Etihad’s August e-mail account statement highlighted an offer of up to 130,000 Etihad Guest miles when you join a nightclub VIP program.

Let’s face it. I’m not really a velvet rope kind of guy. My Hyatt Diamond stats entitles me to MGM Mlife Rewards Platinum status which offers VIP Line Access to Nightclubs. MGM Mlife Gold gets this too and of course even Hyatt Platinums who get their status via credit card.

It’s the closest I get, other than one night aafter dinner at one of the celebrity restaurants in Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands — I wanted to check out the club at the top of the hotel, and looking for the line to get in my wife and I were pulled inside without waiting even as there were people being told they couldn’t wait in the line to get it. Walking inside I realized that early in the night we fit a demographic profile that was underrepresented relative to their goals. And that’s something that won’t happen often, or at all in the US or Europe.

Here are the plans, they outline a ton of benefits but most of them are silly. Sending you a membership card is considered a ‘benefit’. Sending that membership card via an express mail method is considered a separate benefit. The ‘surprise welcome gift’ benefit is only for Swiss residents.

You get free club admittance, skipping lines, and VIP area access with participating establishments. Two levels of membership offer miles:

• Premium Private membership costs 159 Euros (~ US$180) a month and earns 80,000 miles
  
• Premium Partners membership costs 282 Euros a month and earns 130,000 miles

The promotion runs through August 31, you have to pay the annual membership fee to earn the miles, and you do not provide your Etihad Guest number during the signup process — they’ll call you later to get it.

One Mile at a Time covers this offer as well. If you do this deal here’s the card you may want to use to pay for it. But in my view the price isn’t good enough for a straight-up buy miles deal, and you’re probably better off investing the cash in a service focused on your specific area for club access or a high end concierge service. Still, if this appeals to you it’s better to get a ton of Etihad miles which are super valuable than to sign up without the miles.