FLASH SALE: Buy Etihad Miles From Just 1.25 Cents Each

Some links to products and travel providers on this website will earn Traveling For Miles a commission that helps contribute to the running of the site. Traveling For Miles has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Traveling For Miles and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities. For more details please see the disclosures found at the bottom of every page.

Etihad Guest is back with a new mileage sale and, thanks to Etihad’s partnership with American Airlines and generous award pricing, it represents a very good opportunity to purchase cheap miles that can be redeemed for great value awards on American Airlines…but you have just 4 days to make the most of this deal.

Etihad Guest Mileage Sale

The sale has three tiers:

• Buy 6,000 – 20,000 miles and receive a 20% Bonus
• Buy 21,000 – 40,000 miles and receive a 40% Bonus
• Buy 41,000+ miles and receive a 60% Bonus

Platinum members can purchase up to 150,000 miles/year while all other Etihad Guest members may buy a total of 100,000 miles/year.

Click To Buy Etihad Guest Miles

Headline Terms & Conditions

• Promotion runs to 23:59 PDT on 18 June 2020
• Additional GST/HST will be charged to Canadian residents.
• The Maximum miles that a member can purchase in a calendar year will be based on their Membership Tier at the time of making a purchase.
• Purchased miles are not refundable and are applicable towards all Etihad Guest awards.
• Miles purchased using this option will post instantly, in some cases it can take up to 72 hours until the miles are credited.
• Purchased miles do not count towards status upgrades.
• All standard Etihad Guest program rules and conditions apply.

The Math

The cost per mile varies depending on the bonus on offer (obviously!) but within each bonus band, the cost remains constant. What is means is that, regardless of whether you buy 41,000 miles…

…or 100,000 miles…

…or a number of miles in between, you’ll always be buying miles at the cheapest rate this sale offers – 1.25 cents.

Using Etihad Guest Miles On American Airlines

This sale isn’t quite as good as the “best ever” we saw Etihad running back in April (the cost per mile was 1.20 cents in that sale) but this still represents a great opportunity to book some very cheap premium cabin Awards on American Airlines.

As I’ve shown in the past, Etihad Guest miles can be used to book American Airlines saver awards at a very attractive rate thanks to the fact that Etihad uses an award chart which is very similar to an American Airlines award chart dating back before the disastrous devaluation of 2016.

These are the highlights from this chart:

• USA – Europe roundtrip Business Class award: 100,000 Etihad Guest Miles
• USA – Europe roundtrip First Class award: 125,000 Etihad Guest Miles
• USA – Australia/New Zealand roundtrip Business Class award: 125,000 Etihad Guest Miles
• USA – China/Hong Kong roundtrip Business Class award: 110,000 Etihad Guest Miles
• USA – China/Hong Kong roundtrip First Class award: 135,000 Etihad Guest Miles

Thankfully (an unusually for most Etihad mileage sales), it’s possible to buy enough miles in this sale for any of the awards listed above. If you still need more miles, it’s worth remembering that Etihad is a transfer partner for Chase, Citi, and Amex so it isn’t hard to top up an Etihad Guest account.

Here’s how these awards would price up assuming a cost of 1.25 cents/mile (not including taxes and fees):

• USA – Europe roundtrip Business Class award: $1,250
• USA – Europe roundtrip First Class award: $1,563
• USA – Australia/New Zealand roundtrip Business Class award: $1,563
• USA – China/Hong Kong roundtrip Business Class award: $1,375
• USA – China/Hong Kong roundtrip First Class award: $1,688

Taxes and fees would need to be added in but they should be insignificant for flights to/from the US as long as you avoid the UK (where departure taxes are particularly high)

Warnings

Firstly, there’s a big issue here that’s important to flag – finding American Airlines saver awards can be tough.

American is very bad at releasing premium cabin saver awards on its own flights so no one should be buying Etihad Guest Miles before checking that the award they’re planning to book is actually available.

I’ve written about the one essential rule to follow when buying miles or points before and its a rule that’s worth bearing in mind before buying any miles in this sale.

Secondly, I should also point out that I’m of the opinion that the American/Etihad relationship may not be around this time next year so while any awards booked now (while the relationship is intact) will be honored even if the travel dates are for after the relationship has ended, this is another reason not to buy miles without a plan for using them in the short-term.

Bottom Line

If you can find premium cabin saver award availability on American Airlines this Etihad mileage sale could offer a great way to book those awards at truly fantastic rates – As long as you don’t buy miles without checking that the award you’d like to book is available, it’s hard for you to go wrong here…and I don’t get to type that sentence very often!

Click To Buy Etihad Guest Miles