Get a 30% bonus on points transfers into Etihad Guest
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Etihad Guest has launched another of its occasional transfer bonuses from HSBC Premier credit cards and various hotel programmes.
Details are on the Etihad website here.
This one is poorer than others we have seen in the last year or so:
- earn 0 – 10,000 miles and get 15% bonus miles
- earn 10,001 – 50,000 miles and get 25% bonus miles
- earn 50,001 miles and above and get 30% bonus miles
The participating programmes relevant to a UK reader are:
- HSBC Premier credit cards
- Radisson Rewards
- World of Hyatt
- Hilton Honors
- Accor Live Limitless
- Shangri-La Circle
The hotel bonuses are not worth it, in my view. This HfP article from last year explains why they were a bad deal with a 40% bonus, and a 25%-30% bonus is even worse.
Transfers from HSBC Premier are better value
As we explained in this article on the best ways to use HSBC Premier credit card points, airline miles are your best option.
You will get 0.5 airline miles per HSBC point, which we’d value at 0.5p. The hotel point options (0.2p into IHG One Rewards) and the option to take shopping vouchers or wine (0.33p per HSBC point) are far worse.
A 30% bonus on transfers to Etihad Guest would get you 0.65p per HSBC point instead of 0.5p. This is on the basis that you should get 1p per Etihad Guest mile if you redeem them in a premium cabin.
Your ‘return on card spend’ on this basis would be 0.65% on the free HSBC Premier credit card and 1.3% on the £195 HSBC Premier World Elite card. You can’t argue with that, but you need to be transferring at least 100,000 HSBC Premier points to qualify for the full 30% bonus.
The real question is what you can get for those Etihad Guest miles. There are lots of options with partner airlines (Oman Air, Air Canada, American Airlines amongst others) although Etihad Guest has recently pushed up the price of many partner redemptions.
The most obvious redemption – Heathrow to Abu Dhabi in Business Class – is 140,000 miles return plus around £700, compared to 100,000 to 120,000 Avios on British Airways to Dubai using the mid-point pricing.
The T&C for the HSBC offer are on this page of the Etihad website.
Details of all of the UK options for earning Etihad Guest miles from credit cards can be found in this article.
The transfer bonus runs to 30th April.
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.
