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Get a 50% bonus when you buy an Etihad gift voucher

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In an attempt to get you to choose it for your future bookings, Etihad has announced it is offering a 50% bonus when you buy a gift voucher.

This means that you would be getting a 33% discount on whatever flights you buy with it.

A 50% bonus is significantly more than the uplift we have seen on coronavirus refund vouchers offered by various airlines, which typically only offer a 10% bonus.  And, of course, those vouchers were not for open sale.  The Etihad vouchers can be bought by anyone.

The vouchers are on sale for a limited time only – between now and 24th June – and will be valid for two years. It will be implemented as ‘Travel Bank account’ credit on your Etihad Guest account. If you do not already have Etihad Guest membership you can sign up here.

The voucher can be used on flights, upgrades and other ancillaries from 1st August 2020.  They are available in increments of $250, up to a maximum $65,000.

Weirdly, you must call Etihad to purchase a travel voucher.  It is NOT available on the website.  This page has a list of phone numbers for various countries as well as the full terms and conditions.

What are the terms and conditions?

There are not very onerous.  Here is the FULL list of terms and conditions taken from the Etihad site:

  • Bonus credit applicable to all Etihad Travel Vouchers purchased between 10 – 24 June 2020
  • This offer can only be purchased through our Contact Center
  • You must be an Etihad Guest member to be eligible
  • Valid for a period of two years, for travel from 1 August 2020
  • Minimum voucher value US $250
  • Maximum voucher value US $65,000
  • Vouchers are non-refundable and non-transferable 

There are a couple of questions:

Do you have to book by 1 August 2022 or complete your travel by then?

Can the credit be used to pay the taxes on Etihad Guest redemptions?

Can the credit be used if you part pay for an Etihad Guest redemption with cash, which can be excellent value?

Edit: Etihad appears to have added answers to a lot of these questions on its new ‘Travel Bank’ page which you can see here.

Because the ability to use your ‘Travel Bank’ credit is apparently going to be baked in to the etihad.com payment system, I would guess that the answer to the last two points is ‘Yes’.

The good news is that, since the credit can be used online, it can be used against ‘web special’ fares.  We have seen cases in the past with other airlines where vouchers can only be redeemed by telephone and this means paying more for your ticket than you would pay online.

Is the Etihad Travel Voucher good value?

On the face of it, yes.  A 50% uplift is not something to be sniffed at and could provide exceptional value.

It is also very flexible, being less of a voucher and more of a credit on your account that you can use how you please.  This suggests it can be used over multiple purchases if required..

Since it works as an account credit, there are also no blackout dates or restrictions for use on specific booking classes. From the sounds of it, it is as flexible as cash, except that it can only be used on Etihad purchases.  The FAQ confirm that you can also use the credit to pay for flights for someone else, should you decide against travelling.

This means that a voucher could be seriously good value if there is an aggressive price war in the next 12-18 months.

The cynical take is that Etihad is using this as bait to raise prices in the medium term. However, given the small window of availability this is relatively unlikely. I imagine the vast majority of travellers will not be aware of this offer and will be booking flights in the coming months based on the cash price. Etihad will still have to compete for these customers and, since the voucher acts as credit, it cannot discriminate against those who have it.

The only word of warning is that, if Etihad went bust – which is unlikely given that it is under Government control – you would lose your money if your voucher was not redeeemed in time.  You would not be covered by your credit card as your purchase was for a gift voucher, which was provided to you, rather than a flight.

You can purchase an Etihad Travel Voucher, or find out more, here.

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 (49)

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

  • Peter K says:
    10 Jun10 June 14:08

    It’s effectively am unsecured loan with a high interest rate instead. The sooner you use it, the higher the effective interest rate. Could work for some.

    • jimA says:
      10 Jun10 June 20:34

      unsecured I get – but high interest rate ???

      • Matthew says:
        10 Jun10 June 21:26

        You get back a lot more than the (principal) amount that you loaned. The excess represents the interest.

    • Spk says:
      10 Jun10 June 22:45

      The interest rate is same. The implied rate gets higher, as time passes – tickets are cheap now and are going to get expensive next year when this will be actually useful.

  • Dominic says:
    10 Jun10 June 14:15

    This is very tempting; Etihad service from London is generally excellent. Their planes from Abu Dhabi to Asia are often crap, however.

    Had the pleasure of flying F/J/Y with them on the A380.

  • marcw says:
    10 Jun10 June 14:27

    Many questions…

    What’s the exchange rate they will use when redeeming the voucher?

    Can I use the voucher *if* there are other airlines in my itinerary? Let’s say I want to travel to Bali… the last segment is operated by Garuda. Can I use the voucher in this situation? Let’s be honest, Etihad’s network is not as impressive as it used to be. Neither its service.

    What happens if the $ continues to weaken vs GBP or EUR? I guess nothing happens, but the saving is just reduced.

    What happens if we ain’t allowed to travel, with non non-essential travel recommendation by the FOC. Today the German FOC just advised against non-essential travel outside the EU until the end of August. And this could carry on until god knows when.

    Finally, If you jump in, your money is ring-fenced. What if other airline launch better, more attractive, better timings,… sales? Then you are flying Etihad regardless… and at the end of the day… the promised 33% saving could be just 0-10%… or no saving at all.

    If you can, are allowed, and have plans to travel sooner than later, this could be an interesting option. Otherwise, I’ll give it a pass.

  • Rich says:
    10 Jun10 June 14:28

    You;’re committing yourself now to a 33% discount off an unknown price in the future. And don’t forget that you have to choose the value today, so hitting the exact amount, in order to get exactly 33% is impossible. You will probably end up having to top up with cash, or leave some unspent, which reduces your returns.

    If I were the sort of person who would expect to take a few trips within that two-year period, then I might bite. At least that way you can have a look at the competition in the future, and not be beholden to Etihad.

    • Secret Squirrel says:
      10 Jun10 June 19:14

      Or EY could run a very good sale and you will be feeling very smug using a discounted voucher on top!😊

      • Ali M says:
        11 Jun11 June 21:40

        out of interest secret squirrel – how much are you buying,
        Interested as you are quite savvy (along with Lady London) and would be good to know before I put my bets

  • ChrisA says:
    10 Jun10 June 15:44

    I bit. Very welcome news as I was about to have to book some flights in Y to Brisbane with them. Travelling for £400 or so softens the blow!
    Signing up for Eithad guest, calling the contact centre and vouchers arriving in my account all took less than 10 mins.

  • Dominic says:
    10 Jun10 June 16:00

    Just received an email from Etihad detailing this offer; guess it won’t be all that secretive!

    • Rhys says:
      10 Jun10 June 16:05

      Nobody said it was secretive!

      • Dominic says:
        10 Jun10 June 16:40

        I took “I imagine the vast majority of travellers will not be aware of this offer and will be booking flights in the coming months based on the cash price.” as it wouldn’t be publicised.

        And that, Rhys, is an example of me adding 2+2 and calculating 20! 🙂

        • Peter K says:
          10 Jun10 June 17:06

          I imagine the majority of travellers on airlines won’t already be members of their frequent flyer schemes.
          That’s just from my family and friends so may not be accurate.
          Also many people do not read emails sent out.

  • Sam Collins says:
    10 Jun10 June 16:38

    So, let’s just say I was just about to book 2 tickets to Bangkok. Etihad are basically £450, the cheapest give or take £10. I can simply do this, and then book immediately, but for £300?

    Surely there must be a timeframe stopping you using it immediately? Sadly I was looking at 02 July, and I do see you must fly after 01 August, but….

  • BJ says:
    10 Jun10 June 16:41

    “I imagine the vast majority of travellers will not be aware of this offer”
    Seriously…it’s 2020.

    • Rhys says:
      10 Jun10 June 16:49

      It’s 2020 and you’d be amazed at how many casual travellers aren’t registered in frequent flyer programs. I had to force my family to sign up to BAEC several years ago!

      • Speedbird676 says:
        10 Jun10 June 17:02

        Etihad have publicised it on their LinkedIn feed.

      • Peter K says:
        10 Jun10 June 17:09

        I’ve family that flew to Oz every year for about 6 years. They never joined a FF program until I basically did it for them on the 5th time. Even then they didn’t pay attention to it.

        • BJ says:
          10 Jun10 June 17:18

          I’ve lost count of the number of travel, finance, utilities, shopping, media etc accounts I’m running for family members. It has become a real drag but the fallout from stopping would probably be even less bearable.

          • Peter K says:
            10 Jun10 June 19:48

            I’d be up front with the accounts for family members. Say to them that your finding it a bit much at the moment and that you’ll pass them back to them at the end of the month to look after, or the end of next month.
            If they say they can’t cope with it or understand it, then say that they’ll understand then that you also can’t cope with it at the moment either, sorry.

          • BJ says:
            10 Jun10 June 21:24

            Thanks Peter, my parents are both in their 80s and unfortunately starting to show signs that might not be a good idea. Dad was quite ok with a lot until a year or two ago. My sister’s a bit helpless but I’m helping her to become more independent slowly but surely. My partner does the basics of maintaining accounts etc but refuses to fully engage with the loyalty game so if I didn’t do it we would miss out.

      • BJ says:
        10 Jun10 June 17:09

        I get that, I just think there is a good chance this one will make the weekend travel pages, the hot &cold place, and the Lewis site so people could know. Whether they bother is another story. I might have taken a punt on it were Etihad still at Edinburgh even though the were my worst ever travel experience and I don’t like travel via ME. Hopefully it might help shake out some other potentially good offers from other carriers.

      • Vit says:
        10 Jun10 June 21:18

        Agreed. I’ve known a friend who (pre-covid 19) travels 3-4 times a year long haul and she never keeps her miles until I mentioned to her about it early this year. hah.

    • Secret Squirrel says:
      10 Jun10 June 19:16

      With every EY loyalty member has been e-mailed the promo, its def not secret.

      • Rob says:
        10 Jun10 June 19:48

        EY isn’t BA though. I doubt a huge % of Etihad’s potential UK customer base is in the frequent flyer scheme.

        • BJ says:
          10 Jun10 June 21:13

          So are you guys doing anything proactively to make HFP more visible to such masses and pique their interest, or do you largely just leave it up to the more curious ones to find the site by themselves? All the problems with refunds, cancellations, travel policies etc must be driving a lot of new readers to HFP simply via google searches.

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