Fly Korean Air Business Class Seats Long Haul for Just 25,610 Miles!

by Gary Leff

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Etihad Guest offers 500 miles for joining. Their miles are valuable because you can redeem for one of the world’s best first class products but also for some outstanding value partner awards. And you can transfer points to Etihad Guest several ways.

I’ve covered some of the exceptional values, like booking Brussels Airlines roundtrip business class New York JFK – Brussels for just 36,620 miles and booking award travel on American Airlines at the prices American used to charge before their March 2016 devaluation.

Partner awards have to be booked over the phone and Etihad’s phone reps aren’t very good in my experience, I often hang up and call back a couple of times to get an Etihad Guest agent well versed in partner award bookings.

Urban legend says these awards aren’t bookable but I’ve booked them, try the call center in Manchester, UK for this at 44 0345 6081225.

There’s another partner I wanted to highlight. Here’s the Etihad Guest redemption chart for travel on Czech Airlines.

One way short haul awards start at 3500 points in coach and 7000 points in business class. The vast majority of the airline’s routes can be had for fewer than 10,000 points each way in business.

For instance here are some one way prices in economy and business to and from Prague:

But what about long haul? Prague – Seoul is 5131 miles:

Etihad Guest is a Czech Airlines partner, and you can redeem Etihad’s miles for travel on Czech’s four day a week flight for… just 25,610 miles each way in business class (12,805 each way in coach).

If memory serves the Czech A330-300 is leased from Korean Air, so features Korean Air’s seats.

Meanwhile Tel Aviv is 16,330 miles in business class. Abu Dhabi is 13,900 miles each way. Barcelona is 8440 miles each way.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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  1. Gary – you need to put a caveat on informational posts such as this. Professional services such as bookyouraward.com (your firm), won’t recommend or touch redemptions such as this due to according to them 1) unreliability of the transfer since Etihad is a new partner of Citi Thankyou rewards, and 2) no availability on options such as these and the Brussels redemption. These redemptions are unicorns according to them.

  3. cannot access Etihad USA member sites. pages related to partners are also blocked out. is there any ways to access this information from USA ??

  4. @Niraj

    Regarding your first point: the first time is the worst. I’ve found that subsequent transfers are faster. (Shame on me for doing it multiple times, I know.)

    Regarding your second point, it seems that way, but it’s not. You need a few things:
    1. A competent agent on the phone.
    2. Internal peace. Godlike patience.
    3. Flexibility.

    I thought that the JFK -> BRU on Air Brussels R/T for 36k in business class was a unicorn until I booked two tickets earlier this week. After calling back with dates I saw on united.com several times, I switched tactics: I just said “I want to go to Brussels for 14 days sometime in October or November.” After about 15 minutes, he found some dates that worked.

    @choi lu

    Yeah, I’ve written to their support IT staff twice and they came back with “try it now.” Sigh. Not to link to another blog (sorry, Gary), but most of them are posted here: http://viewfromthewing.com/2017/01/23/etihad-award-charts/

    There are some missing partners on that list, but you can always call and ask for a hypothetical booking.

  6. KoreanAir shows award flights (2 seats available) operated by Czech Airlines (from Prague to Seoul) – does that mean I can probably book this by calling Etihad Guest?

    Does anyone know if one-way award for flying Czech Airlines (Prague to Seoul) using Etihad miles is okay? (versus having to fly RT)

    thank you so much for anyone who can answer my questions

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