Etihad Guest Frequent Flyer Program

Discover everything you need to know about the Etihad Airways frequent flyer program.

The national airline of the United Arab Emirates, Etihad Airways, was birthed in Abu Dhabi in 2003. With over 100 of the latest aircraft in its passenger fleet, an airline partnership of 8 and over 40 codeshare partner airlines, Etihad offers a combined network of over 400 destinations across 6 continents. It has also been named the “World’s Leading Airline” by the World Travel Awards for seven consecutive years (since 2009).

This page provides a comprehensive guide to the Etihad Guest frequent flyer program, including how you can earn and redeem miles and rewards as an Etihad Guest.

How does the Etihad Guest program work?

The Etihad Guest program is similar to most other frequent flyer programs, except it distinguishes itself by providing members with unique flexibility and lack of restrictions. As such, unlike other airlines, you can redeem as little as one Etihad Guest Mile when using your points for products, flights or upgrades and pay the remainder with cash.

Membership is also free for anyone. You can sign up online by following these steps:

1. Go to the Etihad Guest website.
2. Click the “Join now” button located under the Etihad Guest logo, or click “Sign up”.
3. Take a few minutes to fill in the online form with your personal and contact details. You will be asked to create a login password and choose the types of updates you wish to receive by email.
4. Read the Privacy Policy and tick the box to indicate your agreement with the Terms and Conditions.
5. Submit your form by clicking the “Join Now” button at the base of the page.

Etihad Guest membership tiers

When you sign up as an Etihad Guest frequent flyer, you start off at the basic Etihad Guest tier. You earn Tier Miles based on the miles flown, allowing your membership level to progress to Silver, Gold and Platinum levels. Your Tier Miles refer to actual miles travelled and are tracked in any rolling 12-month period. You can also earn extra Tier Miles known as Class Bonus Miles when you fly in higher classes.

How to earn Etihad Guest Miles

As with most frequent flyer programs, you earn Etihad Guest Miles by clocking miles on Etihad Airways or its airline partners, or by spending money at any of its partner establishments. Etihad Guest also offers one or two more unconventional options for earning your Miles, which we’ve outlined below.

Flying with Etihad and its partner airlines

Flights with Etihad

Earn Etihad Guest Miles each time you fly with Etihad. Remember to quote your Etihad Guest Number when booking to ensure that you receive your miles. Booking classes N, I and O are not eligible for earning Miles. Otherwise, the number of Miles you earn depends on your fare class:

Flights with partners

Using a rewards credit card

Currently, there are no Australian credit cards directly linked to the Etihad Guest program, so the only way to earn your Etihad Guest Miles is indirectly via a separate card rewards program that allows you to convert rewards points into Etihad Guest Miles. At the point of writing, American Express credit cards enable you to do this, as well as credit cards that earn flybuys.

• American Express

Your Membership Rewards points are valued at 1:1 with Etihad Guest Miles. The stipulated minimum transfer is 1,000 points and your transfer usually takes up to three business days to process. You can sometimes enjoy a 20–30% transfer bonus during promotional periods, so that’s worth looking out for.

• flybuys

Your flybuys points can be converted into Etihad Guest Miles at a rate of 10,000 flybuys points to 4,000 Etihad Guest Miles. This means you can earn Etihad Guest Miles by shopping at flybuys partner stores including Kmart, OPSM, Liquorland, Adidas and Fitbit.

All you need to do is link your flybuys and Etihad Guest accounts at flybuys online under “Link my accounts”, then select the Etihad Guest Miles rewards option. The transfer usually takes up to five business days.

On top of earning Guest Miles, flybuys also allows you to earn Tier Miles that count towards your tier status in the Etihad Guest program. The regular non-promotional earn rate is 1 Tier Mile for each $1 spent at Coles Supermarkets, Coles Online, Coles Express, Liquorland and First Choice Liquor, up to 2,500 Tier Miles a month.

Note tobacco, charity donations and gift card purchases are excluded. Your Tier Miles usually take up to two weeks at the end of the calendar month to be credited to your Etihad Guest membership account.

On the flip side, you can collect 1 flybuys point per $1 spent on Etihad bookings. You can also periodically earn 10x or 20x flybuys points when booking Etihad flights using a flybuys promotional booking link.

Staying with hotel partners

Earn Etihad Guest Miles when you stay at the following hotels, or convert your hotel loyalty points to Etihad Guest Miles. Note that the earn rate and conversion rate for each hotel may vary across properties and Guest membership tiers, so please visit the Etihad Guest website for more specific information.

Shopping with retail and lifestyle partners

Etihad has an international network of retail and lifestyle partners that allow you to earn Guest Miles. Presently, most of these stores are located in the UAE, with the most accessible ones to Australians being flybuys and Gilt.com.

The Gilt store is an online luxury brands store where Etihad Guest members earn 2 Guest Miles per $1 spent, and Silver, Gold and Platinum members earn 3 Guest Miles per $1 spent. A special first purchase offer provides 1,000 bonus Etihad Guest Miles when you spend over $50, and a discount of up to 60% off various labels.

In addition to flybuys and Gilt, The Economist and TripAdvisor are two of Etihad’s other lifestyle partners that you can access online. Please visit the Etihad Guest website for more specific information about its individual partner stores.

Rent a car with a vehicle hire partner

Etihad has active partnerships with six global car hire companies. We’ve outlined the different offers they provide below:

Family pooling

A special feature of the Etihad Guest program is its “Family Membership” option, which lets you pool all the Guest Miles earned by anyone in your family into a single account so that the Miles can be shared and enjoyed by everyone. Create a family account by nominating a Family Head and adding up to eight Family Guests.

Each time any one of your family travels, 100% of the Miles earned along with any Bonus Miles will be credited to the Family Head’s account. However, each member will continue to receive their Tier Miles and enjoy their personal tier benefits, which are non-transferrable.

Other ways to earn Etihad Guest Miles

Some other options for earning Etihad Guest Miles include:

• Telecommunications. Mobily, OneSimCard, Etisalat and Travelling Connect are a few of the different providers who allow you to earn Guest Miles.
• Offers. Check the Etihad Guest website for periodic offers that will help boost your Miles. For example, you could earn 1,000 Miles for staying at a certain hotel, or double Miles for booking your car rental at a specific time.

How to redeem Etihad Guest Miles

Once you’ve accumulated enough Guest Miles, all you need to do to use them is log into your online Etihad Guest account. You can use your Miles to redeem a variety of rewards, including:

• Etihad flights. Simply head to the Etihad website and find “Book flights with miles” under the “Plan and book” section. For a one-way flight from Sydney to Abu Dhabi currently, you'll be paying 51,145 Miles plus $151.97 for the cheapest discount Economy seat.
• Airline partner flights. You may also use your Guest Miles for flight bookings with Etihad airline partners by calling the Etihad Guest Service Centre. Time regulations apply, so make sure to call in advance. For instance, Air New Zealand flights must be booked at least 14 days before your intended departure date while Virgin Australia flights need to be booked at least 24 hours beforehand.
• Seat upgrades. You can also use your Miles to upgrade a seat you've already paid for. This option is only available on Etihad-operated flights, and you can book it online. Tickets cannot be upgraded to The Residence class, and some ticket and fare classes are also not eligible for upgrades, so do your research before buying your ticket if you plan to upgrade. Currently a Melbourne to Abu Dhabi flight can be upgraded from Economy to Business class with 44,013–88,026 Miles, depending on which Economy fare class ticket you hold. The same flight can be upgraded from Business to First class with 66,020 Miles.
• Excess baggage. If you plan on taking a fair bit of luggage on your flight, you can use your points to pay for your excess baggage. Simply log in and head to “Excess Baggage using Miles” where you will be required to fill in a short online form with details of your flight. This service is only redeemable on Etihad-operated flights, at least 48 hours before your flight departure time. Restrictions may apply for certain destinations.
• Donate your Miles. You can elect to donate your Guest Miles to a variety of charities supported by Etihad. Some of their current initiatives include “Delivering basic education and health to children in Bangladesh slums”, “Helping to end avoidable blindness” and “ClimateCare: protecting the environment by improving lives”.
• Raffle tickets. From time to time, Etihad runs raffle ticket promotions where you can use your Miles to enter a draw for certain prizes. These can include prizes such as an amazing Formula 1 travel package, where each raffle ticket costs 100 Miles and you can buy as many as you like to increase your chances of winning.
• Reward shop. Like most frequent flyer stores, the Etihad Guest program has a range of items you can spend your Miles on. The usual big brands feature, and product categories include travel, fashion, electronics, home and living, sports and outdoors, and more.
• PointsPay. This is the latest addition to your Etihad Guest Miles redemption options, where you can literally convert your Miles into cash. To begin, download the PointsPay app and create your account. Add your Etihad Guest Number and follow the instructions to convert your Miles into cash. You can spend your converted cash at over 30 million participating in-store and online shops worldwide. Learn more at the Etihad Guest or PointsPay websites.

Limitations to consider

• Points expiry. Unlike some other frequent flyer programs, Etihad Guest Miles expire on the last day of the month, two years from the time they are earned. For Etihad Guest Silver members, this validity period is two-and-a-half years, while Gold and Platinum members get three years.

• Flight upgrade restriction. For now, you can only upgrade flights operated by Etihad Airways.

• Geography of non-airline partners. Most of the current Etihad retail and lifestyle partners are located in the UAE, which restricts earning or redeeming points when you’re based in Australia.

How does Etihad Guest compare to other frequent flyer programs?

The following is a simple benefit comparison of Etihad Guest, Virgin Velocity and Qantas Frequent Flyer programs. To find out how Etihad Guest stacks up in terms of flight rewards value against another frequent flyer program, you may wish to research the particular airlines and their routes, and perform some simple miles redemption calculations for your own comparison.

Points expiry

Etihad Guest Miles expire 2–3 years after they are earned, depending on your membership level. This is a unique restriction among frequent flyer programs.

In comparison, Qantas Frequent Flyer and Virgin Velocity Frequent Flyer programs allow users to keep their points as long as their accounts are not inactive beyond 18 or 24 months respectively, which means you can continue to earn and redeem points for years without expiry.

Status comparison

The table below shows the number of Tier Miles or Status Credits earned for a one-way Business class flight from Sydney to Abu Dhabi, or Sydney to Dubai (in the case of available Qantas routes).

As you can see, it takes 2.90 or 3 of these flights to reach Etihad Guest Silver membership or:

• 1.56 or two similar flights with Virgin
• 1.67 or two similar flights with Qantas

Let's now compare the benefits of the Guest Silver membership to the equivalent silver memberships of both Qantas and Virgin.

Frequently asked questions