Etihad have just revealed changes to its Etihad Guest Program. While the changes are overwhelmingly negative, there are a few bright spots which I will get to in a minute.

The new pricing is effective as of today, after Etihad took their IT systems offline over the last couple of days to allow time to implement the changes. I had written about this in one of my earlier post.

What is Changing

Until now, Etihad have operated individual redemption table for each of its airline partner. In addition, members were required to call Etihad Guest Contact Centre to book partner awards.

While members will still need to call the Contact Centre for majority of partner bookings, redemptions on Virgin Australia and American Airlines will be able to be made online which is awesome news for Australia based Etihad Guest members.

Although redemptions are becoming more expensive they are at least getting simpler, as instead of nearly a dozen redemption tables for various partners, we now have just 2. There’s one for travel on Etihad flights;

Etihad Redemption Table for travel on Etihad

and another unified redemption table for travel on partner airlines.

Etihad Redemption Table for travel on Pastner Airlines

Redemptions on Virgin Australia

While these changes impact all of Etihad’s partners, in this post I exclusively want to focus on redemptions on Virgin Australia as that is the one that is most relevant for Australians. Even though most redemptions have gotten pricier, surprisingly, redemption on select routes are cheaper than ever.

Positive Changes

Take a look at the table below which shows one-way Business Class pricing pre and post changes. For reference I have also included Velocity pricing to allow for a fairer comparison.

As you can see, all of the above routes that earlier cost 13,800 Etihad Miles can now be had for just 10,000 Miles. It was already cheaper to redeem Etihad Miles over Velocity Points to fly on these routes prior to the changes, but under the revised pricing, the prices have dropped a further 27.5% 😯

Redeem Etihad Miles to fly Virgin Australia Business Class

For context, it is important to remember that there are significantly more opportunities to earn Velocity points than Etihad Miles in Australia, so even with more expensive pricing you may want to stick to redeeming Velocity points depending on your circumstances.

However, if you were in a situation where you had to transfer Amex points to make the redemption – all else being equal, Etihad Guest Program is the clear winner on these routes.

Negative Changes

With good news out of the way, lets get to the negative changes and focus on some of the earlier sweet-spots that sadly no longer exist. Prior to these changes, Etihad members were able to fly Virgin Australia Business Class on many popular routes for just 13,800 Etihad Miles.

So how did they fare under the new pricing?

As you can tell, redemptions on routes such as Sydney to Queenstown or Melbourne to Hamilton Island have rocketed from 13,800 Miles to 30,000 Miles, that is a jump of nearly 120% 🤕

The pain is felt slightly less (but still quite substantial) on routes such as Melbourne to Perth or Brisbane to Nadi (Fiji) which have gone up in price from 21,800 Miles to 40,000 Miles, or around 83% . If you are looking for a silver lining, it is still slightly cheaper to redeem Etihad Miles than Velocity Points on many of these routes, but the outsized value of the old times no longer exists.

Redemptions on Etihad

Etihad currently operate daily flights from Sydney and Melbourne to Abu Dhabi. Until now, redeeming Etihad Miles for travel on Etihad has offered poor value as these awards were priced dynamically.

This has often resulted in members shelling-out hundreds of thousands of Miles (millions even) for a one-way Business Class flight between Australia and Abu Dhabi, unless they were able to find the elusive Etihad Guest Reward Seat.

Etihad B-787 Business Class Seat

As per the new pricing, a one-way Business Class redemption from Sydney and Melbourne to Abu Dhabi and beyond should cost a fixed 110,000 Etihad Miles as both these routes clock at more than 6,001 miles in distance.

But, Etihad have added a clause which states that A premium redemption fare will be applied based on demand and availability. This sounds like Etihad will continue with the practice of dynamic pricing for travel on its own metal. If so, it might be better to look at options such as Aeroplan to book travel on Etihad.

In Conclusion

Etihad Guest have just published changes to it’s award pricing, and as was widely expected, the changes are overwhelmingly negative.

While there is undoubtedly a lot of bad news here, partner pricing on a limited number of routes have improved and members can now book Virgin Australia and American Airline redemptions directly on Etihad’s website without needing to call Etihad Guest Contact Centre, which is a big positive.

Personally speaking, as painful as these changes are I expected them to be a lot worse.

What do you make of the changes to Etihad Guest redemptions on Virgin Australia? Leave a comment below.