Bits: £1350 Etihad business to Asia, win a Caribbean holiday, Etihad 20% transfer bonus

News in brief:

Etihad business class to Asia from £1350

Courtesy of Flyertalk comes an interesting Etihad promotion from Germany (pick your starting point – Frankfurt, Berlin, Munich, Dusseldorf) to many parts of Asia.

As a typical fare, Dusseldorf to Bangkok comes out at €1596 (£1350) return.  Similar fares are available to Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur and potentially elsewhere.

You must travel outbound between 18 April and 30 June.

From Dusseldorf, you want the daily 787 flight in order to get the impressive new Business Class Studio I reviewed here and is shown below.  This is the best option.  If you fly from Berlin the first leg will be on airberlin and not on Etihad so that is less interesting.  (You can’t credit the airberlin flight to British Airways as it has an Etihad flight number.)  Frankfurt has the older A330 seating, as does Munich.

You can either credit the miles to Etihad Guest (and top them up later via Amex Membership Rewards, the UK Etihad credit card, Heathrow Rewards etc) or a partner.  American Airlines is an obvious one given that you could redeem the miles on BA.

The Etihad home page is here.  The Etihad page showcasing the Business Class Studio is here.

Win a week in the Caribbean with Luxury Travel Diary

Our friends at Luxury Travel Diary are currently running a competition giving away a week in the Caribbean.

The prize is a week at the Grand Laguna Beach resort in the Dominican Republic (picture below) for 6 people.  The prize excludes flights and transfers but that is where a pile of frequent flyer miles comes in handy.  The lack of flights is also likely to reduce the number of people who enter.

To enter all you need to do is sign up for the Luxury Travel Diary newsletter.  You can unsubscribe at any time.  The competition closes on 10th April.

Etihad launches a 20% conversion bonus on hotel, HSBC and Heathrow Rewards points

Speaking of Etihad, Etihad Guest has launched a 20% bonus on points you transfer into their scheme.

You can find details of participating Etihad’s partners on the Etihad website here.

Relevant partners for UK readers are:

Heathrow Rewards
HSBC Premier
Club Carlson
Hilton Honors
IHG Rewards Club
Le Club AccorHotels
Marriott Rewards
Shangri-La Golden Circle
Starwood Preferred Guest
World of Hyatt

The bonus also applies to ADCB TouchPoints, Citibank UAE, Emirates Islamic Bank, Joyalukkas, NBAD Stars, Boubyan Bank and Etisalat Rewards transfers.  Note also that the promo website has a mistake where it discusses Starwood – the correct number of miles for a 20,000 point conversion is, pre bonus, 25,000.

It does NOT apply to transfers from American Express Membership Rewards.

The deadline for transfers is 30th April. Transfers must be initiated by that date.

My review of my recent Etihad A380 First Class Apartment flight will run next week.

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).