will be A380 from November) then it makes little sense to redeem Avios to the Middle East with £500 of fuel surcharges and the smaller Club World seat.  Using a 2-4-1 voucher would be the only valid excuse!

Apart from the Middle East, none of the other prices from the UK are a no-brainer although it is worth having a play around at etihad.com based on your travel plans for the next 9 months.

Where to credit?

In terms of mileage, you could credit the flight to Etihad Guest or any of their partners.  Crediting to airberlin, for example, may be enough to get you oneworld status which would give you BA privileges.  You can also credit Etihad flights to American Airlines.  In both cases, you could redeem the miles on British Airways if you wanted.

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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:

• American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 20,000 Etihad Guest miles. This card is FREE for your first year and also comes with four free airport lounge passes.

• The Platinum Card from American Express (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 40,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 40,000 Etihad Guest miles.

• American Express Rewards credit card (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 10,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 10,000 Etihad Guest miles. This card is FREE for life.

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.