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American Airlines has a great loyalty program, and it offers solid award rates not just in economy, but also for business and first class — especially on partner airlines. The problem is that AA miles can be hard to earn. American Airlines transfer partners are few. Outside of flying, opening up a credit card, or earning miles through savings, your options are somewhat limited.
That’s where partner programs come in. Among the best ways to book American Airlines awards through partners is to book flights using Etihad Guest miles. The top sweet spot is worth calling out: Short-haul AA flights under 500 miles cost just 6,000 Etihad miles each way.
Let's dive into this particular sweet spot and show you over 1,000 American Airlines routes you can book for just 6,000 Etihad Guest miles.
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Etihad Award Chart for American Airlines Flights
Etihad Guest uses a distance-based award chart for American Airlines flights. The number of miles needed depends on the distance between the origin and destination, as well as the cabin. Here’s the full award chart:
| Distance Range | Economy | Premium Economy | Business | First |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0-500 | 6,000 | 7,500 | 20,000 | 35,000 |
| 501-1000 | 12,000 | 13,000 | 25,000 | 40,000 |
| 1001-1500 | 15,000 | 19,000 | 30,000 | 45,000 |
| 1501-2000 | 23,000 | 25,000 | 40,000 | 54,000 |
| 2001-2500 | 28,000 | 31,000 | 50,000 | 67,000 |
| 2501-3000 | 34,000 | 37,000 | 60,000 | 80,000 |
| 3001-4000 | 45,000 | 49,000 | 80,000 | 107,000 |
| 4001-5000 | 60,000 | 62,000 | 100,000 | 134,000 |
| 5001-6000 | 67,000 | 74,000 | 120,000 | 160,000 |
| 6000+ | 75,000 | 90,000 | 140,000 | 200,000 |
A few takeaways after reviewing this chart:
- Flights under 500 miles offer the best value.
- Flights up to 3,000 miles in distance can potentially be useful, depending on your other options.
- Business and first-class awards are rather expensive — especially on longer routes. Other programs may offer better value for premium cabin awards.
So, let's narrow in on that small window of opportunity: Short-haul American Airlines domestic flights.
Related: The Best Ways To Book American Airlines Awards Using Partner Miles
American Airlines Routes Available for 6,000 Etihad Guest Miles
AwardWallet searches found 296 nonstop American Airlines routes — and over 700 connecting routes — priced at just 6,000 Etihad miles one-way. You’ll find the full list here:
The table can be filtered and/or sorted to find the routes most relevant for you.
We'll caveat that this isn’t an exhaustive list. American may operate other sub-500-mile flights that qualify for this low pricing. In addition, some routes slightly over 500 miles still price at 6,000 miles. For example, Detroit (DTW) to New York LaGuardia (LGA) is about 502 miles, but still prices at 6,000 miles in economy or 20,000 in business:
In this example, booking the same flight through American costs 6,500 miles in economy (just ~8% more miles) or 22,000 miles in business (10% more). And it might sometimes be more than that, given American Airlines utilizes dynamic pricing.
So, why go through Etihad? One reason is that Etihad partners with many more transferable bank points. American Airlines transfer partners are few and far between, so booking awards through Etihad makes these awards much more accessible.
Finding American Award Availability via Etihad Guest
The biggest issue when booking through partner award programs is that there needs to be partner award availability. In this case, this isn't really a limitation. We find that American offers tons of availability to Etihad for these short-haul domestic routes.
For example, a search from Washington, D.C. (DCA) to Charleston (CHS) showed open award space on every flight that day, all at 6,000 miles:
There's even plenty of availability when looking at busier U.S. airports — here are the search results for flights from Los Angeles to San Francisco that can be booked for 6,000 Etihad miles:
How to Earn Etihad Guest Miles
Etihad miles are surprisingly easy to earn, even if you’ve never flown the airline or its partners. The fastest way is through transfers from major bank rewards programs, including:
That means you can accumulate points and miles that transfer to Etihad Guest by getting any of the following cards:
- Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card: Earn 75,000 Miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within 3 months from account opening.
- American Express® Gold Card: Earn 60,000 Membership Rewards® Points after you spend $6,000 on eligible purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership.
- Citi Strata Premier℠ Card: Earn 60,000 bonus ThankYou® Points after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months of account opening, redeemable for $600 in gift cards or travel rewards at thankyou.com.
Other ways to earn Etihad miles
Etihad sells miles at a standard rate of 2 cents per mile, so 6,000 miles would cost around $120. But it often runs promotions with 20–50% bonuses. With a 25% bonus, that drops your cost to $100 for a one-way domestic flight.
Depending on the route and cash fare, that can be a solid deal, provided there's award availability. Also, Etihad has relatively strict mileage expiration policies, so be sure to read up before you transfer in points or buy them outright.
Bottom Line
This is one of the most useful (and underrated) sweet spots in the AA partner ecosystem. Etihad Guest lets you book American Airlines flights under 500 miles for just 6,000 miles, and you can use transferable bank points to do it.
Short flights like these can be a huge time-saver, especially when a drive between cities would take several hours. Of the 296 nonstop routes available at this price, over 100 are more than 400 miles in length.
While we focused on routes under 500 miles in this post, remember that American award flights between 501 and 1,000 miles can be booked for 12,000 Etihad miles. This distance band includes even more appealing routes to different regions of the U.S. or even to Mexico or the Caribbean.
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