Other Middle East and Africa Frequent Flyer Programs - Happy (5th) Birthday, Etihad!

Etihad began operations November 5, 2003.
It is in the SkyTrax 2008 Ten Best Airlines.

Yes, we mostly know the story of the breakup of Gulf Air's owners, to form Qatar and Etihad, but it's interesting that these two new airlines have achieved so much, so soon.

I had the pleasure of flying in C and F cabins of QR this week and hope to try EY's F soon too.

(I know some people get sick of birthday threads, but IMO the rise of the baby ME carriers in the past few years is phenomenal - and great for far-flung colonials who have greater long-haul choice. ^)

I was hoping it would have more partnerships with other airlines by now. Quite disappointed with their progress. I mean what is so difficult to realize that you need to match your competitors to some degree?

Etihad won the Best FFP 'Freddie' in 2008 so there must be something attractive about the FFP itself. I agree that a few more partners for earning or burning would mean it could gain a huge percentage of QR flyers.

That is definitely an avenue for improvement.

Still, it is a achievement in the infant airline stage:

to be a 2008 StarTrax Top Ten airline,
win Best FFP (and others) at the 2008 Freddie Awards and
carry 6M passengers p.a. (still on track AFAIK)
steal GF's boss and markets ;)

The wife and I are sufficiently impressed by the combination of EY's competitive fares and quality of in-flight product to have taken no fewer than 10 flights between us in Pearl (Business) Class over the past six weeks - and we're primarily BA customers.

I emphasise 'in-flight' because both EY's 'on-the-ground' service and AUH airport generally really need to get their act together very quickly. While AUH doesn't yet have anywhere near the same levels of passengers as, say, DXB, the transit experience through AUH is, currently, nowhere near as good as, say, BAH. A crowded main terminal, woefully poor duty-free selection and EY's annoying habit of not always appearing to have separate boarding lines for F and C passengers makes for an often frustrating terminal experience.

The wife and I are sufficiently impressed by the combination of EY's competitive fares and quality of in-flight product to have taken no fewer than 10 flights between us in Pearl (Business) Class over the past six weeks - and we're primarily BA customers.

I emphasise 'in-flight' because both EY's 'on-the-ground' service and AUH airport generally really need to get their act together very quickly.

...the transit experience through AUH is, currently, nowhere near as good as, say, BAH. ...an often frustrating terminal experience.

Perhaps this is why QR has the Premium Terminal (though as we all know, that is great between the flight and the lounge but there is zero premium experience/express path though to the main terminal. No express lines at all.

I had hoped EY would try to close this gap and improve upon QR by incorporating express service in the main terminal - exactly as you mention they could.

Perhaps it gets back to a combination of a cultural gap exacerbated by very harsh working conditions. I don't know but I've read it here and elsewhere at EY.

Paging my nearby friend with the insider contacts... ;)

Etihad won the Best FFP 'Freddie' in 2008 so there must be something attractive about the FFP itself.

Unfortunately, I do not believe a single word about these FFP awards or airline quality rankings. There are a lot of rumors how ME airlines regularly make it to the top ... (how do you think Emirates would EVER make it to the top????).

Being an Etihad Gold member I can assure you that the earn-burn ratio of the Etihad Guest Program is worse than many other airlines', and that there are no significant additional benefits to talk about.

That said, Etihad is still my favorite ME airline despite a less than compelling FFP because their in-flight product is superior to most other ME airlines. My personal "in-flight"-ranking of major ME carriers is:

(1) Etihad
(2) Qatar Airways
(3) Middle East Airlines (the flight attendants already make MEA qualify for top 3 ...)
(4) Oman Air
(5) Emirates
(6) Gulf Air

and with a big gap our Islamic dry-fliers:
(193) Kuwait Air
(194) Saudi Arabian Air

Indeed, happy birthday, Etihad!