Spiff

I don't see sufficient demand/need for an Etihad forum.

N830MH

Are you absolutely sure about EY will not able create new forums?

Spiff

I see very little to no demand for an Etihad forum.

FlyerTalk has enough underutilized forums as it is. I'm not in favor of creating any more low-use forums.

BiziBB

Etihad is reported to be doing a major refresh of ALL onboard product and a Five * Plus approach to treating all customers.

It is reported in the thread Etihad First Class, in the ME/Africa FFP forum.
Etihad plans launch of new F class [businesstraveller]
Aside from the FFP aspects, this is to position EY at the very top category of airline products, IMO.

IMO the best gauge for this forum request is to look at whether Qatar has significantly benefited from moving out of the MEAFFP forum. Etihad might do slightly better or worse, but would likely be as low-use (or much lower use) due to not crediting to StarAlliance as QR does.

Bottom line: FT is all about miles and points and FFPs... Etihad is an island rather than an alliance partner,so it is doomed to FT irrelevance until it is. No small airline, no matter how good it is, will get enough support within FT until it is sexy enough - and the miles is where that happens.

Sorry if I'm repeating myself... anyone wanting EY to do better needs to participate more on the forum and report your trips, to tempt others to try it out!

tcook052

^

travelkid

Its time to rethink this.

EY is the major carrier in its current forum. See also the most recent threads. With the agreement with AA now in place, the interest from AA fliers have skyrocketed. A loong thread has developed in AA forum over the past few days.

EY has expanded and improved significantly the recent years, and should definately have its own forum, like its competitors EK and Qatar.

will2288

I agree that EY should have its own forum. I think that many people put EY, EK and QR in the same category of airline (wide reaching, strong premium products, based in Middle East, etc.).

I think you can make a case for having one forum for all three airlines, but if EK and QR have their own, so should EY.

Frankly, EY just doesn't fit well into its current forum. EY is much more like EK and QR than SAA, Kuwait Airways, Oman Air, etc.

Jinxy

I totally agree that EY should have its own forum.

As a member from Australia, EY are a big player here now with their virgin agreement and taking a bit slice of the European and middle east traffic.
It's frustrating for me sometimes to see the same info about AA and United and other US carriers and feel like we on the other side of the world get left out. I know it's predominantly a US forum, however many other countries are here daily also.

I can only see EY getting bigger and taking a lot of business away from EK.

travelkid

Example of EY popularity over at AA forum;
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...demptions.html

Any opinions from TBers?

Spiff

Etihad makes a stronger case now than it did the last time a new forum request was made.

travelkid

Yep, thats my focus. Hopefully wont all the old discussion "ruin" a new try.

Jinxy

Not only in AA threads but also Alitalia, Virgin Velocity and others I've scrawled through.

EFATO

Hi all,

I've come back to FT after an absence of, gosh, I guess about 4 years - I guess I was so busy flying that I haven't been checking out what was going on over here

In the interim, the EY Guest program has grown from nothing to about 2 million members worldwide - and after posting about 6 or 7 things in here in the last days I got to wondering why there isn't yet a dedicated forum on FT for EY Guest?

I'd certainly be happy to contribute - I indeed do most of my flying on EY (closely followed by easy jet, but of course there is no chance of a program there )

Anyone out there agree with me on this?

EFATO

EFATO

Just a quick statistic to support my idea - on "Other Middle East and Africa Frequent Flyer Programs" 16 out of the 25 threads on the front page are EY related. That's 64%

SighMN

I'm not sure why Etihad doesn't have its own forum, the airline itself has more international destinations than a lot of other airlines that have their own forum. I guess its a matter forum policy on how things get their own forum? Do forum members need to vote or something? Also there needs to be moderators to the forum.

I've been a bit disappointed with the Etihad Guest program but after looking at all the other options I'm still going to use them for my FF program. I do use Etihad a lot, even for SYD-JFK flights (which is basically 9 hours longer than going through LAX/SFO).

I'm sure at some point it will get its own forum as its only going to grow as demand for air travel increases, and the overcrowding of European airport worsens (like LHR).

Since AAdvantage members can now earn and burn on Etihad, I've read responses in their forum stating they were just waiting for the day it would happen. Most are extremely happy they no longer have to connect in LHR and pay fuel surcharge taxes to get to destinations like India, the Middle East, and even some points in Europe. Etihad's service levels, premium hard product, and lounges definetnly make them a world class airline.