Had an amusing exchange today when trying to book a VA award for Mid May; agent insisted that I could only book within 14 days of departure, and told me to ring back at the start of May! I asked to be put on to a supervisor and she hung up.

Bad luck, call again :)

Yep. I tried contacting EtihadHelp more than a month ago, and after a response that they'd ask their "dedicated team to look into this", silence. Follow-ups yielded nothing further. I don't say this lightly, but Etihad's ground service is by far the worst I've ever encountered. Between "lost" partner miles, incredibly difficult partner bookings, EtihadHelp's "presence" here which only serves to drag out problems, and getting penalized for their partner canceling a flight... the level of incompetence is truly magnificent. </rant>

While all this mess with Etihad partner awards unfortunately is extremely ridiculous and sad, I still want to report another Unicorn I was able to book ;)

To be fair, Virgin Australia actually seems to show up faaairly (very long a) easily for the agents, as I managed to figure out during my ~20 calls...

So here it is, my so far first and only successful partner award booking:

SYD-DPS-SYD on Virgin Australia Economy for 2 people return over Easter, taxed exactly like in ITA (250 AUD for 2ppl) plus some 67.600 miles instead of a whopping 1.700 AUD paid booking over the short holidays.

While it took the person on the phone quite some time, it eventually worked out. I had tried calling a few times before, for other flights on VA resulting to extremely different availabilities, then called a few times that day until I got through to someone with no arabic accent that seemed at least halfway competent. I just told her dates and that I needed two seats and in no time I had her tell me the availabilities for all the dates I requested, perfect!
Booking itself took quite a while but was eventually completed, after having an issue with my credit card, then calling back, different agent, not finding my booking, hung up, another agent, could find my booking, I could pay the taxes, and eventually got my booking ticketed. I couldn't believe it :D


There seem to be three types of call center agents:

Number 1, and unfortunately I'd say 85% of agents belong to this group:
No clue at all, they think Garuda is an airport, Changi is not Singapore, think there is no partnership with Airberlin or don't even know what award flights are.

Number 2, probably 10-14% of agents and usually from the UK:
Polite and friendly, still not being able to use their entire system properly. Nevertheless they are keen on doing so and do find space showing up on Virgin Australia and Bangkok Airways, if you give them a bit of guideance and time to speak to their supervisors. Eventually able to book, if the call doesn't end before.

Number 3, what you would a normal call center agent expect to be like, but unfortunately almost non existent:
Knowing what they talk about, been in the business for quite a while and like what they do, able to see all partner award space if you give them a bit of time.

I have spoken to none of number 3, three different agents from category 2 that were all from the UK, and countless agents from category 1, from the UAE, Germany and also the UK. Next time I'll ask for someone called Simon.
I shall report...


PS: Having just read this whole thread and every other thread on this topic, I can absolutely not understand why this Etihad "Help" Account is wasting its time here :( They could do so much better if the front line staff was actually allowed to do something. But that is a general issue everywhere in the UAE... Once I had to speak to literally the head person of the entire airport in Abu Dhabi to be able to drop my bag more than 5 hours prior to departure after slowly working my way up in hierachy having to be really straight forward :rolleyes:
Why oh why do their onboard products have to be so damn good :D


PPS: From what I've heard and read in the past, successful parter award bookings have only happened on:
- Virgin Australia (quite some cases)
- Bangkok Airways (quite some cases)
- Garuda Indonesia (a few cases)
- ANA (a few cases)
- Airberlin (1 case)
- Asiana (1 case)
- Hainan Airlines (1 case)
- Philippine Airlines (1 case)

Any luck on other carriers?

AA works well for the most part.

I would say if you get a good agent, figure out how to get their contact info. I was able to book an ANA F award and kept the contact info for that agent (and shared it here with folks who also used him to book ANA). Agree that a high % of agents can't help and are not even informed about the program and how it operates.

Just wanted to share I had excellent trips booked with etihad miles in J with Oman airways. Muscat - Salalah - Muscat - Male, everything worked smooth.

I had a horrible experience with an economy class flight booked with miles on jet airways. The flight had a different flight number the original flight had been cancelled, I was never informed and was told to pay 600 usd per pax at sgn airport. Staff was rude and said it was etihads fault and they couldn't do anything. I had other family members booked on that flight with cash so I really wanted us to be on that flight as well and tried to call etihad but no success. The Vietnamese supervisor was rude and didn't care at all, she said only etihad could rebook me. My wife freaked out and finally we got attention from an manager of jet airways who was able to fix it very last second.. We had to run to the gate...

And yes I had checked my booking 24 hours before departure and it said confirmed. At airport they tell me there is no such flight.....!!!!

I'll also update with a successful SN redemption booking that I went into greater detail in one of the other threads - I was also given the contact details of the agent who booked my ticket, in the event that I needed to modify the booking etc.

CLN, was that booked as a multicity or one ways, or was there a return from Male as well?

Was delighted when agent just found availability for two one ways in J on Oman from Muscat to LHR, only for her to then say it actually said one way wasn't permitted!

Given the Oman Air redemption chart lists one way prices, and Oman Air's own Sindbad programme only does one ways, it doesn't make much sense.

Ironically I actually want to use it for the return from Abu Dhabi on a day that Etihad don't have any availability - have already booked LHR -AUH with them on their A380, so it is not exactly one way, it would be a multicity EY LHR-AUH plus Oman AUH-MCT-LHR

Has anyone managed to book something other than a straight return on oman? I am not sure if the computer said no when she tried to book as it was originally working fine, or if she suddenly saw it in the rules.

I could cancel the Etihad redemption on the way out and do a return via Muscat and it would be cheaper, but I really want to try the a380 studio!

I'm interested in doing BKK-MLE oneway next February, and the cash price on Bangkok Airways is $450 in economy. Is there a way to make this redemption using EY miles? Is this even a valid route for award redemption?

It is a valid route, 35k miles. You shouldn't have any issues PG have great availability.

I can't find EY's award chart for PG. Do you have a link? Thanks

I'll give you a hint: http://www.etihadguest.com/en/spend-...ngkok-airways/

Is Etihad strict on the booking 14 days out rule? Hoping to get last minute F availability on LAX-JFK...Thanks!

I always wondered about this too.