Etihad adds a 4th daily London Heathrow to Abu Dhabi service for Christmas

Etihad is adding a 4th daily service from London Heathrow to Abu Dhabi for the Christmas peak period.

Between 15th December and 13th January, there will be a Boeing 787-9 service daily.  On most days this will leave Heathrow at 12.50 (arriving 23.45) with the return leaving Abu Dhabi at 07.05 (arriving 11.00).

There is no First Class on the 787-9.  It has 21 Business Class Studio seats (see the Etihad site here, it is the same as the A380 Studio which I reviewed here) and 271 Economy seats.

Additional capacity increases are being made to other destinations such as the Maldives.  You can book at etihad.com here. In addition, if you are not already an Etihad Guest member, you can sign up here and receive 500 bonus miles.

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).