MasterGeek

Every situation is different. Try transfering the minimum possible (1000 points/miles) as a test and see how long it takes.

eggzlot

My luck the 1k transfers in 3-4 days and the 87000 transfers in 3-4 weeks ;-)

I was short on time so could not HUCA but the agent I got said they had no seats available at all anytime after Dec 31st, that the 2019 seats didnt load. Through some tough communication she said to try back in 1-2 months, that maybe the calendar only sees 6 months of flights but she was not sure. I asked her for a random date in December and she said there was 1 business class award seat available, I asked if that was normal for just 1 not 2 and she did not really have much of an answer again just saying they are a partner airline and she doesn't know.

I am planning on calling every few days at night when I have downtime - like while cooking dinner just call, wait on hold, see if I get someone new, talk to them, etc. Maybe I'll collect more data. I want to travel in February so I have time and I am not too worried (yet).

eggzlot

UPDATE: So I was able to book 2 business class seats for February last night. The first time I called I could tell the call center was likely in India. I know the blogs suggest calling the Manchester call center, but I did not feel like paying for the international call just to "feel things out". This time around I still called the toll free US 800 # but based on the accent of the phone operator, fairly sure it could have been the Manchester office. The big difference, once I requested the ticket, she immediately asked me for my Etihad Membership #, reconfirmed my name/birthday and then asked for my traveling partner's full name so she can start the reservation process. The first person I called a few nights ago just said "let me check" when I asked about availability but never asked me for my full name, my Etihad membership #, etc.

She was able to pull up 2 seats on the exact dates I wanted from the start. She did mention AMEX points do transfer ASAP (though they have to legally say it could take up to 48 hours) but she did say Citi bank usually takes at least 10 days from her experience. I asked about the availability of these seats and she was fairly frank - my outbound flight she said looked "wide open" but my return trip she said looked fairly tight. She said I cannot make suggestions on what to do with my points - when I asked for her experience, she said in the last ~2 weeks she has made 4-5 bookings on Royal Air Maroc and only 1 was executed with the exact times/dates, the other few bookings had to slightly alter dates, do a connection, etc.

Risk v reward, I just transferred my AMEX points on the spot, got the tix...Now I'll have to figure out how to blow those Citibank Thankyou points. The long transfer times and some more obscure partners make it a fairly tough program (but that is for another forum on here!)

mrstraveler

Eggzlot, you make it sound way more simple than other reports that I've read. I would love to book RAK-JFK route for next summer transferring Citi TUP...not exited about the 10+ day transfer time, which I'm sure cannot be reversed should there be no availability for my dates .

eggzlot

cant help you with the Citi transfer times. I did AMEX because I was afraid to wait for 10 days. Eventually I am just going to speculatively move my Citi points to a program and close those two cards.

but yeah, the first call was rough but I am telling you the 2nd call was a breeze. I've booked other odd trips before, Delta Skymiles flying China Southern on a route you had to piece together, AA/Air Tahiti Nui which not all agents know about, etc. So I have some experience with less than vanilla redemption options, and the 2nd call was easy.

mrstraveler

I would like to setup expertflyer alerts for this particular flight...does anyone know if the business fare class code is I or Z?

flyerby

mrstraveler

Thanks so Z is the 44K o/w ticket?

vq35dett

Five years late on a reply here but I just booked two business class seats for JFK-CMN-AGA with the CMN-AGA leg on Royal Air Maroc Express. The first Etihad agent said that this would not be permissible. I called back the following day and worked with a different agent who processed it with no issue.