Jan 13, 2015, 1:39 pm
Last edit by: JDiver
Awards: Success stories of award booking on Etihad using AA miles (>= 2015)
This thread is about our members' successful award bookings on Etihad / EY using AAdvantage miles. Please do not post to this thread if you want tips and assistance on booking Etihad awards with AA miles but see this thread: How to use AA miles on Etihad / EY (Consolidated / Master Thread). The wikipost of that thread also contains instructions on how to search for EY availability.
Note: posts prior to 2015 about this topic (with the exception of a few 2014 end of year posts brought forward for continuity) may be found at ARCHIVE: Success stories of award booking on Etihad using AA miles
Success stories booking awards on Etihad using AA miles (Archive - 2015 and earlier)
Jan 29, 2015, 9:59 pm
#106
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: ORD
Programs: AA ExPlat (2MM), Marriott LT Titanium
Posts: 291
I booked 2 biz seats JFK-AUH for April; took only about 5 minutes with a great ExPlat agent... I checked back at Etihad website after I got my PNR (but before ticketed email) and the availability (as expected) dropped to 0 for biz on that flight.
Jan 30, 2015, 1:29 am
#107
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Sep 2003
Programs: BA Silver, EY Gold, HH Diamond, IHG Plat
Posts: 12,208
Saw 1 seat AUH-LHR on the A380 and thought to call up AA after lunch and it was gone when I got back. That was quick!
Jan 31, 2015, 6:01 pm
#108
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 50
Last week, I put on hold 2 tickets in business for IAD-AUH-MLE in late December; I booked on Tuesday. I put the return MLE-AUH on hold yesterday and booked the return trip this morning when inventory was loaded for AUH-IAD.
No drama, though the MLE segments are popular. There's still decent inventory of the IAD flights in December.
No drama, though the MLE segments are popular. There's still decent inventory of the IAD flights in December.
Feb 1, 2015, 9:22 am
#109
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: DFW
Programs: AA EXP
Posts: 3
I have travelled the AUH-MLE route atleast seven times with the family on AA/EY miles since they started the route a few years ago and have never seen them release more than two seats in J at the "guest" rate. It usually appears to fill up with paid J honeymooners from the UAE or those using a large amount of EY Guest miles. That being said, the flight in J isn't that spectacular, not much more than domestic F ( they are now flying the A330 to MLE with lie flat seats in J so that's nice). Enjoy the flight in F from DFW and expect to sit in Y between AUH and MLE.
Feb 1, 2015, 10:47 pm
#110
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: LAX/BUR
Posts: 525
Just successfully grabbed JFK-AUH-MLE for my friend and I on Etihad. The agent was giving me a hard time for like 20 minutes about making it as one award though. She was telling me that Abu Dhabi was considered Asia and therefore a third region and had to be two separate awards. Told me I'd have to go through Europe. I told her not only is Europe a 3rd region and that makes no sense (even though I know they allow this) and that AUH is the Middle East and therefore part of the region of the Maldives and it even says so on their website. After a call to the rate desk and then to the supervisor, they overrided it and allowed it to be done.
Also tried to pull an attempt at getting the $35 phone booking fee waived expecting it'd probably be denied because I've tried in the past and was told it was only able to be waived for OW carriers, not just regular partners. However, I was told the policy changes on 2/3 and that it'd be eligible for a waiver then.
Also tried to pull an attempt at getting the $35 phone booking fee waived expecting it'd probably be denied because I've tried in the past and was told it was only able to be waived for OW carriers, not just regular partners. However, I was told the policy changes on 2/3 and that it'd be eligible for a waiver then.
Last edited by maddie5218; Feb 1, 2015 at 10:55 pm
Feb 1, 2015, 10:56 pm
#111
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: LAX/BUR
Posts: 525
Sharing another success story...
Booked two F award seats on DFW-AUH-MLE for travel in early Feb. Total cost: 180k AA miles + USD 7.80 taxes.
We also had to take the voluntary downgrade to Y for AUH-MLE segment. Hoping EY opens additional J guest seats closer to departure - Has anyone had any luck with this recently?
Booked two F award seats on DFW-AUH-MLE for travel in early Feb. Total cost: 180k AA miles + USD 7.80 taxes.
We also had to take the voluntary downgrade to Y for AUH-MLE segment. Hoping EY opens additional J guest seats closer to departure - Has anyone had any luck with this recently?
Feb 2, 2015, 10:52 am
#112
Join Date: Aug 2004
Programs: AA (EP), Hilton (Diamond), Marriott Bonvoy (Titanium)
Posts: 8,937
Feb 2, 2015, 6:25 pm
#113
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Los Angeles
Programs: UA 1K, AA Plat Pro, Marriott Plat, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 1,048
Out of curiosity, has anyone booked any F awards for travel later than December 10? I am already booked in J for LAX-AUH-BOM on the 18th, so not the end of the world, but I would like to fly F if available. I was checking for other dates, and it seemed like EY held guest F seats for a little time, but then maybe a week or so later would release them. But checking for the 18th, have not seen anything released for LAX or DFW past the 10th of December.
Feb 4, 2015, 9:26 am
#114
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 706
From what I have seen, 2x J awards come available around 330 days, then 2x F awards become available about two weeks later. Thus, watch each day to see 2xF awards become available in December 2015...
Have other people seen the same?
Have other people seen the same?
Feb 4, 2015, 10:42 am
#115
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: DCA
Posts: 7,769
Out of curiosity, has anyone booked any F awards for travel later than December 10? I am already booked in J for LAX-AUH-BOM on the 18th, so not the end of the world, but I would like to fly F if available. I was checking for other dates, and it seemed like EY held guest F seats for a little time, but then maybe a week or so later would release them. But checking for the 18th, have not seen anything released for LAX or DFW past the 10th of December.
Personally, I think there must just be a block/blackout on a certain period in place around the holidays. I was also searching QR flights and it looks like they are using a hard block on everything around the holidays - for a period of a couple weeks there is literally nothing, then it opens right up again. This is even on routes like DOH-DXB where there are tons of flights and usually tons of awards, so it leads me to believe there is a restriction in place from that airline. This is obviously the peak travel period and they of course want to sell those seats.
Just my observations. Only thing to do is to keep an eye on it and see what happens. Otherwise, OP and I will just have to slum it in EY J!
Feb 4, 2015, 10:56 am
#116
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 706
I have too been seeing an absence of F inventory ex-USA starting on 12/10, albeit from different gateways than LAX. I have been tracking this for 1-2 weeks and the date of F availability has not been "rolling" forward as time passes as would occur if it were trailing J seats as the second poster suggests.
Personally, I think there must just be a block/blackout on a certain period in place around the holidays. I was also searching QR flights and it looks like they are using a hard block on everything around the holidays - for a period of a couple weeks there is literally nothing, then it opens right up again. This is even on routes like DOH-DXB where there are tons of flights and usually tons of awards, so it leads me to believe there is a restriction in place from that airline. This is obviously the peak travel period and they of course want to sell those seats.
Just my observations. Only thing to do is to keep an eye on it and see what happens. Otherwise, OP and I will just have to slum it in EY J!
Personally, I think there must just be a block/blackout on a certain period in place around the holidays. I was also searching QR flights and it looks like they are using a hard block on everything around the holidays - for a period of a couple weeks there is literally nothing, then it opens right up again. This is even on routes like DOH-DXB where there are tons of flights and usually tons of awards, so it leads me to believe there is a restriction in place from that airline. This is obviously the peak travel period and they of course want to sell those seats.
Just my observations. Only thing to do is to keep an eye on it and see what happens. Otherwise, OP and I will just have to slum it in EY J!
Feb 4, 2015, 11:45 am
#117
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: DCA
Posts: 7,769
Yep, I've seen that magic December 16th cutoff date ex-AUH for US destinations too! And it hasn't changed in a week or so. If I had to postulate a hypothesis, I'd say that they're applying blanket rules to certain origin/destination pairs.
Feb 4, 2015, 11:47 am
#118
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 706
This is pure conjecture, but how long do you think the blanket will go on for? :P
Feb 4, 2015, 12:14 pm
#119
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: DCA
Posts: 7,769
Well, looks like QR lifts theirs around the 8-10th of January by looking at inventory out on BA.com. EY inventory of course you can't see that far out, and of course they don't have to play by the same rules. But I would guess that if they're doing anything in terms of peak period rationing, it's going to be over the main "holiday" (British usage) period - so probably +/- 10 to 15 days around the end of the year. Pure speculation!!!
