AwardWallet receives compensation from advertising partners for links on the blog. The opinions expressed here are our own and have not been reviewed, provided, or approved by any bank advertiser. Here's our complete list of Advertisers.
Etihad Guest has improved its loyalty program benefits, effective immediately. Gold, Platinum, and Emerald members now receive an up-to-10% discount when booking Promo seat awards. Commenting on the new perk in a press release, Mark Potter, Managing Director of Etihad Guest at Etihad Airways, stated:
“Etihad Guest strives to offer exceptional experiences and bespoke benefits exclusively for our members. The enhancements to our Promo seats are designed to offer even greater value to our most engaged members. Introducing exclusive discounts allows us to ensure our members enjoy greater value and more rewarding redemption opportunities, aligning with what our members appreciate the most.”
How Lucrative Is Etihad's New Promo Seat Discount?
If you are a fan of flying Etihad’s premium cabins, then this new Promo seat discount could save you a ton of miles.
Take, for instance, a Promo seat in First Class from Toronto to Abu Dhabi. Typically, this will set you back 200,000 miles plus taxes and fees. With a 10% discount, that would be 180,000 miles plus taxes and fees. That is a significant saving of 20,000 miles.
This is doubly true if you are transferring or buying Etihad miles for your redemption.
Flying business class, there is still substantial savings to be had. For instance and award between Sydney SYD and Abu Dhabi AUH will set you back 120,000 miles plus taxes and fees. With the new benefit, Gold, Platinum & Emerald members would redeem as few as 108,000 miles plus taxes and fees. That is a saving of 12,000 miles, which, while not huge, is still nothing to be sneezed at.
The only wrinkle is that Etihad describes the benefit as “up to 10% off the regular Promo Seat fare.” That leaves some ambiguity, and it will likely take time and data points from eligible elites to determine whether the discount consistently approaches 10% or is often less.
Will This Etihad Guest Discount Become a Permanent Perk?
While Etihad indicated that this will be a permanent perk. It is worth noting that so far, Etihad has not updated its tier benefits page, adding this perk as a core benefit. There is no indication why, so it may be that Etihad is testing this benefit and may remove it at some later date.
Our Take
The bottom line is that this is a great little perk if you regularly fly Etihad premium cabins and hold status. Over the course of a few flights in a year, you can end up saving hundreds of thousands of miles. That said, the new benefit is not a big enough temptation to make most people reassess their travel loyalty strategies and switch to Etihad!
