Booking Etihad flight using UR points?
 

Hi Everyone,
First time poster, forgive me if it's been noted elsewhere but I didn't find anything recent. I have Chase Ultimate Rewards points and am looking to transfer them to an Airline in order to book a flight via Etihad. The most recent available option was to book via Korean Air, but since Chase recently dropped them as a partner, there's no direct way to do so anymore. The only other way I've seen is to transfer to Marriott then transfer to American, but doing so requires a 3:1 devaluation which is a no-go. Is there any other route to transfer CUR points to book? I've looked at Air Nippon which has the same issues and I don't think I can transfer Avios to AA to book even though they're both part of One World. I'd love any input or ideas.

You generally can't transfer from one airline program to another (with a very few exceptions), so something like Avios->AA transfer is not possible.

You can transfer via Marriott but at a large loss of value as you've noted (and transfers from Marriott to airlines also take a while, sometimes weeks).

I can't think of any way to get an Etihad award with UR points, so your best option may be to consider whether you can fly the route you want to fly (possibly by adding a connection) using a different airline.

Not ideal, but a better option is to transfer through Hyatt. I do not have any Hyatt points, and their site will not show me the details, but I think this is correct:

50,000 UR
50,000 Hyatt
25,000 Etihad or AA etc

Air Nippon? Since you're talking AA miles I'll assume you're referring to Japan Airlines (JAL/JL). And no you cannot transfer Avios to AA. You have to book with the program, Avios, partners.

Air Nippon was a subsidiary of All Nippon Airways (ANA/NH) but doesn't exist anymore. ANA is a Amex MR transfer partner with a great redemption rate for J class awards.

You can do a 1.25/1.5 cpp redemption via Chase Travel.

Looks like it's 50K Chase -> 50K Hyatt -> 20K AA. Not sure about other Hyatt->airline options. https://www.aa.com/i18n/aadvantage-p...s-to-miles.jsp

60K Chase -> 60K Marriott -> 25K AA would be a slightly better value (125K miles for every 300K Chase points vs. 120K miles.) Neither is a very good option though. Agree that 1.5 cents per mile on a cash booking is likely best if Etihad is a must and may actually be a pretty good deal if the OP is looking to book in economy.

Appreciate the confirmation. The devaluation is a monster - not worth it IMO. I can book a flight over via Singapore Air no problem, but I was hoping to try an Etihad flight if possible. I've looked into potentially switching my primary spend onto an AA card, but it'd be an effort to accumulate the number of points needed. Our trip is likely to occur around May '19. [MENTION=581306]Yoshi212[/MENTION] - you're correct, I meant ANA.

I was targeting a Business Class and above flight - booking direct via Etihad is also pricey compared to booking via AA, etc.

You’ll also earn an extra 5,000 Bonus Miles when you convert 50,000 or more points.

https://world.hyatt.com/content/gp/e...-to-miles.html