25% bonus on point transfers into Etihad Guest – but with a catch this year

Links on Head for Points may pay us an affiliate commission. A list of partners is here.

Etihad Guest has brought back its offer of a 25% bonus on points you transfer into their scheme. It is 14 months since we last saw this offer.

You can find full details of this offer on the Etihad website here. The closing date is 31st July.

Let me say upfront that there is major change this year. American Express Membership Rewards and HSBC Premier are not participating. Neither is Starwood, but that is usual. This means that your three main routes for doing a substantial points transfer are closed.

Relevant partners for UK readers are:

Heathrow Rewards
Club Carlson
Hilton HHonors
Hyatt Gold Passport
IHG Rewards Club
Le Club AccorHotels
Marriott Rewards
Shangri-La Golden Circle

The bonus also applies to transfers from their Middle East banking partners.

Before you top up your Etihad account, remember that it may not be necessary. You only need to have 75% of the miles for a redemption in your account. You can effectively ‘buy’ the additional 25% at the low price of 0.58p per mile by doing a ‘cash and points’ redemption. This is a very good deal as I outlined in this article.

The deadline for transfers is 31st July which is the last day to initiate a move.

Personally, even though I need to top up my Etihad account, I am not impressed by this offer now that American Express is not included. If I do end up needing a points transfer to get to my Etihad miles target, I would rather do a transfer from American Express – where I have a high balance – than run down my hotel balances.

If you are looking to empty out some hotel accounts, remember that British Airways is currently offering a more generous 35% bonus for another three days.

How to earn Etihad Guest miles from UK credit cards (December 2021)

Etihad Guest does not have a UK credit card. However, you can earn Etihad Guest miles by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards. These are:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 20,000 Etihad Guest miles. This card is FREE for your first year and also comes with two free airport lounge passes.

The Platinum Card from American Express (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 30,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 30,000 Etihad Guest miles.

American Express Rewards credit card (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 5,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 5,000 Etihad Guest miles. This card is FREE for life.

Membership Rewards points convert at 1:1 into Etihad Guest miles which is an attractive rate. The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, which converts to 1 Etihad Guest mile. The Gold card earns double points (2 per £1) on all flights you charge to it.

Etihad Guest is also a partner with the HSBC Premier Mastercard (0.5 miles per £1 spent) and HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard (1 mile per £1 spent).

Category

Accor Live Limitless, American Express Membership Rewards, Etihad and Etihad Guest, Hilton Honors, HSBC Premier Mastercard, IHG Rewards, Marriott Bonvoy, Radisson Rewards, Shangri-La Golden Circle, World of Hyatt

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Yuff says:

3 Jul3 July 07:06

Raffles,
I’m pretty sure the Amex and HSBC 25% bonus was as recent as last November/December.
mark says:

3 Jul3 July 07:18

Yes Amex was included in a transfer bonus last year – cannot remember the time, but i did a transfer from Amex and got the bonus, plus the large credit card bonus. Waiting a few more weeks until i can book my September 2017 trip to HNL 🙂
Dan says:

3 Jul3 July 07:38

I’m confused. Doesn’t the title say there IS a 25% bonus on Amex transfers?
- TGLoyalty says:
  
  3 Jul3 July 09:02
  
  My exact thought when I read this article :s
- John says:
  
  3 Jul3 July 09:48
  
  Misleading. That’s it.
  - Raffles says:
    
    3 Jul3 July 11:33
    
    Genuine mistake because, when I started writing, I assumed it was the same as last time!
    - Yuff says:
      
      3 Jul3 July 11:58
      
      I thought that when I got the email 🙁
      - Rob says:
        
        3 Jul3 July 12:10
        
        I have a substantially quieter week next week so hopefully we have passed ‘peak typo’!
Paul Irving says:

3 Jul3 July 07:54

Does the points and cash option include when using Etihad points on different carriers like AA?
- Andrew M says:
  
  3 Jul3 July 09:59
  
  I’d like to know the answer to that as well. Using Etihad points on partner airlines is often better value than booking Etihad flights but they can’t be booked online as far as I know.
John says:

3 Jul3 July 09:50

I appreciate your time writing all the articles everyday, but recently felt less and less interesting.
Some repeated news and info and some useless reviews. A bit disappointed tbh.
- Chris says:
  
  3 Jul3 July 10:01
  
  Agreed. Haven’t seen an interesting article in weeks, maybe months.
- Andrew says:
  
  3 Jul3 July 11:00
  
  Have to agree somewhat but the lack of interesting articles is more a statement of the lack of activity in the rewards industry rather than on HFP itself. Maybe the uncertainty around Brexit and the falls in the BA share price will encourage some innovative (ie loophole-ridden) schemes to be launched.
  
  Having said that I could also do without the reviews of a random hotel/city covering 2 or 3 articles that are useless to all but a very tiny minority of readers.
  - Raffles says:
    
    3 Jul3 July 11:35
    
    Can only cover what is out there, which isn’t much. What is missing is the credit card promos – MBNA has stopped them entirely except for Virgin.
    - Raffles says:
      
      3 Jul3 July 11:44
      
      The hotel reviews are NOT random, by the way. They are brand new luxury hotels in major tourist cities from chains where you are likely to have points or free night vouchers.
      
      If we were covering independent hotels in Derby it would be a fair point!
      - Leo says:
        
        3 Jul3 July 14:06
        
        Actually I really like the hotel reviews which I think are well chosen. Keep ’em coming!
    - Tilly71 says:
      
      3 Jul3 July 14:40
      
      Rob, I have to say a massive thanks for all your hard work on this site. How you manage to produce three articles a day on this site amazes me, keep em coming!
  - Volker says:
    
    3 Jul3 July 12:10
    
    When I started reading Raffles’ blog every day just after its launch, I was used to booking holidays based on random decisions re. airline, hotel, car etc., I even let some travel agents do the job for me. I then began to sign up for loyalty programs based on his advice and enjoyed the treats we all seem to be addicted to. Over the years, I have cut down my membership to just a handful of loyalty programs, therefore a number of HFP pieces every week do not match my personal preferences, but does it matter? Most providers of goods and services offer a variety of products and we choose what suits our needs. I nowadays find myself using the search box on the HFP website again and again for older articles incl. hotel reviews which have all of a sudden become relevant to me. Is reading a car magazine useless because I will never buy a Bentley nor a Dacia?
    HFP remains a priceless source of advice to me and often some entertaining reading, so keep up the good work, Raffles!
    - Danny says:
      
      3 Jul3 July 13:29
      
      Totally agree and people always have the option of not reading the articles which do not interested them.
    - Alex W says:
      
      3 Jul3 July 21:45
      
      Agreed. When planning a trip to somewhere new, there is often something very useful buried in he HFP archives.
- Raffles says:
  
  3 Jul3 July 11:38
  
  I try to cycle stuff. You may remember reading about something 18 months ago but more the half the readership will be new since then. I can’t start saying ‘I wrote about that in 2012 so no point doing it again’!
- Tom C says:
  
  3 Jul3 July 13:27
  
  I can only apologise on behalf of Rob. His influence seems to stop at forcing the airliners into making offers that are relevant to you. I’m sure next week he’ll have a word and make sure that all first class flights with all airliners are £100 return for anyone called John.
  - Dan says:
    
    3 Jul3 July 14:10
    
    Agreed. And just to provide some balance, I actually really like the hotel/Eurostar reviews – as it broadens my thinking about how I might burn points/cash on travel in the future.
    
    For me, I think perhaps a bit more diversification into other loyalty schemes (Flying Blue etc.) would probably be more interesting for me personally on a slow news day, than some of the articles. But, as others have said more eloquently above, the range of articles is about right for the readership I think.
    
    We certainly wouldn’t want this site to turn into some of the US blogs; basically one long advert for credit card referrals!
    - Mycity says:
      
      3 Jul3 July 14:55
      
      As others have said, Rob does a brilliant job, if there’s not much out there he can’t just magic up items.
      - Rob says:
        
        3 Jul3 July 15:47
        
        Pile of stuff from New York and Tallinn to run next week so no shortage there. August will be back to 2 articles per day as per every year.
- mark2 says:
  
  3 Jul3 July 16:59
  
  quote from John: ‘A bit disappointed tbh’
  
  Best to stop paying the subscription then
Tilly71 says:

3 Jul3 July 09:51

OT:
How do you use baec avios on qatar flights as part of OW Alliance?
- TGLoyalty says:
  
  3 Jul3 July 10:22
  
  Just use the reward flights search on the website and search the route you wish to book via Qatar it should show up if available
  - Tilly71 says:
    
    3 Jul3 July 12:18
    
    I’m finding searching my destination impossible whilst in baec account under reward flights search. It doesn’t recognise my destination letters or even the airport code. Qatar definitely fly to my destination as I have searched direct on qatar site but baec do not seem to even recognise?