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Thinking about buying an Etihad Business Class ticket to Europe? Why pay for a Business Class ticket when, thanks to a current American Airlines promotion, you can fly First Class for less than the price of Business!
American Airlines is currently running one of its regular promotions on buying AAdvantage miles. Until 30 June 2019, you can get a 10% discount on AAdvantage mile purchases. In addition, if you purchase the maximum amount of 150,000 AAdvantage miles, you’ll receive 100,000 bonus miles. So with the current offer, it costs USD4,315.05 (around $6,200 at today’s exchange rate) to purchase 250,000 American Airlines AAdvantage miles.
As American Airlines is a partner of Etihad Airways, you can redeem AAdvantage miles to fly on Etihad. It costs 115,000 AAdvantage miles each way to fly First Class from Australia to Europe on Etihad Airways.
Sydney is the only Australian destination served by Etihad Airways with First Class available. The best use of miles would be to fly from Sydney to London or Paris, as Etihad uses its Airbus A380s with its spacious First Class apartments on those routes. But Etihad also offers First Class on other aircraft types to European destinations including Munich.
When redeeming AAdvantage miles to fly with Etihad Airways, you won’t pay the expensive Etihad carrier charges that you would have to pay when redeeming Velocity points. In general, Etihad also has reasonable award availability for 1-2 passengers – as long as you book well in advance and avoid flying during school holidays. You can redeem AAdvantage miles for Etihad award flights on the American Airlines website.
In total, a round-trip Etihad First Class award ticket from Sydney to Paris would cost 230,000 AAdvantage miles plus USD213.90 (around $308) in taxes:
In total, that means you’re paying just over $6,500 for return flights. That is cheaper than a regular Business class ticket to Europe on Etihad Airways!
But wait, it gets even better! If you were to purchase 250,000 AAdvantage miles and then redeem for an Etihad First Class trip to Europe, you’ll still have 20,000 AAdvantage miles leftover. That’s enough to book a one-way Qantas Business Class flight anywhere in Australia. For example, you could fly from Cairns to Perth:
Would you like help using your frequent flyer points?
Australian Frequent Flyer offers a personalised service that’s designed to take the hard work out of redeeming your frequent flyer points!
Frequent Flyer Concierge can help you to find the perfect reward flights. Just let the team know how many points you have and where you would like to go, and they’ll prepare an itinerary for you using your points.
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