Rapid Travel Chai reports that Etihad business class award space has opened wide up. Etihad has business class award space broadly available from New York JFK, Chicago O’Hare, and Washington Dulles to their Abu Dhabi hub. You can use that to get to India, the Maldives, the Mideast or really much of where you’d want to go.
More space is bookable via Air Canada than American AAdvantage or Etihad’s own program at the saver level. In my experience Air Canada Aeroplan has access to award space on Etihad when other programs do not. Here’s an example of Etihad business class award space through Air Canada Aeroplan, Washington Dulles – Abu Dhabi for two passengers. And yes this is real space.
Points from Chase, American Express, Capital One and Bilt all transfer to Air Canada Aeroplan. Non-stop business class to Abu Dhabi is 85,000 miles each way. Keep your journey under 8000 miles and it stays that price. Travel farther afield the price goes up to 100,000 miles.
You can add a stopover for 5000 miles. And it is worth a stopover – even if you don’t fancy Formula One or the Louvre in Abu Dhabi, visit Dubai or the desert beyond. Grab Marriott award nights at Al Maha. Destinations within the U.A.E. are drivable.
The New York JFK and Chicago O’Hare routes are generally scheduled to be operated by Airbus A350s, which have Etihad’s newest business class product – a gorgeous-looking Collins Super Diamond seat with doors (similar to new British Airways business class, but in my opinion better-looking).
Etihad presents its A350-1000 cabins at the Dubai Air Show 2021
5x A35Ks were delivered in 2019 and 2020 and have since been stored
Collins Super Diamond for Business class; similar to BA Club Suite and Aeroflot 77W
787-9,-10, A35K become their future long-haul fleet#DAS21 https://t.co/8AFax9PFVd pic.twitter.com/LWck3zAWfZ
— Incompressible Flow (@incompressflow) November 14, 2021
Their Boeing 787-9s, generally on the schedule for the Washington Dulles route, has their ‘Business Studio’ which is a very good seat that alternates forward and rear facing.
Ooooh no 2 days ago I books 3 tickets of the non-refundable ones ♂️♂️♂️♂️
Seems to be capped to two award seats on almost all the flights I see available in May/2023
Still trying to find a way to book trip for our family of 3 on a oneworld partner (Qatar has also seemingly capped everything in business class to 2 seats since past few months, and now Finnair is limiting all transatlantic flights for business class award seats to 1 seat!)
Has Gary notched up his game recently? Enjoying alot more of his stuff recently
There is first class availability out of Washington DC as well. We booked DC to AUH to Seoul in first and business with a stopover for 2 people on aeroplan.
Something must have changed. While LHR to AUH had sane point prices, NY to AUH in business was sitting north of a million points. I figured I’d wait until the craziness had passed. Maybe it has.
Does anyone know if this goes into late October/November? I have looked and cannot find any space easily.
October/November *2023
Then my flight in May was the ‘Business Studio’. I loved it, my favorite business class seat ever. My newly booked flights looks to be the new seat that I hope I enjoy as much.
Can’t find anything direct for two from USA to AUH, except BA to London and connecting, for $900+ in fees. in May anyway
Forgive my ignorance, I’m new to redeeming points, but I’ve saved up a lot of them, and the Maldives is a dream destination for me. How would I start a search for this? Do I go to Air Canada and use Aeroplan Redeem? If so, I’m apparently not doing it correctly, as I’m showing no availability. Or do I start at Etihad? I have a lot of points with both Amex and Cap1. Would using their travel portals work? I appreciate anyone generous enough with their time to answer. Thanks!
@ Cecilia — Generally, you can only book awards 330-350 days in advance (depending on operating and ticketing carrier), so availability could not be available beyond early 2023 right now.
Great article. Curious- how do you add stopover on the Aeroplan website with miles?
Thanks!
@BC EchoHawk – you start at Aeroplan. Look for a guide on how to redeem Aeroplan miles to start your learning. When you search, since this availability is mainly specific to North America routes, you’ll want to separately search for Abu Dhabi to Maldives which has much less availability. You can lock in the North America flight and potentially add an award or cash ticket for the much short Maldives flight later if you can’t find availability now.
@Thomas – you don’t. Need to call. Website will let you book multi-city that generally will price much higher than a stopover award.
Thank you!