Considering it’s been a while since I’ve been on a flight, or even booked a flight, it’s finally nice to hear some good news on the travel front. As of June 3rd, Air Canada has strengthened ties with Etihad Airways, the less than 20-year-old airline based out of Abu Dhabi. What does this mean for you? Well, exciting times are coming! 

Booking Etihad Airways with Aeroplan. 

Etihad is fully bookable with Aeroplan miles, which means you have access to the world-class Etihad Apartments first class from New York City, London, Paris, Sydney or Seoul to Abu Dhabi. Furthermore, Etihad flies 5 times weekly (Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday) to Toronto, which allows you a convenient one-stop route to the Middle East, the Indian Subcontinent and South Africa. Although you won’t be able to fly the apartments from Canada’s west coast to Europe, Australia or Asia (as the mileage is too long), you can pair that with a flight using WestJet dollars to get to the East coast to start your trip. 

Many people complain about the pesky fees that Aeroplan charges on Air Canada flights, but as of right now, there are no extra surcharges on Etihad flights, which means that redemptions will be affordable. For example, economy round trip flights to Abu Dhabi from Toronto incur less than $100 in taxes. 

To search for tickets, you are able to search segment by segment on Aeroplan but I find that availability shown doesn’t closely match actual availability, which isn’t surprising, as it is Aeroplan. The best way to search for flights is on ExpertFlyer, which allows you to search for flights 7 days at a time. Just like Aeroplan, you must search for flights segment by segment, which you will then have to call into Aeroplan in order to book. 

It appears that Etihad releases 2 first-class seats, 2 business class seats and 5 economy seats on their flights from Sydney to Abu Dhabi. The flights in first have been snapped up. Etihad Business class and Economy class seats are typically released 330 days out (Abu Dhabi time).  There are still some seats on the Sydney to Abu Dhabi to New York route, but they’re mostly for the fall which provides a high level of uncertainty due to COVID-19.

The flights departing Abu Dhabi to Toronto follow a similar pattern, as they release 2 business class and 5 economy seats (there is no first class on the Boeing 777 operating on their Toronto route). 

The flight between Seoul and Abu Dhabi releases up to 9 economy, 9 business class and 2 first-class tickets. 

If you don’t have an ExpertFlyer account, use Etihad’s frequent flyer program, Etihad Guest, to search for availability.  In the past, it has made me sign in to check availability, but recently it has allowed me to search without logging in. Unfortunately, you can only search for availability in one cabin at a time. 

When searching with Etihad Guest, the only seats that you’re able to book on points will be the ones that appear as GuestSeat. For those of you who are potentially interested in booking with Etihad Guest, points are transferable from Amex Membership rewards at a 4:3 rate which isn’t an optimum redemption. 

Etihad Guest 

As the agreement is reciprocal, Air Canada flights are now bookable through Etihad Guest. That being said, I’m not sure they’re the best deal. Below is the redemption chart for Air Canada flights on Etihad Guest.

As you can see it’s a mileage-based program with steep increases, especially after 1000 miles. As there could be limited value in high fee, short flights on Aeroplan, I tested this out by phoning Ethiad to book tickets. The first ticket I looked at was Toronto to Geneva, which comes in at 2996 miles, but the agent was going to book at the 3000-4000 mile bucket, a significant mileage difference (35K/70K vs 47K/94K). Furthermore, there was no availability, even though Aeroplan and United were showing availability. 

As a second test, I also looked at Toronto to San Juan, which would come in at 1911 miles or 28K in Economy and 56K in Business. When there was no availability on that route, he went back to his supervisor, who confirmed that they’re still having issues booking Air Canada tickets, and there was nothing available at this time. 

At this point, I don’t suspect that there will be much value booking flights with Etihad Guest, except for expensive short-haul flights if taxes are not passed on. (YYZ-MKE, YYZ-LGA, YYZ-IAD, YYZ-YQB). Once the flights are bookable through Etihad Guest, I will provide an update.

The Point. 

Etihad is s low-cost but high-quality option to add to the Aeroplan arsenal. Although it’s a perfect option as a stopover on a comprehensive Aeroplan Around the World Journey, I recognized that seats would fill up quickly. I booked my first flight for 2021 in the Ethiad Apartments about an hour after the announcement. In the end, our 30 hours flight in first class cost us 220K points and $359 for two showers in the sky.

That’s a bit of a discount compared to the $10K ticket price of the flights!

Hopefully, I’ll actually have the chance to fly 30 hours from Sydney to Toronto via Abu Dhabi and New York-JFK, as I’ve never been this excited to spend that much time in an airplane. Can’t wait to review that flight!

Have you booked Etihad using your Aeroplan points?