Hullabaloo

Hello

I've been enquiring with EY about redeeming miles for flights on Oman Air. They can check availability but cannot give me the final cost of the taxes/charges etc, until I go ahead with the booking because partner redemptions "are complicated". They advised I check the taxes on a revenue flight. I asked if for redemptions I would have to pay for fuel surcharges and they couldn't tell me. I checked on Oman Air's own website as well as the ITA Matrix and other sites, which include the fuel surcharge. I know that EY does not charge this for its own flights, but I understand this could be different if they are booking a partner airline's flights. I've been unable to check what Oman Air charges for their own redemption flights in such a scenario.

Does anyone have any experience with this that can advise what I can expect? If it helps, I am looking at a one way flight in Business between MCT and LHR.

Thanks in advance.

EtihadHelp

Hi there, thank you for your message.

Please provide us with your email address and details and we will look into this and respond to you accordingly.

Thanks *MS

Hullabaloo

Thank you, I have provided my details via private message!

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Hullabaloo

For the benefit of anyone else that would like to know the answer, having now booked the flights, Etihad charges only part of the fuel surcharge. ITA Matrix quotes for a one way redemption MCT-LHR on Oman Air:

Oman Passenger Service Charge (OM) OMR 5.000
(YQ) OMR 99.500

Etihad charges (along with the 42,000 miles required):

OMR 5.000 OM (EMBARKATION TAX)
Taxes/Fees/Carrier-Imposed Charges OMR 69.500 YQF (SERVICE FEE - FUEL)

Total Fare OMR 74.500

rascally14

Etihad Redemptions on Omani are a marketing lie. I spoke to 3 Etihad agents at length. We tried to book 17 different dates on 3 different routes. One came back as available. Then the sales agent went 9 months in the future, what was available was flighs only in business class. No economy seats were offered. The routes we checked were BKK -MCT, DOH-MCT and MCT-DXB.

One agent told me he has never successfully booked an Omani ticket, except on business class. He says, for booking Etihad miles on partners, AA works great, Virgin Austraila works fine, Bangkok Airways works well and so do one or two others.

We are basically wasting our and the agent's time by asking for Etihad redemption on Oman.

I asked him what routes have success in booking Etihad miles on Omani in economy and he said he has not had one. (although he did find a business seat available at 4am in the morning from DOH-MCT) . He said Oman Air doesn't release much inventory to Etihad.

aradisc

Sorry to resurrect this old thread, but does anyone have recent experiences as to whether this is still the case?

stephem

If you read the various threads here on partner redemptions, it sounds as if they are not only subject to some tight capacity controls (almost no availability) but that for some time there appears to be a technical glitch in the EY systems that results in none at all being shown as bookable to EY telephone agents. I've been in this forum for about a year now and don't recall recent (as in past 6 months) reports of ANY partner bookings. There are at least four threads talking about spending significant time on the phone and never finding a single date of availability for one partner or another for months on end. Good luck, you'll need it.

aradisc

Thanks for the reply. You've caught me at the right time to avoid transferring points that I will have difficulty using.

EtihadHelp

Hi all!

We have been seeing this issue reoccurring in this forum as well, so we have contacted our team for an update on this. We just wanted to say, we are investigating this issue at the moment and will be back with an answer as soon as we know what's going on.

*JP

Atlantico

Would any of you guys know the booking class required for WY Business Class awards? This would help to check for availability beforehand.

BLTraveler

Any updates? Wondering if I can book DXB to MUS on Oman

wavery83

Anyone know is this avenue still exists. Found a redemption table but looks old & nothing suggesting it can be done on either airline website? Bit smoke and mirrors.

1353513636

Looking to book MCT-SLL-DXB next year.

Is the availability wide open or difficult to find? Is it difficult to get phone agents to do it or are they relatively competent?

Sisyphus1carus

I see EtihadHelp has been swift their response !!!

Sisyphus1carus

Anyone found any other countries where the taxes are low for biz redemptions on EY (or AB) using TopBonus points ?

Or any other airline for that matter !!