Rapid Travel Chai

My inbox urged me, “Hurry! Convert your loyalty points into 25% more miles” at Etihad Guest by December 31, 2015. You can transfer from such sources as Citi ThankYou Points.

This offer was covered by several bloggers, though only one mentioned as an aside the difficulty of redeeming on Etihad’s partners. The value proposition focuses on redeeming for Etihad’s flights for the schmancy premium options.

Reader Chun asked me to look into their partner award redemptions which appear to have decent values, such as what he uncovered for Asiana, for which I will dedicate a post on a fantastic theoretical redemption.

The issue is, can these be booked?

Trying to unearth success cases of Etihad redemptions on partners is not easy, indeed, more a source of farce. The FlyerTalk thread Book awards on EY partner airlines is hilarious, with Etihad representatives periodically trying to help. Some of the best:

I had a very Kafka-esque conversation with an Etihad agent a few months ago where they politely advised me that every single seat on every single day for every single Jet Airways flight on every single route was sold out with no exceptions for the next 11 months, but please try back tomorrow because availability changes constantly. (from B747-437B)

and

The movie Brazil is described as “set in a consumer-driven dystopian world in which there is an over-reliance on poorly maintained (and rather whimsical) machines.” I worry that my engagement with EY results in me being sucked ever closer to that. If it is true that the technical mechanism to book partner awards is (and has been for some time) broken and yet EY management has not communicated that to the agents we speak with, that would explain the fact that partner awards are like unicorns.

I have never seen a report of a partner award issued, although many people have come here and asked about some of the seemingly good valued options, only to find no award space, ever. (from stephem)

and

So after sending a message to the CEO through Resolver.co.uk website this morning I got a call back from the supervisor of the Mancherster call centre who confirmed for me that there is an issue with booking SN and a number of airlines and a manual request has to be issued. He has told me that if I want to book anything I can go directly to him and he will sort it. I mentioned to him what about all the other people who are struggling and aren’t being told about this issue and he didn’t really have an answer.

So I guess all I can suggest is that if you want to book something and call centre staff don’t have a clue email the CEO and you will get some action. (from jimbosmith300)

and on and on, even a few success stories!