Etihad J award using VA points?

[dansyd]

I’m attempting to book an Etihad EY business class J award using virgin points (VA) for SYD to Europe (LHR or elsewhere) for Jun/Jul this year. EY shows many available awards via their site, but nothing is showing up on VA.

Anyone had any luck recently? VA has Y awards but no J.

 

[Bolthead]

Yes, we booked 2 x J SYD - LHR (Sept.) and MXP - SYD (Nov.) On Etihad. However we booked them back in November 2021 so I guess that doesn't help you.

 

[pangwen]

I’m attempting to book an Etihad EY business class J award using virgin points (VA) for SYD to Europe (LHR or elsewhere) for Jun/Jul this year. EY shows many available awards via their site, but nothing is showing up on VA.

Anyone had any luck recently? VA has Y awards but no J.

We had a similar issue pre-COVID - the VA call centre helped us book the flights.

 

[Matty F]

I've been looking at flights from SIN to Europe in May or June and there are EY awards coming up, but you still have to pay quite a bit of cash on top of the points which is a bit of a kick in the gut, and reduces the valuation of the points. I think from memory they were asking about $500 on top

 

[Must...Fly!]

EY shows many available awards via their site, but nothing is showing up on VA.

I find it very hard to believe many awards are available from Etihad.

You need to be able to book "Guest Seat" awards on the Etihad website.

Note the difference below.

GuestSeat available;



No GuestSeat available

 

[Brizz]

I did not realise that the Etihad charges also applied to their own reward seat bookings.

I figured it was a partner reward charge - a tax for booking their inventory if you like.

 

[serfty]

I've been looking at flights from SIN to Europe in May or June and there are EY awards coming up, but you still have to pay quite a bit of cash on top of the points which is a bit of a kick in the gut, and reduces the valuation of the points. I think from memory they were asking about $500 on top

Here are the Carrier surcharges for EY:

Using Points For Flights

Use your Velocity Points to fly to over 500 destinations. Check out our flight reward options and turn your Points into a flight for your next trip or dream holiday today

experience.velocityfrequentflyer.com

 

[andye]

Here are the Carrier surcharges for EY:

View attachment 274920

Using Points For Flights

Use your Velocity Points to fly to over 500 destinations. Check out our flight reward options and turn your Points into a flight for your next trip or dream holiday today

experience.velocityfrequentflyer.com

Note that these fees are per sector eg SYD-AUH-CDG return in J, carrier fees would be 4xUSD430 on top of usual taxes

 

[bam71]

So 2K AUD Plus normal taxes….. what a rip off

 

[SYD]

So 2K AUD Plus normal taxes….. what a rip off

Yep. They beat EK ripping off QFF by a couple of years!

 

[dansyd]

I find it very hard to believe many awards are available from Etihad.

You need to be able to book "Guest Seat" awards on the Etihad website.

Note the difference below.

GuestSeat available;

View attachment 274908

No GuestSeat available

View attachment 274909

Thanks very much. Unfortunately because I don’t have any Etihad points balance, the Etihad website won’t allow me to see what type of award booking it is.

Any other tips for seeing EY award availability not on their own website? Expertflyer also doesn’t have access to them at the moment.

 

[Must...Fly!]

Thanks very much. Unfortunately because I don’t have any Etihad points balance, the Etihad website won’t allow me to see what type of award booking it is.

Any other tips for seeing EY award availability not on their own website? Expertflyer also doesn’t have access to them at the moment.

I didn't log in. Go to the Etihad Guest website to search.

Alternatively you can use Air Canada (select book with points) to search as well.

 

[dansyd]

I didn't log in. Go to the Etihad Guest website to search.

Alternatively you can use Air Canada (select book with points) to search as well.

Thanks AC website is a lot more user friendly!