Why Etihad’s ‘Win 5 Million Miles’ challenge is going to be a mess

Weird things are happening at Etihad Guest. For an airline which is easily the weakest of the Middle East ‘Big Three’, taking an axe to its loyalty programme was a bizarre move.

Yet, during 2024:

• it made a VERY negative change to mileage expiry rules, requiring you to take a flight every 18 months or see your miles wiped
• it stopped the free cancellation of redemption tickets, with a minimum penalty of 25% of your miles and a maximum of 75%
• it stopped lounge access for elite members, even if you are Platinum, unless it is selected as a ‘choice benefit’

You may wonder what the three points above have to do with the ‘Win 5 Million Miles’ challenge which has just launched (website here).

The answer is that both give me the impression that the Etihad Guest team are asleep at the wheel.

What is the ‘Win 5 Million Miles’ challenge?

Before I explain why I think this promotion is faulty (although you should be able to work it out for yourself), let me explain how it works.

Etihad recently unveiled 15 new routes for 2025: Algiers, Atlanta, Chiang Mai, Hanoi, Hong Kong, Krabi, Medan, Peshawar, Phnom Penh, Taipei, Tunis, Addis Ababa, Sochi, Prague and Warsaw.

The first person to fly to or from ALL 15 cities will earn 5 million Etihad Guest miles. The second person to visit all 15 will receive 3 million Etihad Guest miles. The third person will receive 1 million Etihad Guest miles.

Etihad is planning to run this competition for a year. The closing date is 25th May 2026. Crazily, given the huge response to the SAS Million Mile Challenge, it doesn’t seem convinced that anyone will complete all 15 within a year – the rules say that, if no-one makes it, they will base it on the first to 10 routes.

But is it actually ‘the first’ who wins?

Weirdly, it’s not actually clear how you win.

The website says:

Be the first to visit our 15 new destinations and win 5,000,000 Etihad Guest Miles

The email sent to members was headed:

Be the first to fly to all 15 destinations. Win big!

The press release sent to the media said:

The first to complete the 15 destinations will win 5,000,000 Etihad Guest miles, the largest prize in the programme history.

Sounds simple enough, yes? The first person to hit all 15 destinations wins. Or do they?

Except the small print says:

The winners are decided based on how quickly they reach the 15 new destinations. 

And the rules say the winner is the person who will:

Fly to or from all the specified 15 destinations in the shortest cumulative time

…. which could mean anything.

Remember that Etihad miles can be turned into cash

Etihad Guest lets you turn your miles into real cash. Not vouchers, real cash, via a Virtual Visa Card loaded onto your phone. 1 mile = roughly 0.5p. The details are here.

This means that the first person to visit these 15 cities gets miles which can be turned into £25,000.

The second person gets the equivalent of £15,000. The third gets £5,000. It’s quite an incentive.

If all 15 routes were operating, this would already be over

If Etihad had already launched all 15 of these routes, the competition would already be over bar the shouting.

You don’t even need to take 15 return flights. You only need to fly to OR from each city. Open jaws are fine. You can, for example, fly Abu Dhabi to Chiang Mai and back from Krabi to Abu Dhabi, ticking off two of the 15 in one go.

A few hardcore flyers with nothing else on their hands at the moment would be shuttling to and from Abu Dhabi via back to back open-jaw flights.

The only thing that stops this competition being over in two weeks and not 12 months is that the route launches are being staggered.

The launch dates are:

• Addis Ababa – 1st October
• Algiers – 7th November
• Atlanta – 2nd July
• Chiang Mai – 3rd November
• Hanoi – 3rd November
• Hong Kong – 3rd November
• Krabi – 9th October
• Medan – 2nd October
• Peshawar – 29th September
• Phnom Penh – 3rd October
• Prague – 2nd June
• Sochi – 29th May
• Taipei – 7th September
• Tunis – 1st November
• Warsaw – 3rd June

The contest will almost certainly end on 7th November when the first flight to Algiers will be filled with people fighting for the £25,000 / five million miles prize. This is assuming that the ‘first’ person to do all 15 actually wins.

And who included Sochi?

Does anyone at Etihad Guest really think that including Sochi was a good idea?

I don’t know anyone who has tried to visit Russia recently but its not something I’d be rushing to attempt.

Peshawar could also be a sticky one, although the political situation in Pakistan could have improved by September when flights launch.

How should Etihad Guest have done this?

In theory, Etihad could have run a good promotion here.

This is what I would have done:

• make the prize pot 10 million miles

• give the first person to complete the challenge 2 million miles

• share the remaining 8 million miles between everyone who completes the challenge between now and May 2026

• only require people to visit 13 of the 15 new destinations to allow for Sochi and Peshawar to be missed

As it stands, I think Etihad Guest has opened itself up to a bit of a mess.

You can learn more about the ‘Win 5 Million Miles’ challenge on the Etihad website here.