Etihad Airways will upgrade its daily Singapore-Abu Dhabi flight to an Airbus A380 in February 2025, opening up a new way for Aussies to redeem points for Etihad’s First Class Apartments.

Etihad currently flies a two-class Boeing 787-10 on the Singapore-Abu Dhabi route. This weekend, it’ll switch to a larger Boeing 777-300ER. The Airbus A380, which offers Economy, Business and First Class, will take over the route from 2 February 2025.

About Etihad’s Airbus A380

Etihad’s Airbus A380 has 417 Economy seats, spread out across the lower deck. On the upper deck, there are 70 lie-flat Etihad Business Studio seats.

There are 9 First Class Apartments. This is a hugely popular product as each private suite comes with a separate lounge, bed and a sliding door.

There’s also a private three-room suite at the front of First Class, which Etihad sells as “The Residence”.

At the front of the Business cabin is a small lounge and bar area called “The Lobby”.

Etihad only has 10 Airbus A380s in its fleet, and only six of those are currently active after being grounded during the COVID-19 pandemic. So, this aircraft is only available on a handful of routes.

A small number of three-cabin Boeing 787-9s are the only other Etihad Airways aircraft to offer First Class at the moment. Neither the A380s, nor the three-cabin 787s, fly to Australia (any more). So Singapore will become Etihad’s closest destination to Australia offering First Class.

Etihad First Class Lounge access

If booking from Singapore to Abu Dhabi, beware that Etihad sends its Business and First Class passengers in Singapore to the SATS Premier Lounge in Terminal 2. This is nothing special, and certainly no match for the First Class lounges offered by other airlines in Singapore.

When departing Abu Dhabi, though, Etihad First passengers get access to the excellent Etihad Airways First Class Lounge there. This lounge is also accessible to Velocity Platinum frequent flyers with Virgin Australia, when travelling on Etihad in any cabin.

Booking Etihad First Class using points

From February 2025, Etihad actually has quite a bit of reward seat availability in Economy, Business and First Class on the Singapore-Abu Dhabi route.

Etihad partners with airlines including Virgin Australia, Air Canada and American Airlines. In theory, this means you could redeem Virgin Australia Velocity points, Air Canada Aeroplan points or American AAdvantage miles for Etihad Business and First Class. However, Etihad no longer releases premium cabin reward seats to partner airlines until 30 days prior to departure.

If you wanted to use Velocity points to book a seat, it would cost 95,000 Velocity points (plus taxes & carrier charges) for a one-way Etihad First ticket from Singapore to Abu Dhabi. However, you’d only be able to book within a month of travel.

Note that this cost will increase to 104,500 Velocity points if you book after 21 January 2025, due to Velocity increasing its reward seat costs.

The same one-way Etihad First Class award from Singapore to Abu Dhabi would currently cost 50,000 AAdvantage miles or 80,000 Aeroplan points, plus taxes. Neither AAdvantage nor Aeroplan pass on carrier charges for Etihad redemptions.

Use Etihad Guest miles to book further ahead

If you don’t want to wait until 30 days before departure – by which time, all the reward seats might already be gone – you can use Etihad Guest miles to book a GuestSeat reward.

Etihad’s Singapore-Abu Dhabi flights are timed for good connections to and from Europe. You could use miles to book a reward seat all the way from Singapore to Paris, for example.

Etihad Guest is a transfer partner of Amex Membership Rewards. So, if you have Amex points, you can transfer these at a 2:1 rate to Etihad Guest as needed.

On which routes does Etihad offer First Class?

As I mentioned before, Etihad Airways only offers First Class on a small handful of routes.

At the time of writing, Etihad First Class is available for sale on routes between Abu Dhabi and the following destinations:

• London (A380 and Boeing 787-9)
• New York (A380 and Boeing 787-9)
• Paris (A380 and Boeing 787-9)
• Singapore (A380)
• Geneva (Boeing 787-9)
• Casablanca (Boeing 787-9)
• Mumbai (limited-time A380 flights)

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.