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Book a good Etihad fare to Australia for Christmas

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I’ve had a few emails recently asking about cheap cash flights to Australia over Christmas.   As this is a non-starter for Avios – and anyway is terrible value given the taxes – you need to look for good cash deals.

The fall-back is China Eastern out of Amsterdam.  Last year I checked this in early December and they were still selling seats for £1900 for Christmas and New Year travel.

Etihad Sydney fares

You can do better, in terms of price and quality of carrier.

Etihad has launched an excellent deal from Stockholm to Sydney, Melbourne or Perth for around SEK 20,000 (£1700).  Availability is excellent all year, including Christmas and New Year.

The one pain is that Etihad does not fly to Stockholm.  You are looking at three flights each way – Stockholm to somewhere in Europe on another airline, somewhere in Europe to Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi to Australia.

Here is a typical routing for SEK 20970 (£1770):

Out 8th December – Stockholm to Heathrow (SAS), Heathrow to Abu Dhabi (Etihad A380), Abu Dhabi to Sydney (Eithad A380)

Back 8th January – Sydney to Abu Dhabi (Etihad A380), Abu Dhabi to  Brussels (Etihad A330), Brussels to Stockholm (SAS)

Is this a messy routing?  Yes.  Is it EXCELLENT value for money for the peak Christmas and New Year period?  Yes.  Is the Etihad A380 Business Class seats very very nice?  Yes – here is my review of Etihad A380 Business.

Check out the special Etihad A380 page here showing the Business Class Studio too.

The best thing to do is have a  play with dates on the Etihad site here and see what routings come up.  You can credit the flights to Etihad Guest or American Airlines amongst others.  AA would give you the opportunity to redeeem on BA or another oneworld carrier.

If you don’t have a credit card with 0% foreign exchange fees, your best option for paying is American Express Preferred Rewards Gold which offers triple points – 3 per £1 – when you book flight tickets in a foreign currency.  This is because the transaction triggers the ‘double points for airline spend’ and the ‘double points for foreign spend’ bonuses.

In addition, if you are not already an Etihad Guest member, you can sign up here and receive 500 bonus miles.

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.

Category

Etihad and Etihad Guest

Comments (71)

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

  • Rick says:
    23 Apr23 April 05:12

    On using points: if I recall, another blog recently noted that Miles and More points can now be used to book Cathay out of Hong Kong to Australia and NZ with taxes at £50ish due to Hong Kong. So maybe cash single to HK, Cathay down under and back to HK, then BA redemption out of HK back to London might make good use of points?

    • John says:
      23 Apr23 April 06:35

      You have been able to burn M&M on CX (AKL, SYD, MEL, CNS only as they have an LH codeshare) for a year now, what’s new is that you can now do it online instead of calling. But you know you can also use Avios or Asia Miles on CX… Of course, Avios is bad value if you consider them equivalent to M&M at 1:1.

      The problem with your plan is the ‘cash single to HK’, unless you were thinking of doing it in Y with several stopovers in India/China.

      • Lumma says:
        23 Apr23 April 07:52

        AMS-HKG is low taxes and seems to have decent availability if someone wanted to try this

  • A270 says:
    23 Apr23 April 06:09

    I have the £50 off £250 Hilton offer on my Amex. Can it be used to buy points?

    • Jeff says:
      23 Apr23 April 06:14

      interesting, can you post the terms and conditions?

    • Tony says:
      23 Apr23 April 06:14

      I don’t believe so – think it credits as points.com on the statement. Note however I just did a points & cash booking as I was a bit short. That left me paying 0.3p per point, so even with the bonus in this instance I came out ahead.

    • John says:
      23 Apr23 April 06:36

      Only if the hotels on the list are selling points directly.

    • FlyUpTop says:
      23 Apr23 April 07:10

      @270 – I’m pretty sure it won’t post as the purchase is made via points.com and not Hilton direct, like your thinking though!

  • Bagoly says:
    23 Apr23 April 06:26

    While one can indeed use M&Ms for Cathay, one can use Avios too.
    Is there a difference in how they treat the Australia-HKG return leg?
    Does that leg benefit from the HK rule on no fuel surcharges?
    If so, the idea of using the HK rule for 3 of the 4 legs sounds neat, but leaves the challenge of finding a cash single to HK that does not cost almost as much as a return.

    • John says:
      23 Apr23 April 06:41

      Hong Kong does not have a ‘no fuel surcharge’ rule. The maximum fuel surcharge on airline tickets issued from Hong Kong is set by the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department. Currently, the maximum is HK$0, but with oil prices rising there is no guarantee that it won’t be raised at some point (though probably not in the medium term). A return ticket originating in HK is subject to the HKCAD fuel surcharge rules.

  • PalCsaky says:
    23 Apr23 April 06:48

    OT: I’d like to do an avios + cash booking for a flight operated by Cathay 6 months ahead but I’m put off by this statement in the T&Cs: “For bookings cancelled within 24 hours of outbound departure where the member has paid the taxes, fees and charges, these will be refunded to the original form of payment. For bookings made using Avios and Money the cash portion of the price will not be refunded. Avios will not be refunded.”
    My understaning was that avios and cash bookings are fully refundable up to 24 hours before departure with the cash portion used to purchase avios being fully refunded, the avios being fully refunded and the taxes being lost up to the value of £35. Does this only apply to BA operated flights and not to oneworld partners? Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you

    • Stu N says:
      23 Apr23 April 10:54

      Hi – as long as you cancel >24 hours out you’ll get the cash and Avios back. I have a Cathay redemption booking (HKG-Phuket one way) that was part paid with Avios – so effectively buying Avios for 0.83p.

      I was happy from my reading of T&Cs that I’d get a refund of cash and Avios if cancelled. I’ve just checked on the cancel booking screen on desktop site I will get a refund of most of the cash and all Avios – BA will keep £31 each which is “taxes and charges” element. Hope this helps.

  • Anna says:
    23 Apr23 April 07:11

    Re HH points – I’m a slow collector, spending around £500 pm on the Visa card and staying maybe 4 nights per year in the hotels. So while I collect regularly, I probably won’t use the points for a couple of years – will this have any effect on their expiry or is simply collecting enough to keep them live?

  • Alistair says:
    23 Apr23 April 07:37

    If you have a problem buying points, such as being charged three times instead of once, just use the Hilton live chat, explain the problem, and get this response: “Hi there! To buy points kindly click this link and follow the processl”…… Great. PS once you’ve used your cheap points at the Sheffield Hampton to gain Hilton Diamond, My Millennium will status match you straight to their top Elite tier and you try the Copthorne instead, including 2 suite upgrade vouchers

    • Alistair says:
      23 Apr23 April 10:08

      and you can match to Jurys Inn Rewards “floor 3 ” (top tier) but they only give it for 6 months so timing matters

      • FlyingChris says:
        23 Apr23 April 18:39

        Interesting. I matched to Jurys about 4/5 years ago and was happily surprised when I stayed recently and found I was still Floor 3!

      • Jane says:
        23 Apr23 April 22:57

        Or get into the spirit of this blog which generally is about spending a bit, frequently, and gettting a bit more. Rather than spend diddly squat and expect the world.

  • Lucinda says:
    23 Apr23 April 08:32

    OT
    AMEX upgrade and Companion Credit card links-Getting the points.

    I have churned AMEX a lot but never done the upgrade route or the Companion Credit card.

    Just tried this with the Companion card and had to fight to get the 5000 bonus points as the “Chat” said I was not eligible as I was not targetted (just used the link others had posted here).

    Solution:-
    I rang the CS and he credited them immediately.

    HOWEVER
    I asked about upgrading to PLAT and he said I would NOT get the bonus even if I used the link!!

    BUT
    The OH has just upgraded from Gold to plat using the link (not tergetted0 and she got the points no problem!!

    Sp before I plunge into the Plat upgrade:-

    What’s the official AMEX line here and what have others experienced.

    Thank

    • Lev441 says:
      23 Apr23 April 08:48

      You do get the points as your OH did using the upgrade link

      • LB says:
        23 Apr23 April 09:20

        OT but relating to the Platinum upgrade…I’ve just (yesterday) upgraded to Platinum from Gold. My account has been updated showing the Platinum card so can I now continue to use the Gold card until my Platinum arrives in the post? Will the expenditure on the Gold accrue on my Platinum account? Thanks for any advice.

    • Polly says:
      23 Apr23 April 09:26

      Yes Lev correct. Best not to ask too many even basic! ? To amex cs. The info on this site is way more accurate. Just ask the ? Like you did. Enjoy the points and the 241. Keep referring each other too.

    • soloflyer1977 says:
      23 Apr23 April 09:38

      I’ve had similar experience as Lucinda. Their chat service appears to be staffed from India and it’s just impossible to get a resolution. Going forward, I will just telephone the lovely staff in Brighton.

      • Polly says:
        23 Apr23 April 10:02

        Hate to say it but Brighton can be just as bad, sadly, but marginally better at giving points for agro!

        • xcalx says:
          23 Apr23 April 18:24

          I had nothing but aggro from Brighton CS over the Small Shops promo last December. I complained to Amex but they backed up the agent who had told me only 1 credit per shop for the card holder only and no credits for supplementary cards, I even got a letter from Amex stating I was only allowed to claim 1 card credit per shop.
          I have plat and 6 Supplementary cards. they even had the cheek to say that at the shops where I did get the credit for all cards that it was a mistake and as a gesture of good will they would let the credits stand.

    • jason says:
      23 Apr23 April 12:11

      What’s is the link to upgrade from Gold to Plat? and what bonus can I get?

    • Ben E says:
      23 Apr23 April 15:29

      hey how did you get the companion CC? I rang up to do it 10 days ago and nothing back apart from a dodgy looking email (not normal amex address) saying “We appreciate your interest in a American Express account. To proceed with your recent request, please contact our New Accounts Department on 0800 032 7404 on option 2”

  • Jude says:
    23 Apr23 April 09:53

    Any other tips on cheap fares to Australia. We are a family of 4 looking to go next summer and wondering what the cheapest way will be. Ideally would live to fly in to Adelaide as that is where the relatives live

    • Rob says:
      23 Apr23 April 10:05

      Qatar Airways has business class deals out of Europe for around £1600 now and then. We tend to cover them when they come up. Often involves a routing like Brussels – Doha – Australia. Best thing about doing it with Qatar is that you are 90% of the way to a BA Exec Club Silver card when you get back and earn a ton of Avios too.

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