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This Etihad Guest buy miles promotion has ended. However, you can still purchase Etihad Guest miles here.
For a limited time, Etihad Guest is offering a promotion to buy miles with up to a 50% bonus. Now through June 24, 2023, members can pick up Etihad miles for as little as 1.33¢ each. This isn't the best deal we've seen from Etihad Guest, and with the recent devaluation of Etihad award charts, it's harder to find good value for award flight redemptions.
A Note on Buying Miles
First, we need to address the elephant in the room. We never recommend buying miles speculatively. Programs can devalue at any time (such as Etihad's), long-term travel plans can change, and the last thing anybody needs is a substantial pile of miles they can't use.
However, that doesn't mean buying miles is always a losing proposition. If you're right at the cusp of being able to book your next redemption, buying miles can be an easy (and affordable) way to make it happen. Additionally, buying miles can sometimes be a fantastic way to book premium-cabin travel at a significant discount compared to paying cash.
This used to be true with Etihad Guest when partner award charts were full of sweet spots to leverage. However, Etihad Guest recently overhauled its mileage charts. So first, make sure that your favorite use of Etihad Guest miles is still available before buying them.
Key Terms
- Buy miles promotion is valid through June 24, 2023.
- Etihad Guest members can purchase a maximum of 100,000 miles annually (150,000 maximum for Platinum members).
- Purchased miles typically post instantly, although some purchases may take up to 72 hours.
- Purchased miles do not count toward status upgrades.
- Mile purchases are non-refundable.
This tiered promotion offers different bonus amounts at different purchase levels:
- 1,000 miles: No bonus (2¢ per mile)
- 2,000–10,000 miles: 25% bonus (1.6¢ per mile)
- 11,000–25,000 miles: 35% bonus (1.48¢ per mile)
- 26,000–100,000 miles: 50% bonus (1.33¢ per mile)
If you buy the maximum number of miles in this sale, you can purchase 100,000 (150,000 with bonus) Etihad Guest miles for $2,000. That's 1.33¢ per mile.
When Does It Make Sense to Buy Etihad Miles?
One of the interesting things about Etihad is that it doesn't belong to any of the major airline alliances — such as Oneworld, SkyTeam, or Star Alliance. Instead, Etihad maintains individual partnerships with 21 other airlines.
Etihad used to have different rules and award charts for each airline partner, but a March 2023 devaluation streamlined award redemptions by publishing two award charts: one for Etihad flights and one for all of its partners.
Most sweet spots went away, and one of the few positive changes was for booking flights under 500 miles operated by American Airlines. Those flights used to cost 12,500 Etihad miles in economy but now can be booked for only 6,000 miles. That's the same amount Air Canada Aeroplan charges for partner flights (e.g., on United) under 500 miles. It's nice to have that option for short hops with two different programs.
Abu Dhabi — Sydney in Etihad Business Class
Using miles on Etihad, especially in business and first class, can be astronomically high — even for short to intermediate flights. But if you look for redemption options using Etihad's search function, you can get lucky and find some gems. For example, this flight from Abu Dhabi to Sydney in business class will run you (on average) upwards of 600,000+ Etihad Guest miles plus taxes. But a deal at 110k changes the story.
- Mileage rate: 110,005 miles + $545 taxes one way
- Typical cash price: $5,675 one way
- Redemption rate: 4.66¢ per mile
- Cost to buy exactly 110,005 Etihad miles at 1.33¢ each: $1,463 one way
Tokyo — Los Angeles in ANA Business Class
If you use one of the many awards charts with the 21 airline partners with Etihad, you might be able to find some good deals. Although specific sweet spots have now gone, using the awards charts is nothing if not consistent. Depending on the cash rate for specific flights, it might make sense to grab a flight with one of Etihad's partners. On All Nippon Airways (ANA), for example, you can grab a flight from Tokyo to Los Angeles in business class for half the cost of the cash rate — assuming you buy miles with a bonus.
- Mileage rate: 120,000 miles one way
- Typical cash price: $3,711 one way
- Redemption rate: 3.1¢ per mile
- Cost to buy exactly 120,000 Etihad miles at 1.33¢ each: $1,596 one way
Vancouver — Seoul in Air Canada Business Class
Although there are no specific sweet spots, you can definitely make good assumptions on which routes will yield the best return. Flights that are long-distance and on nice airlines with expensive business class are going to be your “sweet spots” in this scenario. Air Canada's business class is hailed as one of the best. So grabbing an 11.5-hour flight from Vancouver to Seoul would be taking full advantage of this Etihad promotion to buy miles at a lower cost than buying a flight. For this flight, you would be saving close to 50% of the cash rate.
- Mileage rate: 120,000 miles one way
- Typical cash price: $3,528 one way
- Redemption rate: 2.94¢ per mile
- Cost to buy exactly 120,000 Etihad miles at 1.33¢ each: $1,596 one way
Maximizing Your Purchase
Purchases of Etihad Guest miles are processed by Points.com, so it won't code as travel on your credit card. Thus, use one of these cards to buy Etihad miles:
- Any credit card where you're working on a sign-up bonus. These are the best welcome offers available right now.
- Any credit card with perks you can unlock from spending, such as hotel free night awards, hotel elite status, or airline elite status.
- Your best credit card for everyday spending, such as the Citi Double Cash® Card or Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card.
Related: Which Credit Card Should You Use to Buy Points and Miles?
Other Ways to Earn Etihad Miles
You don't have to buy Etihad miles if your balance is short of what's needed for an award that you want. Etihad Guest miles are pretty easy to come by. Other than flying on cash fares or buying miles, Etihad is a transfer partner with four of the major transferable currencies:
- American Express Membership Rewards: 1:1 transfer ratio; transfers process immediately
- Capital One Rewards: 1:1 transfer ratio; transfers process immediately
- Citi ThankYou Points: 1:1 transfer ratio; transfers typically take one hour
- Marriott Bonvoy: 3:1 transfer ratio, plus a 5,000-mile bonus for each 60,000 points you transfer; transfers typically take three to five days
Sharing Etihad Guest Miles
Etihad Guest allows members to share miles with one another. If you're just short of your next redemption or your friend doesn't have enough miles to use, you can initiate a transfer with a small fee. Note these rules:
- To give miles via a transfer, accounts must have at least 1,000 miles.
- Etihad levies a 10% service fee for mile transfers. For example, if you transfer 50,000 miles, Etihad will keep 5,000 miles as a fee.
This is a fantastic way to pool miles between friends. Moreover, you can also create a family pool to share miles freely with your family, all earning them together into one big pot from which to redeem for future flights.
Bottom Line
Paying 1.33¢ per Etihad mile is a solid deal, but isn't the best deal we've seen to buy Etihad miles. The best deal offered miles at 1.18¢ apiece. We don't know when (or if) that kind of promotion will ever return. If you have a redemption in mind, this promotion could be worth considering. It can still present a reasonable deal against buying a ticket with cash. Just be sure to do the math beforehand.
Are you going to buy Etihad miles at 1.33¢ apiece?
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
It doesnt seem to reflect the bonus when I login, any tips?
Excelente opção para quem precisa viajar de urgência, muitas vezes a compra de milhas se faz super em conta e necessário,
Muy buena noticia
this looks like a good deal! i will be signing up! great offer!
$1.33 cents per mile is really a bargain, what an excellent offer
Been itching to try this airline… This just might be the ticket
Some really good sweet spots on partners. Any idea how easy it is to book. search via web site and general availability? Also would be helpful to highlight on all these points purchases if points expire or not.
Ed – a good point about expiration. We’ll include this going forward. For reference, Etihad’s miles expire after 18mo of no activity in your account. For bookings, it depends on which partner you want. Unfortunately, all partner bookings require a phone call for reservations. To find availability, I’d search on your preferred program in that alliance (oneworld, SkyTeam, etc.) or on Expert Flyer to confirm award space exists, then call with a plan A and plan B. I’ve found that feeding them “I want flight 123 on December 10, departing Miami at 10:05am” makes things go super fast, rather than waiting for them to do a search.
Amazing deal considering some of the fabulous premium-class redemptions possible. Great to share with friends and family.
Somewhat concerned due to feeling like Etihad is downsizing/downgrading their flight offering, but I guess that’s less of a concern to use sweet spots on partners.
It just feels “Avianca” to me 🙂
I think this is an excellent promotion for topping your balance account
Great price, Etihad miles still make great value in spite of recent changes
Do EY still have hard expiring miles?
Otherwise, great way to get cheap VA redemptions, better than Velocity itself.
Try other ways to earn miles before you buy. Buy when you need to top up your account.
Pretty easy to get more than 1.25c in value out of these miles.
Anyone know why the bonus offer wouldn’t be appearing when I log into my account to buy miles? Are there any eligibility requirements such as earned miles?
Hi Kevin, I’m getting the same thing when I log into my account. Maybe the promo was removed early? Is anyone still seeing this bonus?
Normally I wouldn´t buy miles except if they have a bonus, I think this is a good bonus percent
Buying miles is never a good deal.
As someone who’s bought plenty of miles/points, I disagree with this statement. However, I will say that buying miles should be the last resort if you aren’t able to generate miles/points through other means (credit card sign-ups, transferring points, etc.)
This statement is just plain wrong, sometimes buying miles can represent outstanding value. Of course obtaining the points by other means is usually better, but compared a cash far buying the miles can sometime come out way, way ahead.
thanks for the info…
I prefer to transfer miles. Buying miles is never typically a good deal.
Agreed. Transferring miles is almost always better than buying miles. However, if you’re tapped out of points/miles, buying miles can make sense in some cases – especially at this rate!
I just purchased it with 60% bonus. I usually redeem EY miles for SV (Saudia) biz class. Also the SV Biz flight between Riyadh-Abu Dhabi biz costs 10K EY miles. Better purchase at this price rather than transfer TYP points.
That’s a great redemption rate!
Are any of the countries that Etihad fly to open to Americans without testing?
You’ll need a COVID test to enter Abu Dhabi, not sure about purely transferring through.
the bonus would make buying worthwhile- thanks for the update!
Whilst Etihad (and Emirates) have an impressive list of partners, I would much rather see them in one of the alliances. There are some very impressive redemption offers shown though.
Why buy miles and not buy the ticket directly? it’s cheaper?
I loved this Air Morocco business. Etihad is a very good airline. But all redemptions shown are from partners…
Unless you’re going to Abu Dhabi/Dubai not worth it!
volar por Etihad es un placer!! El programa de premios es de lo mejor al que he podido acceder, he obtenido varios premios . Interesante es la propuesta de la compra de millas, no sabia que podia hacerlo. Gracias por la info.
Although there are some outsized awards on Etihad or its partner airlines, it might be hard to book them so make sure that you will be able to use the miles that you buy.
If you aren’t really familiar with the airline in question’s redemption processes, fees, and blackout dates, it can make getting bang for your buck really tricky with buying miles….
It’s true that there are very good redemptions with some partners but the big disadvantage is that to book you need to call and their customer service is not one of the best.
Its very important información, thanks very much
What are redemption fees and surcharges like?
Ir seems it is worth buying miles for future redemptions.
very good information, thank you very much
I like Etihad, but the allure of the apartment was a lot of that. Hard to see me not looking elsewhere now for luxury trips.
There is always going to be good deals with miles but you have to travel at specific dates /flights where the deal is available. But in these times I wont buy miles nothing is certain covis19 cases are up ,part of europe is going to lockdown and if it takes a while that you can’t use the miles and the airline decide to devalue the miles. It was all for nothing.
Unless you need the miles right now for a specific plan, it would be better to wait for when they can be bought at 1.2c each.
A decent enough promotion. So many people ignore how useful a program Etihad is.
Agreed. And I think that keeps the sweet spots sweet for those of us who pay attention to it!
I’ve always wondered if these purchase deals were worth it. Thanks for the great write up!
Is it safe though engaging right now in buying miles that we don’t necessarily know we will be able to use?
Very rare Etihad gives such bonus, only problem is when you want to use these miles in biz class you will not find a seat unless you are their elite member
Overall – how would you rank Etihad safety wise? (Covid-19 percautions, as well as the usual)
Normally I would have considered it, as their first class Apartment is such a great deal (flew it from Australia once on AA miles) but since they are not using their A380 for a while and there is even a risk of a total restructure of the airline looming, I’ll pass.
Nice deal there. Still doesn’t beat the $200 round trip mistake fare I bought a few years ago from the US to Abu Dhabi. Let’s get another one of those!
I remember that mistake fare and being frustrated that my schedule didn’t allow me to take advantage of it. I’ve gotten other ones though,
JFK-BRU is a really cool redemption, but Brussels Airlines hardly releases award seats on this route IME.
This airline is good , actually their on board service very good compare to the many garbage airlines like united delta american etc…
The problem with Etihad is when you want to use your points(miles) say between JFK-AbuDhabi-JFK, the rate they want is over 750,000
They might as well add one kidney (for one way) both kidneys for round trip …..PATHETIC !!
Standard award rates have really gotten out of hand. In case you aren’t aware, they have a subset of awards called SaverGuest that are much more reasonably priced—but they have limited availability. You might also want to look at partner airlines. Etihad has a great lineup of partners and the pricing is also quite good with many of them.
the bonus miles seems to be a good deal. they give ample amount so thats good. Never flown with Etihad before, so I am looking forward to it
I’ve always wondered if these purchase deals were worth it. Thanks for the great write up!
Although this might be a good deal for redemptions right now, and I would love to experience their in flignt offerings, I just don’t think it is worth the risk.
Yes, I agree. I would only buy them before I knew 99% that I was ready to take a trip, and that there was availability for that trip.
Is this applys in wich countries?
This promotion doesn’t seem limited to particular countries. Let us know if you see something different!