Etihad partners with Air Europa, opening up new SkyTeam opportunities

Etihad and Air Europa announced a new frequent flyer partnership yesterday.  

Whilst you might not know Air Europa, it is a Spanish-based airline which is part of the huge SkyTeam alliance, flying domestically and to Latin America and the Caribbean.  From the UK, it flies from London Gatwick to Madrid.

This opens up some interesting options.  Here are a few things you can now do as part of the new partnership:

Fly Etihad and credit the miles to Air Europa.  Looking at the relevant page of the Air Europa website, it appears that Etihad flights will earn ‘level’ miles which count for status.   The English translation here is not great and it is possible that only Etihad flights operated as Air Europa codeshares count for status, but that isn’t how I read it.  This means that you can potentially earn SkyTeam status by crediting your Etihad flights to Air Europa and not to Etihad Guest. 

Fly Air Europa and credit the miles to Etihad Guest.  This page of the Etihad website shows you what you will earn.  This is a sensible option if you don’t collect SkyTeam miles and end up doing the occasional Air Europa flight.  Note that booking classes  X, O, F, G, Z, N and A earn nothing in Etihad Guest.

Redeem Etihad Guest miles on Air Europa.  Given Air Europa’s niche route network this is only likely to make sense in a few scenarios but the option is at least there.

Credit your SkyTeam flights to Air Europa in order to get access to Etihad redemptions.  This is not necessarily a great idea – because it may be easier to earn status with other SkyTeam partners and you can’t top-up Air Europa miles easily as they have few partners – but the option is there.

It isn’t clear if Etihad Guest status card holders get any benefits when flying with Air Europa, or vice versa.

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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.