Following in the footsteps of the fun promotion from SAS Scandinavian EuroBonus last fall, we have Etihad Guest offering a new Race to Fly promotion to win up to 5 million Guest Miles. The main difference between SAS’ promotion and Etihad’s is this offer is more of a challenge oriented contest rather than a promotion that anyone can earn like the one seen from the Scandinavian carrier.
Win up to 5 million Guest Miles
With Etihad Airways’ Race to Fly promotion the first Etihad Guest member who has registered for this promotion that flies to all of Etihad’s 15 new destinations will win 5 millions Guest Miles. The next member to do so will win 3 millions miles and the third will win 1 million miles. That’s it. Three people will become Guest millionaires which makes this promotion much more difficult and definitely less lucrative than the SAS EuroBonus million points promotion from last year.
Members can register for this offer right away and start flying right away to try to win. There is no specified end date to the promotion other than what I would assume is once three members hit all 15 cities it will be over.
The 15 cities that need to be visited
These are the 15 cities registered members must fly to or from:
- Algiers
- Atlanta
- Chiang Mai
- Hanoi
- Hong Kong
- Krabi
- Medan
- Peshawar
- Phnom Penh
- Taipei
- Tunis
- Addis Ababa
- Sochi
- Prague
- Warsaw
The terms and conditions are quite vague in what is required for actually flying to or from these cities? All they state is “Ensure to add their Etihad Guest membership number to all the flights booked as part of the competition and to be eligible for the competition” so one think you could even fly on Etihad Guest partner airlines but I highly doubt that is the case since it is a contest to promote Etihad’s new flights to these cities so I am almost sure you would have to fly on Etihad.
Wrapping it up
We have another interesting “big miles” promotion on our hands but in all honesty it is much less exciting or interesting than the promotion we saw from SAS EuroBonus. To it bluntly, do you put the time and effort in to fly to these 15 cities to potentially end up with nothing other than the miles you normally earn for the flights? Sure the experience may be fun and worth it in the end even without winning the miles but please know that if you are thinking about going for it. you’ll probably want to get down to Atlanta and fly on Etihad out of ATL as soon as possible (like by tomorrow) and then base yourself in Abu Dhabi (Etihad’s hub) and fly every other route as soon as possible (likely fly to Prague, take a train to Warsaw right away or vice-versa and fly back the next day etc.)
UPDATE: I should have done more research – none of the routes have actually launched yet, Atlanta doesn’t start until July, Prague and Warsaw are in June and others start over the course of the rest of this year. It really makes this promotion even less attractive to Canadians.
Click here to learn more about this promotion and to register for it
