Etihad & Virgin Partnership to Finish on 1 June 2025

Having flown Etihad to Europe from Melbourne in business last year (on an Aeroplan award), it's sad to see this partner go. Service onboard was attentive and top notch and the hard product was good too. The only downside was the lounge did leave a bit to be desired having visited it back in April last year. Now I know they've moved terminals and things have been updated so maybe the new lounge is better, but that was really the only downside I have.

So right now we've got three partners that will get us to Europe in a direct manner:
  • Qatar (via DOH)
  • Singapore (via SIN)
  • ANA (via TYO)
These partners are not renowned for releasing a ton of business class seats. Which makes me wonder if one needs to think outside the box here, flying UA to Europe via a gateway like LAX/SFO. I know some will complain about the immigration process in the US, to which I say, it's actually not that bad if you prepare ahead of time (in fact it can be quicker than clearing immigration in Australia if you use the Mobile Passport Control system). The other option too would be Air Canada via YVR, although it tends to also be stingy on award availability.

-RooFlyer88
 
kangarooflyer88 said:
Which makes me wonder if one needs to think outside the box here, flying UA to Europe via a gateway like LAX/SFO. I know some will complain about the immigration process in the US, to which I say, it's actually not that bad if you prepare ahead of time (in fact it can be quicker than clearing immigration in Australia if you use the Mobile Passport Control system). The other option too would be Air Canada via YVR, although it tends to also be stingy on award availability.
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UA award availability is also far less than it was with UA's decrease in capacity across the Pacific. And it is so close-in that it's not feasible for most.

Transferring to Singapore and accessing their abundant award availability is still your best bet for getting to Europe with VA miles.
 
kangarooflyer88 said:
So right now we've got three partners that will get us to Europe in a direct manner:
  • Qatar (via DOH)
  • Singapore (via SIN)
  • ANA (via TYO)
These partners are not renowned for releasing a ton of business class seats.
Click to expand...

I was recently looking for Qatar biz seats to and from Europe in September next year using VA points and there were plenty. I got BNE-DOH-AMS on the way out, BCN-DOH-ADL on the way back on the exact days I wanted. Available most days and often several choices per day. And easily found with seats.aero

You can also get SQ saver awards relatively easily (as levelnine says, transfer Velocity over to SQ), although the timings tend to be less attractive (as is their business bed in general).

I also redeemed Aeroplan for Etihad last year, and it was 'OK' for me but I'm not lamenting the separation from EY by VA, being necessary for QR to come in (I hope).
 
As far as I can tell, it seems all Etihad reward seats have already been pulled from the VA website, which goes against the notion that they were sticking around for six months as a redemption partner.

Hopefully it's just a glitch, but given the timing, that would be a significant coincidence if so. Especially given that Etihad has just rolled out a status match campaign specifically targeting Velocity elites living in Australia. It's normally a huge no-no to target the elites of an active partner airline (the partnership agreements would usually have clauses about this), so the fact that Etihad is just doing it anyway will be interesting viewing. 👀
 
RooFlyer said:
I also redeemed Aeroplan for Etihad last year, and it was 'OK' for me but I'm not lamenting the separation from EY by VA, being necessary for QR to come in (I hope).
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VA and QR have been partners since 2022, alongside EY, so not sure it was “necessary”.
 
Etihad's Status match offer today for Virgin Elites was pretty ironic!

Flew them many times, and a bit of a shame to see them out the door.

Charging for Wifi in paid Biz rankled me always -- cost me big bucks in June from London as I was on laptop the entire trip basically. Very short sighted on $7000 tickets. SQ offers it free when you code in a Biz seat. .

Just got an email from Etihad about 'exciting new destinations' - Chiang Mai and Hanoi etc. Just for fun went to see the cost to book them of Etihad website from Sydney in case the re were some into fares worth looking at - and website recognises NEITHER route.

Dumb.

Might well have booked either as a bit of fun to extend the match a year but life is too short to wrestle with poor airline coding.
 
ozstamps said:
Etihad's Status match offer today for Virgin Elites was pretty ironic!

Flew them many times, and a bit of a shame to see them out the door.

Charging for Wifi in paid Biz rankled me always -- cost me big bucks in June from London as I was on laptop the entire trip basically. Very short sighted on $7000 tickets. SQ offers it free when you code in a Biz seat. .

Just got an email from Etihad about 'exciting new destinations' - Chiang Mai and Hanoi etc. Just for fun went to see the cost to book them of Etihad website from Sydney in case the re were some into fares worth looking at - and website recognises NEITHER route.

Dumb.

Might well have booked either as a bit of fun to extend the match a year but life is too short to wrestle with poor airline coding.
Click to expand...
It's not poor coding, but given you have to back track 2/3 of the trip, plus I suspect they haven't aligned the connection times, so you'd have a 12+ hour connection in Abu Dhabi, so they just don't offer it.

It's not just these new routes, but most Asian destinations that aren't offered to Australia and vice versa - and I doubt most people would want to take that up (though of course there will always be some).
 
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Tricky as I have a business booking to LHR out in May return July. Might take up the EY status offer in January as I am VA Platinum and enjoy the F lounge in Abu Dhabi. Not sure if it will work but will try and switch booking to Etihad Guest for return to extend Gold for the year with EY.
 
According to email update yesterday there will be no status credits or points earn for travel from 1 June, even for existing bookings. Pretty unfair for people who have booked with Etihad in good faith for travel post 1 June 2025.
 
Sounds like a more bitter "breakup" than the one with DL if the 'cutoff' are that abrupt. The DL breakup at least had a cutoff date for existing bookings.
 
HS-TQE said:
Sounds like a more bitter "breakup" than the one with DL if the 'cutoff' are that abrupt. The DL breakup at least had a cutoff date for existing bookings.
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I did see it mentioned that you could still book award flights up to the cutoff date and that they would be honoured to mid 2026 though.
 
jase05 said:
I did see it mentioned that you could still book award flights up to the cutoff date and that they would be honoured to mid 2026 though.
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Except don’t EY hold back premium seats to 30 days out for VFF anyway? I’d expect that to be wound tighter sooner…
 
SYD said:
Except don’t EY hold back premium seats to 30 days out for VFF anyway?
Click to expand...
EY hold back all premium seats from all partners until 30 days. Economy seats are not impacted.
 

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