American Express announced today that Etihad Guest is now a airline transfer partner and it's already possible to make transfers.
Today I also updated my flexible points airline transfer master guide, so be sure to check out the new version!
You can now transfer Amex Membership Rewards at a 1 : 1 ratio to Etihad Guest. You can log in to your account and transfer points to Etihad Guest here.
It's always nice to see more partner options added to flexible point programs, however in my view the real hidden gem with this new addition of Amex's transfer partners lies in some of Etihad's partner award chart sweetspots.
Czech Airlines: Prague to Seoul for 25,610 miles for a one-way Business Class award
Brussels Airlines: New York to Brussels for 36,620 miles for a round trip Business Class award
To find other Etihad Guest partner award charts you can search Google like this.
Both of these awards get you in a Business class cabin with a fully flat seat. The Czech Airlines flight from Prague to Seoul looks to be a almost identical hard product as Korean Airlines Business Class Prestige Sleeper. You can read a full review of this flight here.
Via a Meine Meilen (a German miles blog), you can also earn some extra free (up to 9,000) Etihad miles when you sign-up for a a German Duty Free program. You get 1,000 free miles per account and Etihad allows you to earn miles for family members accounts, up to 9 accounts.
This may not be a bad idea if you plan on transferring Amex MR points to Etihad and need to top off your account for an award, plus it only takes a few minutes.
On top of that, transferring Amex Membership Rewards points to Etihad may make sense to some. You can get incredible value from some of Etihad's partner awards, albeit they may be hard to book through Eithad's phone booking.
Do you know any Etihad sweetspots? Have you booked partner awards using Etihad miles?
