Etihad Guest — a Citi and American Express transfer partner — offered absurdly cheap redemptions on Brussels Airlines. Sure, you had to hang up and call back to find an agent that could book the seats (Manchester, UK call center at 44 0345 6081225 is best for this) but given the low low prices it was worth it.

Redemptions were roundtrip only. Here are some of their cheap awards on Brussels Airlines, starting at just 930 miles roundtrip!

Long flights were exceptional value, too. Brussels – Kigali, Rwanda was less than 40,000 miles roundtrip in business class, and that’s just shy of 4000 miles of flying in each direction.

Brussels – New York JFK was 21,972 miles roundtrip in economy or 36,620 miles roundtrip in business class.

The other downside besides phone booking with Etihad agents was that you could only book specific routes listed on the award chart and there were some glaring omissions like Washington Dulles – Brussels, missing from the chart so simply not available.

It’s no surprise these awards wouldn’t last, and indeed Etihad Guest has devalued their award chart for travel on Brussels Airlines. (.pdf)

• Awards are now one-way
  
• Prices are standardized based on distance:
  
  • Economy: 5000; 7000; 13,000; 20,000; 27,000; 28,000; and 29,000 one-way
    
  • Business: 9000; 12,000; 22,000; 32,000; 44,000; 47,000; and 48,000 one-way

• More destinations added including Washington Dulles – Brussels

Prices are still reasonable, New York JFK – Brussels is 88,000 miles roundtrip but that’s still a 144% increase. The cheapest redemption, Paris – Brussels in economy, increases tenfold.

Here’s new pricing for the cheapest destinations:

Here are the most expensive destinations:

Etihad’s strange and great value awards on Czech remain in place at this time.

(HT: Y.L.L.)