Etihad Guest came out with a really lucrative offer that had folks considering flying to the Middle East and taking their flights, just to earn the miles. It was that good.

The original offer was 25,000 miles for any online booking. A one-way flight within the Middle East, that you could buy for ~ US$130, would earn 25,000 miles. And you could do as many as eight short one-ways per day.

The terms and conditions didn’t restrict who could participate in the promotion. They didn’t require roundtrips. They didn’t limit the number of miles you could earn. A literally reading of the terms didn’t even seem to suggest you had to fly as long as you didn’t cancel your tickets.

But the terms seemed too vague, too unrestricted, and being a Middle Eastern carrier that meant it was probably too good.

And indeed they’ve now changed the offer, even though some folks would have already bought tickets on the expectation of earning the bonus the way it was originally described.

Here are the original terms:

This offer is only valid for bookings made on etihad.com between 4 February and 15 February. Bonus miles will only be credited if the Etihad Guest membership number is included during the time of booking. The miles will be deducted from the account if the booking is cancelled. The bonus miles earned will be Etihad Guest Miles and not Tier Miles. The bonus miles will be credited within two weeks after the promotion ends. This promotion is not valid for SuperSeller members. Etihad Guest members can also earn triple miles for travel in Diamond First or Pearl Business Class till 31 March 2014.

And here are the updated terms, key changes highlighted:

This offer is only valid for Etihad Guest members based in the UAE. To be eligible to receive the bonus miles, all travel should originate from Abu Dhabi. The offer is valid for a maximum of 2 tickets per Etihad Guest member (Total online booking bonus is capped at 50,000 Etihad Guest Miles). This offer is only valid for bookings made on etihad.com between 4 February and 15 February. Only return tickets will be considered for this promotion. This offer is not valid on redemption bookings. Bonus miles will only be credited if the Etihad Guest membership number is included during the time of booking. The miles will be deducted from the account if the booking is cancelled. The bonus miles earned will be Etihad Guest Miles and not Tier Miles. The bonus miles will be credited within two weeks after the promotion ends. This promotion is not valid for SuperSeller members. Etihad Guest members can also earn triple miles for travel in Diamond First or Pearl Business Class till 31 March 2014.

They added the following conditions after releasing the promo, and after folks purchased tickets:

• Only accounts with UAE addresses are eligible
  
• The bonus can only be earned on roundtrip tickets originating in Abu Dhabi
  
• The bonus can only be earned twice

The promotion — which seemed to allow earning unlimited miles at about half a penny apiece — was probably too generous. But these new restrictions are especially onerous, and Etihad should at a minimum be willing to refund tickets already purchased that relied upon the published terms and conditions to induce their booking.

---

You can join the 30,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free. You can also follow me on Twitter for the latest deals. Don’t miss out!