Followed through with the booking for early August LHR-AUH.
Of all the insanely irresponsible decisions I've made in my life, this one probably takes the cake. (Well, maybe not counting my childhood )
280,000 Amex points converted to Etihad miles + ~$4100 in taxes/fees/upgrade cost for a 7 hour flight for the 2 of us. Based on round-trip cash pricing, retail value can be pegged at around $8800. So maybe got about ~1.6cpp out of my MR points.
I didn't want to chance waiting to hear from them for a discount, because in the event I lost it, it would defeat the purpose of using up the MR vs waiting for AA to open up for apartments (125K AA miles vs the 280K Amex)

Surprising my wife, whom I hope refrains from murdering me for the cost (an additional $3500 and 155K points from the original plan to fly Apartments)

Cheers.