Etihad Airways’ Guest Frequent Flyer program has a launched a partner transfer bonus similar in vain to the ones we see from Aeroplan and other programs during various times of the year. This one however is not tiered like the Aeroplan offer as it offers a straight 20% on points transferred from select partners into Etihad Guest miles. The offer can be found here and is good until November 30th. These are the partners that are participating
- Rezidor – Club Carlson
- IHG – Priority Club
- Hilton HHonors
- Hyatt Gold Passport
- Le Club Accor Hotels
- Shangri-La Golden Circle
- IHG Rewards Club
- Amex Membership Rewards
- Citibank CitiMiles
- Emirates Islamic Bank
- Etisalat Rewards
- HSBC UK
- Mobily
For us here in Canada you could look at transferring from several of the hotel programs participating but most of them don’t have attractive transfer rates like Starwood Preferred Guest, which unfortunately is not participating in this offer. So what else is there, well American Express Membership Rewards of course since they are a participating partner. Canadian Membership Rewards points transfer to Etihad Guest at a rate of 1 point to .75 miles. Which means with this promotion you’ll end up getting 1 Mile per Membership Rewards point unless of course you earn those points with a category bonus on the American Express Gold Rewards Card or the 1.25 point earn rate on The Platinum Card. When you take those into account you’ll up the return on your spend if you choose to convert to Etihad Guest. I don’t see many of you taking advantage of this unless you regularly fly between Toronto and Abu Dhabi on Etihad or are planning to as their award flight redemption rates tend to be high compared to other programs (an example Nov 13-20 in Economy has Etihad Guest at 106,300 miles + ~$600 in fees while Aeroplan is 80,000 Miles + ~$700 in fees but not direct)
More details on this offer can be found here.