Jan 14, 2016, 5:43 am
Last edit by: medellinfein
Booking Award Seats on EY / Etihad Airways Using AA / AAdvantage Miles
Also see: Earning AA Miles EQM / EQD / EQS on EY / Etihad (master thread)
This thread is about how to book Etihad / EY award seats using AA AAdvantage miles, and sharing success stories. This wiki is new, so anyone with 90/90 who wishes to add helpful information is, of course, urged to do so.
NOTE:AA has removed most EY and QR award access from aa.com due to a glitch booking these:
Please see the archived threads for previous experiences:
Also see: Earning AA Miles EQM / EQD / EQS on EY / Etihad (master thread)
This thread is about how to book Etihad / EY award seats using AA AAdvantage miles, and sharing success stories. This wiki is new, so anyone with 90/90 who wishes to add helpful information is, of course, urged to do so.
NOTE:AA has removed most EY and QR award access from aa.com due to a glitch booking these:
From One Mile at a Time (link)
Bottom Line
For the time being you’ll have to call American if you want to ticket AAdvantage awards on Etihad & Qatar that aren’t for travel to & from the US or Canada. It makes sense that American took these awards “offline,” and now it also makes sense why so many passengers have been having issues with checked bags on awards.
Bottom Line
For the time being you’ll have to call American if you want to ticket AAdvantage awards on Etihad & Qatar that aren’t for travel to & from the US or Canada. It makes sense that American took these awards “offline,” and now it also makes sense why so many passengers have been having issues with checked bags on awards.
- You can now search or book awards for travel on EY (Etihad) on www.aa.com.
- You can search award availability on EY's website. Look only for seats on flights operated by Etihad Airways that are labeled as "GuestSeats". You can also search on ExpertFlyer
- Note: You may see more availability if you search on EY's website using itineraries that do not originate in the US. In other words, to potentially see more availability on a USA-XYZ segment, search for XYZ-USA-XYZ. Expertflyer does not report this additional availability (if any), and US-based agents probably will not be able to see or book it (but see further below for Fiji).
- To expand on this point a bit, it seems that even if you only want to fly USA-AUH (or to other foreign destinations, since they route through AUH), due to an EY website quirk you need to search AUH-USA-AUH in order to find available USA-AUH routes.
- You no longer have to call AA to book them. You may need to request the AA agent to look up the inventory one segment at a time in order to find the inventory in their system. OR:
- It is often or even typically the case that for first and business class awards US agents cannot see the award space that you see on Etihad's site. Your best bet, then, is to call AA Australia (+61 2-9101-1948 ) then press 3 - or the New Zealand number (+64 09-308-4014) (actually South African contractor Mindpearl in Fiji) or Singapore (+65 6349-8444) as an alternative - what you need is the specific call center which is actually in Suva, Fiji (I believe it's our old South African agency friend Mindpearl) or, according to recent reports, in Trinidad (since there have been some reports that the Fiji center has closed). You can put the EY segments on hold so you can flesh out the award afterward and/or pay the fees in USD through the US call center, or simply buy it through non-US call center if you think you won't be making subsequent routing changes (such as adding AA connecting flights within the USA) that would incur fees. (NOTE: calls may get picked up by the local Brisbane office, or rerouted to Trinidad or the USA. As noted, there are reports that the Fiji call center has closed, but people have still been able to book some of the time, particularly if they reach the Trinidad center since that seems to be the call center that yields the greatest success in late 2017 and 2018 - with the big caveat that there are at least as many failures as successes in calling there, including repeatedly. To increase the chances of success, you may have to call several times, since for some reason a given customer service representative at a given time won't see availability even if it shows at the EY site, but another CSR at the same center may be able to do so even a few minutes later. It's conceivable that this difference is due to some CSRs knowing how to search for award availability better than others do, but that's simply a matter of speculation at this point.)
- Note: EY award holds only last 72 hours...irrespective of what AA reservation hold email states
- Booking connections via AUH / Abu Dabhi using one award is now allowed.
- Get both AA and EY reservation codes/numbers: Upon booking with AA, make sure to get the EY reservation number as well as that of AA from the AA CSR, as without the EY number it will be difficult or impossible to deal with EY, such as for checking or managing your reservation online. And of course, if there is another airline involved in the reservation as well (such as BA), get its reservation number.
- A handy EY route map is here: http://flights.etihad.com/routemap.
- The applicable AAdvantage miles award chart is the oneworld and partner airlines award chart.
- Award routing rules are in the wikipost of this thread.
- If you find EY inventory from your continent but not your city of choice, as usual you can include any other AAdvantage award airlines in order to complete the itinerary. E.g. LHR-xAUH-DEL-xAUH-CDG on EY connecting to CDG-LHR on BA.
- WARNING: While this trick is great for new bookings (especially if you have patience to get lucky for call to be routed to Fiji office), modifying booking on partner airlines is always risky especially when an overseas center is involved, Your original seats are immediately released and while new reservation is supposedly confirmed, it may actually not the case until ticket desk actually issues ticket after approval of the partner liaison. Weekend/Holidays/Time-Difference can delay issuance of ticket and if something goes wrong, there is always risk of being SOL. (Mistakes by agents are rare but not unheard of).
- SEAT ASSIGNMENTS: You cannot choose seats until after ticketing. Even then, the regular web site will not allow seat assignments to be made for AAdvantage award bookings. The mobile site (which can be reached with either a mobile or a desktop browser) may work in some cases. Calling EY to make seat assignments always works, as long as you can give them the EY record locator, and as long as AA has issued the ticket (which can take a few days, you will get e-mail). Call 1-877-690-0767, press 1 for English, then 2 for First/Business, then 2 for existing bookings, then they will tell you the call is ending - but it's not: they have added "press 1 to speak to an agent", so finally, press 1 to continue the call. After this, you should have someone on the line quickly to help you. They will ask you a series of questions such as "What class are you traveling in?" and "Where are you going?" Alternatively, you can choose your seats on the Etihad website and app by using the EY record locator to find your award itinerary.
- Availability: EY award availability using AA miles can be fairly good, including in business and first class - IF you get past the big, aforementioned challenge of actually booking award seats that the EY site shows as available but that AA agents have trouble finding. But it ebbs and flows quite a bit in at least two respects (in addition to the general rule that the further in advance you seek availability, the better, as well as reports that availability is easier to find from one to three weeks before a flight): 1) availability showing at the EY site and 2) even if availability shows at the EY site, the ability of non-US call centers (especially the "least bad" ones for finding availability, which might have been Fiji and might now be Trinidad) to find that availability. So if the EY site is not showing availability for a given day or week, and if you have flexibility, check other dates. And if availability seems to be particularly constrained across many dates, particularly if you are searching many months in advance, check again periodically to see if this has changed (or arrange an alert via ExpertFlyer, if it provides such a service for EY flights).
- "Baby-sit" your tickets: Though this advice could apply to many award bookings, EY's systems can be glitchy and the airline apparently is going through some financial challenges. So it makes sense to check online or via phone occasionally with EY to make sure everything remains in order, particularly if there have been even minor changes in things like your flight times. And if there seem to be problems, including with checking in online or other procedures, the EY forum here at FT can be a source of useful advice about whether or not those problems are worth worrying about.
- Itinerary: You can use https://www.virtuallythere.com/new/login.html to enter your EY record locator and last name to 1)display your complete itinerary 2)save a pdf 3)add to outlook/ical 4)view ticket # and different times the ticket has been reissued
- AA lounge access: If you book a premium cabin itinerary on EY with domestic connections on AA, you will not be able to access the Admiral's Club during your domestic layovers because EY is not a member of OW.
Please see the archived threads for previous experiences:
- How to: Use AA Miles to Book Award on Etihad / EY (Archive - 2015 and earlier)
- Success stories booking awards on Etihad using AA miles (Archive - 2015 and earlier)
- Booking AA Award travel on Etihad / EY - [2015-17 ARCHIVE]
Booking AA Award travel on Etihad / EY (master thread July 2017 onwards)
Mar 20, 2019, 8:53 am
#886
Join Date: Feb 2019
Posts: 268
Mar 20, 2019, 8:55 am
#887
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Denver • DEN-APA
Programs: AF Platinum, EK Gold, AA EXP, UA 1K, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 21,602
Mar 20, 2019, 12:01 pm
#888
Join Date: Apr 2014
Programs: Hilton - Diamond, IHG - Spire Amb
Posts: 901
Nonsense. The Etihad Apartment suite is much nicer and far more spacious than the cramped Emirates A380 suite. I'll give EK the nod on the on board showers and no PreClearance BS at DXB, but for most of the flight it's not even close. Plus, you can't book EK with AA miles. 
I'm not sure I would call it nonsense. You may view it that way, but both my wife and clearly favored EK over EY. While there is more "room" with the A380 Etihad, it is not comfortable usable room. The seat does not recline completely. There is this uncomfortable gap under your lower legs between the seat rest and the bench. You can't share the experience with your SO from your seat. It just felt tired, old and ucky compare to the sparkling clean and neat Emirates A380 suites. Part of the experience was definitely the showers. The EK showers are spacious, 2 of them so my wife and I could experience at the same time and come out and exclaim and talk about etc. The shower/bathroom was brightly lit, but on EY was small, cramped and dim.
The cushioning of the bed of Emirates is much softer than the hard bench bed of Etihad. We slept much better and felt more comfortable on the Emirates.
I feel subjectively that the first class cabin crew was much more friendly, helpful and proactive on our Emirates A380 flight.
Duly noted about the miles - that is why you accumulate both AA and AS ;-)
Just to provide one couple's take on it. (How is this for spoiled 1st world problems: I had 2020 booked in the maldives at the new Waldorf Astoria for 15 nights with points but when my wife found out it would be Etihad there and back because I hadn't accumulated enough AS miles to book Emirates, we changed our plans and are going back to the Conrad Bora Bora instead. That shows how much we disliked the Etihad A380 lol)
Last edited by Carl Christensen; Mar 20, 2019 at 1:44 pm
Mar 20, 2019, 2:20 pm
#889
Join Date: Apr 2014
Programs: Hilton - Diamond, IHG - Spire Amb
Posts: 901
Here are reports with pics on each product.
• 777 Etihad First Class LAX to Abu Dhabi SFO777
• 380 Etihad First Class Apartment to JFK SFO777
• 777 Etihad First Class LAX to Abu Dhabi SFO777
• 380 Etihad First Class Apartment to JFK SFO777
Mar 26, 2019, 9:11 am
#890
Join Date: Feb 2015
Posts: 12
So I read this the vast majority of the forum and I apologize if the information is in here somewhere but I could not find it. It took 4 calls but I finally got a first class on the 380 from JFK to AUH. However, is it possible to book the residence via miles or is that not possible? When I search Etihad for residence it does show first guest available but not residence guest? If it is possible, what do I tell the agent? I asked the agent, and she had no clue what the residence was, she thanked me for explaining it to her and said it was the 3rd time she had heard it today.
Thanks guys!
Thanks guys!
Mar 26, 2019, 12:17 pm
#892
Join Date: Mar 2016
Posts: 655
Do you typically need to book a year out to get business class on JFK - AUH?
Thinking of doing Dubai and the Maldives next year for a week and a half and would love to book with AA miles (would prefer Qatar but that's obviously not possible now...). Would I have to book JFK to AUH as one leg with points, AUH to MLE with another leg, and then lastly MLE to JFK as a third leg? Or are there any open jaw or tricks to give me a few days in the UAE and then to MLE without getting charged 2 legs?
Thinking of doing Dubai and the Maldives next year for a week and a half and would love to book with AA miles (would prefer Qatar but that's obviously not possible now...). Would I have to book JFK to AUH as one leg with points, AUH to MLE with another leg, and then lastly MLE to JFK as a third leg? Or are there any open jaw or tricks to give me a few days in the UAE and then to MLE without getting charged 2 legs?
Mar 27, 2019, 10:40 am
#893
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 1,857
Sharing a datapoint, since it goes against several pieces of "conventional wisdom" found in this thread and the wiki.
I've got a trip booked to BOM (via ORD & AUH). I had to make the booking in Y, and watch for J availability. I've been searching ORD-BOM a couple times a day, and occasionally just the long leg (ORD-AUH), since I've noticed availability in & out of BOM is low on every airline for my dates. Today I found J space ORD-AUH, searching with regular routing (not reverse). But nothing AUH-BOM. I called the US AA desk, and he was not only able to see the ORD-AUH space, but he saw AUH-BOM, which I couldn't see on EY's site through any combination of searches. He also found F space on my AA flight from my originating airport to ORD, which didn't show up on aa.com.
I'm not sure if I got the most magical agent ever, or what. But all these things supposedly shouldn't have happened:
1. I found space on a single leg of the flight that wasn't available if I searched for the whole route (ok, this could reasonably happen, except for #2 )
2. A US-based agent (not Fiji/Aus/NZ) was able to see EY space that didn't show up on a normal or reverse routing search
3. That agent was also able to find space on an AA domestic flight that wasn't visible on aa.com
I will say that this is the second agent who was able to find domestic F space for me as part of a long international trip that wasn't visible on aa.com. I can only guess there's something about married segments going on there.
I've got a trip booked to BOM (via ORD & AUH). I had to make the booking in Y, and watch for J availability. I've been searching ORD-BOM a couple times a day, and occasionally just the long leg (ORD-AUH), since I've noticed availability in & out of BOM is low on every airline for my dates. Today I found J space ORD-AUH, searching with regular routing (not reverse). But nothing AUH-BOM. I called the US AA desk, and he was not only able to see the ORD-AUH space, but he saw AUH-BOM, which I couldn't see on EY's site through any combination of searches. He also found F space on my AA flight from my originating airport to ORD, which didn't show up on aa.com.
I'm not sure if I got the most magical agent ever, or what. But all these things supposedly shouldn't have happened:
1. I found space on a single leg of the flight that wasn't available if I searched for the whole route (ok, this could reasonably happen, except for #2 )
2. A US-based agent (not Fiji/Aus/NZ) was able to see EY space that didn't show up on a normal or reverse routing search
3. That agent was also able to find space on an AA domestic flight that wasn't visible on aa.com
I will say that this is the second agent who was able to find domestic F space for me as part of a long international trip that wasn't visible on aa.com. I can only guess there's something about married segments going on there.
Last edited by bobert24; Mar 27, 2019 at 7:06 pm
Mar 27, 2019, 10:45 am
#894
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 1,857
Answering my own question. There doesn't seem to be a specific time of day anymore. There's often space at 11:30-12 PM that wasn't there a few hours earlier, and there's often space the next morning that wasn't there at midnight. Today I found space at 3:30 PM that wasn't there this morning. Unfortunately it doesn't look like it's a "search once a day and you're done" kind of thing anymore.
Mar 27, 2019, 11:00 am
#895
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Denver • DEN-APA
Programs: AF Platinum, EK Gold, AA EXP, UA 1K, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 21,602
Just booked a December EY First Class award for JFK-AUH-MLE and return. NZ agent saw the outbound with no problem but the return MLE-AUH-JFK was not available as married segments despite both legs showing available on EY.com. I ignored MLE-AUH and just booked AUH-JFK. Later that day, I added MLE-AUH to the beginning of the ticket, although it took some time. NZ agents wouldn't or couldn't add it. So I decided to try the HKG office and a great HKG agent was able to see MLE-AUH and add it to the start of the return without any problem.
Mar 27, 2019, 5:52 pm
#896
Join Date: Aug 2004
Programs: AA (EP), Hilton (Diamond), Marriott Bonvoy (Titanium)
Posts: 8,937
On an AA international award, any connection that is 24 hours or longer counts as a stopoff and requires a separate award. I believe JFK-AUH-MLE can be booked using a single award, so that would be the way to use the fewest AA miles, but your connection in AUH must be under 24 hours. If you don't mind paying for two awards, you can stay as long as you like. All AA awards are one-way, so the return would be its own award (or own set of awards). You can book both the outbound and inbound in one record, or each way in one record, doesn't matter.
Mar 27, 2019, 5:53 pm
#897
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2014
Posts: 10,904
Just booked a December EY First Class award for JFK-AUH-MLE and return. NZ agent saw the outbound with no problem but the return MLE-AUH-JFK was not available as married segments despite both legs showing available on EY.com. I ignored MLE-AUH and just booked AUH-JFK. Later that day, I added MLE-AUH to the beginning of the ticket, although it took some time. NZ agents wouldn't or couldn't add it. So I decided to try the HKG office and a great HKG agent was able to see MLE-AUH and add it to the start of the return without any problem.
Do you actually have to ticket AUH-JFK, or can you just have a hold on it and then have an agent add a segment to the held reservation? Adding a segment after ticketing would incur change fees, right? (since you are changing the start point)
Mar 27, 2019, 5:55 pm
#898
Join Date: Aug 2004
Programs: AA (EP), Hilton (Diamond), Marriott Bonvoy (Titanium)
Posts: 8,937
Mar 27, 2019, 7:07 pm
#900
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Denver • DEN-APA
Programs: AF Platinum, EK Gold, AA EXP, UA 1K, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 21,602
This is good to know!! I was having this exact same issue and I could not find an agent to add it -- they said it had to show as available point to point. I will try HKG next time.
Do you actually have to ticket AUH-JFK, or can you just have a hold on it and then have an agent add a segment to the held reservation? Adding a segment after ticketing would incur change fees, right? (since you are changing the start point)
Do you actually have to ticket AUH-JFK, or can you just have a hold on it and then have an agent add a segment to the held reservation? Adding a segment after ticketing would incur change fees, right? (since you are changing the start point)