Award redemption with Etihad - good availability

[antycbr]

I recently made a reward redemption with Velocity Rewards for a flight to LHR in September on EY. I am a recent convert to DJ and have been learning the ropes of doing what I used to do on QF.

Making the booking was a bit challenging without online access to inventory - because you call the call centre, and have to ask for the International Team. This shortcuts things significantly, rather than asking a normal rep for the specifics. If no-one is available, they'll call you back within 24 hours (which they do, as a Gold certainly). I suspect this is because most of the staff only have access to Navitaire, rather than Amadeus which is used by VA for the rewards bookings.

Once you get someone on the phone, the process is fairly straightforward.

Some positives:

- any date I wanted (in Y) in Aug/Sep - thats right - ANY DATE. Having been used to Qantas "availability" this was a shock, to put it mildly.
- free stopover in Abu Dhabi
- tax totals that actually match the equivalent revenue booking
- reasonable fuel fines - taxes were $263 which is not too bad for LHR, QF equivalent (revenue ticket) tax is $473 direct without stopovers (QF1/2)
- 128,000 points as promised
- No charge for making the booking - assisted International QF bookings will be 6,000 points this year.

Some minuses
- Can't book the CBR-SYD legs on the same ticket, which will, I suspect, cause issues with interlining bags and transfers in Sydney (and will possibly cost additional $). I think this is because there is no award availability on the EY codeshares.
- The staff in the call centre are in KL or Philippines, make sure they spell out the names of the pax back to you (am in the process of sorting this minor mistake out)
- Having to check availability through the call centre is a hassle - but then the QF tool doesn't show availabilities across all partners either. You can book purely DJ/VA itineraries online though.
- Call centre staff are still learning the ropes - will be more interesting to try a redemption to somewhere obscure - this is where the QF reps have it sorted. I redeemed a QF award once CBR-MEL-LAX-LIM-CUZ-LIM-EZE-SCL-GIG-MAD-LHR-HKG-SYD-CBR - I think DJ staff might struggle with that.
- How about some award charts?
- Another idea - time for a RTW award?

- The Etihad award booked into N class (Economy).

I also like the unambiguous lounge policy for Gold passengers - All Etihad lounges including partner lounges are available. With Qantas club membership you have to be very careful about partner lounge access on BA if the lounge isnt operated by BA itself. I am looking forward to testing this out and will be taking a printout along with me!

 

[anat0l]

I also like the unambiguous lounge policy for Gold passengers - All Etihad lounges including partner lounges are available.

Do you have a reference to the relevant clause of this policy?

I can't tell if as a Velocity Gold with an Economy ticket do you get access to EY First or Business lounges (at locations where there are two of them)?

 

[antycbr]

Do you have a reference to the relevant clause of this policy?

I can't tell if as a Velocity Gold with an Economy ticket do you get access to EY First or Business lounges (at locations where there are two of them)?

Velocity - Gold Lounge Access

Etihad Airways locations globally

Complimentary access for you and a guest to Etihad Diamond First Class, Pearl Business Class and worldwide Partner Lounges.
Valid Velocity Gold Membership Card
Boarding pass for same day travel with Etihad or V Australia


I'm guessing that Economy, Business = Business Lounge; and First = First Lounge.

 

[anat0l]

Etihad Airways locations globally

Complimentary access for you and a guest to Etihad Diamond First Class, Pearl Business Class and worldwide Partner Lounges.
Valid Velocity Gold Membership Card
Boarding pass for same day travel with Etihad or V Australia


I'm guessing that Economy, Business = Business Lounge; and First = First Lounge.

Thanks. I did read that, but I'm just wondering why they mentioned the First Class lounges for the Gold access when you would need a First ticket to access it anyway (i.e. it wouldn't matter if you were a DJ Gold or not, you need a EY (or perhaps in the future, VA) F BP).

The only reason I could think that the F lounge was mentioned in the Gold access table is that you could, as a DJ Gold, access the EY F lounge even if you were travelling in Y or J. Now that would be really cool.