Etihad Guest isn’t a program we discuss much, it doesn’t usually offer standout value beyond booking Etihad Airways’ own premium cabin awards. However, I recently came across some intriguing redemption and cash opportunities that might make it worth a second look–particularly for short-haul flights with Air Canada and American Airlines.
Etihad Guest Program in a Nutshell
Let’s go over some basics of Etihad Guest, the loyalty program of Etihad Airways.
Unless you’re flying Etihad, the easiest way to earn Etihad Guest miles is through transfer partners. In Canada, Amex Membership Rewards (MR) points transfer to Etihad Guest at a ratio of 1:0.75. In the US, Amex MR, Citi ThankYou Points, and Capital One Miles transfer at a 1:1 ratio, making it relatively easy to accumulate miles.
For redemptions, Etihad Guest has two separate award charts–one for Etihad Airways flights and another for partner airlines–both are distance-based. Etihad has a number of airline partners from all three airline alliances and others, but unfortunately redemptions aren’t available on all of them.
When redeeming miles, it is important to note that Etihad Guest does pass on carrier-imposed surcharges which should be factored into the overall cost of the redemption.
Etihad Guest is also known for having a notoriously horrible cancellation policy. You cannot cancel an award ticket within 24 hours of departure. Up to 24 hours prior to your flight, you can receive a partial refund of your miles and taxes based on when you cancel a flight, as follows:
- Within 7 days of departure: 75% of the miles redeemed will be forfeited.
- Between 8 and 21 days before departure: 50% of the miles redeemed will be forfeited.
- 21 or more days before departure: 25% of the miles redeemed will be forfeited.
With these in mind, let’s get to the sweet spot…
The Short-Haul Sweet Spot
Partner redemptions use a distance-based pricing model, and while I couldn’t find a current award chart, searches indicate that flights within the 0–500 mile distance band are priced at 6,000 Etihad Guest miles for economy class and 20,000 miles for business class.
As an award redemption, 6,000 miles can be a great value for short-haul flights, especially when dynamic pricing with other programs isn’t in your favour, such as can be the case with booking Air Canada flights with Aeroplan and American Airlines flights with AAdvantage.
Sometimes, it may even make more sense to save your miles and pay cash–especially if you can get the flight for almost 50% off!
Take for example, a flight from Toronto (YYZ) to Washington, DC (DCA) that would cost $410 (CAD).
If you were to book through Aeroplan, the redemption would cost 14.5K Aeroplan points + $121 (CAD) in taxes and fees. Accounting for the taxes and fees, you would still be getting 2 cents per point, which isn’t a bad redemption at all.
Booking with Etihad Guest, the flight distance clocks in at 359 miles, which falls under the 0–500 mile distance band for Etihad Guest, and therefore costs 6,000 Etihad Guest miles + $149 (CAD) in taxes and fees. You save a bit of miles by redeeming through Etihad, but the minimal savings may not be enough to sway you to book through Etihad.
What if you can save your miles and pay just $77 (CAD) to cover the 6,000 miles + $149 in tax and fees, for a total of $226 (CAD) for the flight? Because that’s a possibility too.
This isn’t a free flight, but you’ll be saving 45% off your flight!
In fact, for any given short-haul flight costing you 6,000 Etihad Guest miles, you can pay just $77 (CAD) or $54 (USD) for the flight plus the taxes and fees.
What’s also interesting is the cancellation policy appears to differ from their standard policy. 
Carry-on bag also appears to be included, but not checked baggage, which suggests that this books into Air Canada’s standard fare bucket.
Booking the Etihad Guest Short-Haul Sweet Spot on Cash
Here’s how you can go about doing it…
Not all short-haul flights will show up as being bookable through Etihad Guest, so you’ll have to double check the flight availability on Etihad Guest, or use an award search tool, like Roame or seats.aero to do it for you.
Just because the flight is available for redemption on Etihad Guest, doesn’t mean it’s the cheapest option. You’ll also want to compare it to the cost of booking the flight fully on cash and to using the airline’s own loyalty program or other partner airline programs to book it.
Let’s say you’ve determined that Etihad Guest sweet spot is the cheapest way to go, then first you’ll need to create an Etihad Guest account. Unless you’re planning on making an award redemption through Etihad Guest, don’t transfer any miles into the account.
Perform a search for your flight of interest. For example, let’s look at Seattle (SEA) to Vancouver (YVR) on September 3, 2025. Booking through Air Canada the cash rate is $252 (CAD).
Booking through Etihad Guest, you’ll initially see it for 6,000 miles + $38.36 (USD).
Click on the flight to book it. It will bring you to the booking page but immediately inform you that you do not have enough miles for the flight.
Instead of clicking “Continue with cash”, click the back button on your browser. By doing this, it will bring you to this screen below.
You’ll want to click “Continue” and this will take you back to the booking page and allow you to fill in the passenger information. Once you’re done this step, you’ll want to click continue on the bottom of the screen.
It’ll then bring your to a screen to add any extras to your flight, like seat selection. Unless you want to add extras, click “Continue without extras”.
You’ll get another message saying you have insufficient miles. Once again, just click the back button on your browser. This will give you another error message that you are “Unable to go back through your web browser”, like you saw previously. Click “Continue”.
This will bring you to the final payment screen where you’ll see that the final cost of your flight is now $92.36 (USD).
Now you can go ahead and make your payment and you’ll get an email confirmation for the booking. And voila, you’ve now booked a $252 (CAD) for $92.36 (USD), which is 47% in savings!
Here is an example of a flight with American Airlines from Washington, DC (DCA) to Detroit (DFW) where the cash flight costs $436 (CAD).
Through Etihad Guest, the flight costs 6,000 miles + $19 (USD).
Or you can opt to save the miles and pay only $74 (USD) in total!
What’s Happening Here?
It appears that Etihad is treating the purchase essentially as a cash + miles purchase. You’re paying $54 (USD) or $77 (CAD) for 6,000 Etihad Guest miles which works out to 0.9 cents USD per point, or 1.28 cents CAD per point.
Compare this to buying Etihad Guest miles off their website, where 6,000 miles cost $120 USD, paying $54 (USD) through this method is a steal.
Conclusion
Sometimes cash rates for seemingly short flights can be ridiculously high, and with the dynamic nature of Aeroplan and AAdvantage redemptions, it’s nice to have a cheaper option through Etihad Guest to book them at a reasonable, fixed redemption. If you prefer to save your points, you can even purchase the flight through Etihad for a fraction of the cost.
This can be particularly helpful for a last-minute flight where the cost is often inflated or for positioning flights. Since direct flights from Canada aren’t always available, travellers often need to position to U.S. cities to connect to flights bound for Europe, Asia, and beyond.
Hopefully you’ll be able to take advantage of this sweet spot too!
This story originally appeared on princeoftravel
