Tag Archives for etihad.
Chase’s Washington Dulles airport lounge is now open. It’s been redesigned as a Chase Sapphire Lounge, in the old Etihad Airways lounge space, and still hosts Etihad premium passengers for their once daily flight as well.
Every stay at a Hyatt property between February 1 and March 30, 2024, earns an additional 1,000 Etihad Guest points, on top of regular Hyatt and airline miles earnings, for members who register and link their accounts.
Award space on these Airbus A380 flights is wide open for two passengers on many flights. But it’s currently available only to members spending Etihad Guest points and not partner miles (like American AAdvantage and Air Canada Aeroplan). However Etihad’s miles are very accessible.
All in all, if I hadn’t flown this aircraft configuration a dozen times and hadn’t flown it just a week before, I’d call it ‘the flight of a lifetime.’ It was honestly perfect, and I still believe that the Etihad First Apartment is the third best hard product in the sky – behind only the Emirates new first class and Singapore Suites.
Abu Dhabi airport has a brand new terminal that opened this month, and a brand new lounge complex. This was my opportunity to experience the first class check-in lounge, premium immigration and security, and Etihad’s new sit down first class dining – and boarding of the Airbus A380 from inside the lounge.
When Etihad brought back the A380 to London Heathrow, award space (often for the full cabin) was wide open. That’s how I grabbed three seats for myself, my wife and my daughter to fly London – Abu Dhabi and back earlier this month, using American AAdvantage miles.
I’ll be looking to see whether the first apartment opens up on New York JFK – Abu Dhabi, and if it does I’ll make several speculative bookings if possible – as a way even to get to India, the Mideast, and even Africa and Asia (even if booked as separate awards). I’ve flown this product many times and it’s really special.
It was time to say goodbye to the Etihad First Apartment. I’d missed it so. The crew on this flight were absolutely outstanding. In addition to one of the most spacious hard products in the sky, the soft product was excellent. Food, service, internet, shower, I really couldn’t have asked for more.
I had a 3 hour 50 minute connection at London Heathrow. Normally I’d feel that was interminably long. However I was connecting from British Airways Terminal 5 over to Terminal 4 for Etihad. And it turns out it was much worse than that: three buses and one hour and thirty five minutes from plane to lounge. The good news is that the Etihad London Heathrow lounge is actually pretty good. I just had less time there than I’d expected!
Back in July, when Etihad loaded the return of their Airbus A380 to the London – Abu Dhabi route, there was wide open award space for First Apartment award seats. That seemed like a great reason to put together an award trip with my wife and daughter.
We flew British Airways business class to London, Etihad A380 first class to Abu Dhabi and back, and stayed on points in suites at the Park Hyatts in Dubai and Abu Dhabi and at the Hyatt Regency The Churchill in London.
If things go wrong with your Etihad award redemption, American is telling its own agents that they just aren’t going to be able to help.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
