Etihad is one of the top airlines in the world for passenger experience. They offer a great connecting point in Abu Dhabi for travel to India and the surrounding region. I’ve used them to travel there as well as to the Maldives and also back from Sri Lanka.

You can redeem American AAdvantage miles for travel on Etihad or you can redeem Etihad miles directly. American Express, Starwood, and Citibank points all transfer to Etihad.

Etihad has the world’s best first class on their Airbus A380 — the First Apartment. Their ‘regular’ first class is a fully enclosed suite, and arguably one of the world’s 5 best first class products though unquestionably top 10.

Transfer Bonuses into Etihad Guest

You can transfer hotel points from several programs to Etihad Guest with a 20% bonus through April 30. The offer is coming from Etihad rather than partners, so you don’t see it listed on partner websites.

Here are the programs you can transfer from and earn this bonus.

For this bonus transfers from bank programs like American Express and Citibank are not bonused. The best deal here is transfers from Starwood points in my opinion.

There have been bigger bonuses for transferring to Etihad, for instance over the summer Etihad ran a 25% transfer bonus. American Express Membership Rewards ran a 30% bonus on transfers to Etihad Guest last spring.

Don’t Make Speculative Transfers

Etihad Guest miles expire so the program isn’t a great store of value.

And since they just devalued awards on Brussels Airlines without notice I don’t trust them not to do the same with other awards.

Thus I view Etihad Guest as a really valuable program for transferring in, redeeming, and keeping a zero balance.

Unique Features of Etihad Guest

• Etihad offers award holds. Not every agent will offer them, but many agents will, for up to a week. You may have to hang up and call back or try another call center to get it.

• Etihad has some strong value partner awards. American Airlines awards cost the same number of points that AAdvantage used to charge their own members before the March 22, 2016 devaluation, for instance. Czech awards have great value, and there are partners you wouldn’t expect like Royal Air Maroc (fly US to Casablanca for 44,000 miles each way in business class).

The rules for each partner vary, including whether or not there are fuel surcharges collected on redemptions.

Transfer Promotion Terms and Conditions

Terms and conditions for 20% transfer bonus:

• The offer is valid for all points to miles conversions made between 1 April and 30 April 2017 (both days inclusive).
  
• All participating points conversion partners: Accor Hotels, ADCB TouchPoints, Club Carlson (Radison Blu), Citibank UAE, Emirates Islamic Bank, Heathrow Rewards, Hilton Honors, Hyatt, IHG, Joyalukkas, Marriott Rewards, NBAD Stars, Shangri-La, Boubyan Bank, Etisalat Rewards, and Starwood StarPoints.
  
• Non participating points conversion partners: All American Express Membership Rewards®, Flybuys Rewards ,Commercial Bank of Dubai(CBD) and all Citibank markets outside the UAE are excluded from this promotion.
  
• Once the Miles transfer request in initiated it cannot be reversed.
  
• This offer is subject to the Terms & Conditions of the Etihad Guest Programme.
  
• A valid Etihad Guest membership number is required to successfully perform the conversion.
  
• The Etihad Guest member will be responsible for quoting the correct Etihad Guest membership number to the participating conversion partners for the conversion activity.
  
• Terms and conditions governing the existing Conversion partners will apply.
  
• The promotion is applicable for any member who converts their points from a qualifying Partner loyalty programme to Etihad Guest Miles. The eligibility of the bonus miles for a specific member will be done based on the validity of the promotion and the date of conversion provided by the partner for that respective member.
  
• Base Etihad Guest Miles converted by the member will be awarded as per the applicable conversion ratios of each respective partner
  
• Bonus Etihad Guest Miles earned during this promotion will reflect in the member’s Etihad Guest membership account within 15 days of the end date of the promotion
  
• If an Etihad Guest member holds credit cards and/or Hotel loyalty programme cards of different banks and hotels and converts the rewards points to Etihad Guest Miles under this promotion, then the number of Bonus Guest Miles he/she will earn will reflect separately in the members account for each partner
  
• The above promotion construct is valid only for the all Points Conversion Partners which fall under the Points Conversion programme and governed by the conversion ratios and minimum thresholds applicable for these respective partners.
  
• Bonus Etihad Guest Miles will not be calculated on retroactive basis under any circumstances i.e. credit card/ hotel reward points converted to Etihad Guest Miles and posted into the membership account during the promotion period but for which the conversion request was placed outside the promotion period will not qualify for the bonus miles promotion.
  
• Etihad Guest reserves the right to withdraw or cancel the promotion or modify or alter the terms and conditions of such promotion at any time.
  
• Participation under this promotion is purely voluntary for the members.
  
• The decision of Etihad Guest will be final and binding under this promotion and no disputes will be entertained in this regard.
  
• This offer cannot be clubbed with any other conversion offer.

(HT: Doctor of Credit)