Etihad Guest to "simplify" award charts. Devaluation likely

[Mattg]

The good news is that Etihad will have a much more logical, region-based award chart that covers all airlines. Virgin Australia (and American Airlines) awards will also finally be bookable online.

The bad news is that we don't know how much the new award prices will be. As they are currently very good value (at least for redemptions on VA), I don't imagine they are going to get any cheaper...

If you have Etihad Guest miles and want to book a VA flight, I'd do so before 7 March 2023!

Etihad Guest System Upgrade & Select Partner Awards Soon Available Online + Simplified Redemption Zones

Due to a system upgrade, most Etihad contact center options will be down for two days, March 8 - 9, 2023. Also, a new award chart and select partner awards will be available online.

loyaltylobby.com

 

[trippin_the_rift]

It's all ex-TAP folks running Etihad now.

Don't expect things to get better....

 

[Mattg]

It's all ex-TAP folks running Etihad now.

Don't expect things to get better....

If the TAP Miles&Go program is anything to go by that is NOT good news!

I'll have to start thinking about how to use my stash of EY miles within the next few weeks...

 

[Coops1]

What’s worse, it takes away another great use of AMEX warehoused points Will have to book a HBA-BNE J flight at the cheap rates Before 7 Mar

 

[Scarlett]

Booked a token HBA-MEL on VA last night to leave only a few thousand EY miles in my account. Were good redemptions available but like the speculation above, don’t think that will last the changes in the next few days.

I’ve never relished the 30+ minute calls to make a simple booking through EY guest contact centre. The agents are always pleasant and there’s never been a hold in my experience, but the process is always slow. Hopefully the online access to VA awards will be one benefit of the change.

 

[Thibault]

https://www.etihadguest.com/en/spend-miles/new-redemption-tables.html

It's not as bad as I was expecting...

VA awards are now a bit costlier for anything above 500 miles compared to the token 6900 miles in Y.
Need to check through the usual others routes I fly with VA.

 

[Www]

Cheers for posting. Not totally disastrous. But minimal sweet spots now for virgin Australia. The way I read it, best deal seems to be less than 500 mile trip business class (10k Etihad Guest v 15.5k Velocity) - e.g. SYD-BNE, SYD-MEL, etc.
Otherwise there are a few marginally better than using velocity points, but nothing exciting that I can see
(Areas seem to be all around the top of the range in business class on shorter flights - up to 500 mile trips (10k Etihad v 15.5k velocity), 600-1000 mile trips (20k Etihad v 23.5k velocity), 1200-1500 mile trips (30k Etihad v 35.5k velocity)).
Economy seems to be marginal where a benefit exists - up to 500 mile trips (7k Etihad v 7.8k velocity), 1200-1500 mile trips (15k Etihad v 17.8k velocity).
The one area that appears worth transferring to Etihad for Virgin Australia really though is for short business class trips (up to 500 mile trip).
At least though any excess miles not spent will not be wasted though.

 

[Thibault]

I am just wary of the additional premium they seem to be charging on premium awards: 'A premium redemption fare will be applied based on demand and availability.' I read it as only applicable for EY (?).

Typical Etihad - but let's see how it goes.
I'd like to see as well what the availability for AA awards will be as every time I tried with a premium support agent - they never find anything.

 

[Mattg]

Has anyone else noticed that the new partner airline award chart is basically identical to the old EL AL award chart (which was brought in just recently)?

 

[Coops1]

What’s worse, it takes away another great use of AMEX warehoused points Will have to book a HBA-BNE J flight at the cheap rates Before 7 Mar

Damn, forgot to book . Too many other things going on……

 

[blaz]

I quickly booked a business class Adelaide to Brisbane flight for myself and wife (12,500 points each) a few nights ago to beat the changes, and am glad I did. It is 1,006 miles to fly Adelaide to Brisbane and that seems to suggest that it is now 30,000 points per person now. The points came with our reasonably priced business class flight from Kuala Lumpur to Paris with OmanAir, so that gave it extra value. I was able to buy Velocity points for $14 per thousand points so we purchased 2 business class flights back for approximately $370 each with taxes etc. (usually $500-$550 each) So, out of pocket expenses were $400 (business class) return per person. Not too squeezy.

 

[Ken MacFarlane]

The Eitihad Guest redemption for a VA flight between 500-1000 miles will cost 12000 points for economy. It was 6900 points before for the Karratha--Perth flight (the one I most use) which made the painful 1 hour phone call worthwhile as it was less than the velocity points charge. Karratha was not on their Virgin redemption table and was called something else which made it more of a pain explaining to someone overseas, sometimes they would hang up. Anyway its no longer worthwhile as it will cost more than the VA flights direct through Velocity now. Thankfully I didn't transfer more points as they are now a waste of time for me anyway. Not so long ago Amex halved the Etihad points received when transferring to Etihad Guest points so over the last few years its been a 60-70% reduction in total value, its the gift that keeps giving.

 

[Ken MacFarlane]

Has anyone seen how Virgin Australia flights can be booked online through Etihad Guests website. It was meant to be functional on the 10March I understand but still I cannot see how this can be done. I have doubts this may ever happen despite the airline talking this up.

 

[Thibault]

Has anyone seen how Virgin Australia flights can be booked online through Etihad Guests website. It was meant to be functional on the 10March I understand but still I cannot see how this can be done. I have doubts this may ever happen despite the airline talking this up.

Yes - create a revenue search ie. BNE-AUH anytime in the year. Once the booking system has returned results -

Go to the top right -
Click edit search
Tick book with miles
Edit the city pairs (BNE-SYD for VA as an example or SYD-LAX for AA).
Click search again.

I found the new system great as it will now suggest connections on awards seats if available and availability was quite wide open last week.

System is quite slow but should return some availability and even suggest upgrading to J if there aren’t Y rewards seats available.

I’ve also noticed that sometimes the miles figures is not correct.

Exemple BNE-SYD should be 6k miles but the system will ask for 5.8K/5.6K and some $…
Sometimes the contrary.

So if the figure isn’t correct as per the EY website mileage requirements, you’ll have to call the CC and feed them all details.

I hope this helps

 

[Mattg]

I tried to redeem my Etihad Guest miles today to book a SYD-CBR flight on Virgin.

I was able to get the flight I wanted to appear on Etihad's website using the method described by @Thibault above. However, the price shown was 6,110 miles + tax (it should be 6,000 miles). I accepted that it was only a small difference and tried to complete the booking anyway, but got an error at the payment page.

So I tried calling Etihad, and was on the phone for almost an hour. On the phone I was also quoted 6,110 miles and the lady could not change this. I gave her my credit card details and she put me on hold for ages, but couldn't process the transaction because, apparently, my Etihad Guest account had been suspended.

I have not received any notification from Etihad advising of a suspension to my account, and I have no idea why this would be the case. I was told I had to send a copy of my passport and my account number to a particular email address and a different team would unlock my account.

In the meantime, the seat I was trying to book has not been returned to inventory and is no longer available to book using Velocity points. So I've just wasted more time than it takes to fly from Sydney to Canberra and still don't have a ticket.

 

[qantas21]

Has anybody else noticed Etihad has withdrawn all award availability on AA, VA, AC and its own website? It was available yesterday however most routes today seem to have disappeared... Any insights?

 

[Thibault]

Has anybody else noticed Etihad has withdrawn all award availability on AA, VA, AC and its own website? It was available yesterday however most routes today seem to have disappeared... Any insights?

I see plenty of availability using the mobile app but nothing via the desktop version.

That’s quite bizarre

 

[qantas21]

I see plenty of availability using the mobile app but nothing via the desktop version.

That’s quite bizarre

Thanks Thibault. I was looking at International flights on Etihad metal using any award partner on both desktop and app.

 

[Thibault]

Thanks Thibault. I was looking at International flights on Etihad metal using any award partner on both desktop and app.

I read somewhere that many EY-operated partners awards redemptions were cancelled after too many were released to partner programs (?).

Unsure if that’s completely true but that might why you might not see any availability.

 

[qantas21]

It's really strange because not even Etihad have any availability in their own reward program (economy, business or first) at saver levels.