etihad

Tag Archives for etihad.

Etihad Set to Devalue Miles at the End of June

by Gary Leff

etihad promo
May 31 2018

Over the past three years Etihad has devalued its program several times. That’s to be expected because it was so much better than others in the region. Qatar Airways caught me by surprise over the last month first announcing booking fees for awards – just a straight-up tax on redemptions – and then increasing the price of most awards about 60% overnight without notice. The earn and burn program went from middling to terrible overnight.

And now Etihad is making changes again. They’re only describing the changes in broad strokes, even though they’re going to be implemented in a month.

Continue Reading »

Emirates Says No to Merger With Etihad, Is The Ruling Family of Dubai Telling the Truth?

by Gary Leff

people boarding from tarmac
May 11 2018

Etihad was an airline that started when Gulf Air eliminated its Abu Dhabi hub and the ruling Al Nahyan family sought to preserve and grow the capital of the UAE as a center of aviation.

But cash and ambition was never going to be enough to turn around carriers like Alitalia and air berlin. They were basket cases. And the ruling Al Nahyans finally decided to stop lighting money on fire as the price of energy fell. They axed the CEO of their airline who, ironically, they had poached in the first place from Gulf Air.

Continue Reading »

The Media Is Biased Towards Fairness But There Aren’t Two Sides to This Story

by Gary Leff

plane with loading dock
Feb 21 2018

Delta, American and United keep arguing that Emirates, Qatar, and Etihad accept government subsidies and that this violates the Open Skies treaties that the U.S. has signed with the UAE and Qatar. Only it doesn’t violate those treaties. At all. Anyone that reads the treaties knows that.

In the old Aaron Sorkin HBO series The Newsroom the cast makes an important point about journalism. The media is biased towards fairness and simply doesn’t call a lie a lie.

Continue Reading »