Etihad Airways and Hong Kong Airlines have launched a reciprocal frequent flyer partnership, allowing members of Etihad Guest and Fortune Wings Club to earn and redeem across both carriers’ networks.
For Canadians, this quietly opens up another path into Hong Kong and onward across Asia, especially if you already collect Etihad Guest miles or have a stash of American Express Membership Rewards points you can convert.
Details of the Partnership
The core of the tie-up is simple:
- Hong Kong Airlines Fortune Wings Club members can do the same on Etihad Airways.
- Etihad Guest members can now earn and redeem miles on Hong Kong Airlines flights.
It’s important to remember that neither Etihad Airways nor Hong Kong Airlines is a member of a major airline alliance, such as Star Alliance or oneworld.
This makes direct earning and redeeming across a broader network more challenging, but bilateral partnerships like this help bridge those gaps.
Earning Etihad Guest Miles With Hong Kong Airlines
If you are flying Hong Kong Airlines on a paid ticket, you can now add your Etihad Guest number and earn redeemable miles based on distance and fare class.
Broadly speaking:
- Business class fares earn roughly 100–200% of miles flown.
- Economy spans from 130% on full-fare Y down to just 10% on the deepest discount buckets.
Flights must be both marketed and operated by Hong Kong Airlines to qualify. The catch for status chasers is that these partner miles do not count toward Etihad Guest elite status – they are purely redeemable miles, not Tier Miles.
Still, if you already play in the Etihad ecosystem, crediting Hong Kong Airlines flights to Etihad Guest is far more useful than letting a trickle of points sit in Fortune Wings Club.
Redeeming Miles on Hong Kong Airlines
On the redemption side, Etihad uses a one-way, distance-based partner chart for Hong Kong Airlines, with fixed pricing by distance band and cabin.
Rather than laying out every band, it is easier to look at real examples from recent searches:
- Hong Kong (HKG) –Sydney (SYD) prices at 60,000 Etihad Guest miles in economy or 100,000 miles in business plus about HKD 1,300 in taxes and fees. That matches the 4,001–5,000-mile band in the chart.
- Hong Kong (KHG) – Denpasar (DPS) comes out at 28,000 miles in economy or 50,000 miles in business, plus roughly HKD 500–600 in taxes, lining up with the 2,001–2,500-mile band.
These data points confirm that Etihad’s published chart is behaving as expected, which is always comforting before you start planning something more ambitious than a simple point-to-point.
Vancouver (YVR) – Hong Kong (HKG): A Backup Option When Prices Spike
For Canadians, the headline long-haul angle is the non-stop service between Vancouver (YVR) and Hong Kong (HKG). The route clocks in at over 6,000 miles one way, which puts it in the top band of Etihad’s partner chart.
On paper, a one-way Hong Kong Airlines flight between Vancouver and Hong Kong will cost:
- 75,000 Etihad Guest miles in economy, or
- 140,000 Etihad Guest miles in business, plus taxes and fees.
Those numbers are not going to dethrone your favourite Aeroplan or Asia Miles sweet spots, but they do get interesting when:
- Cash fares on Air Canada or Cathay Pacific go sky-high around holidays and school breaks.
- Cathay releases little or no premium award space, or wants an absurd number of points for dynamically priced seats.
In those moments, a fixed 140,000-mile price for a non-stop, lie-flat flight at least gives you a firm ceiling on what you will pay in miles. You are giving up some of Cathay’s polish, but “available and flat” often beats “waitlisted and imaginary”.
Based on early searches, long-haul business-class space on Hong Kong Airlines looks much thinner than intra-Asia space, so think of Vancouver–Hong Kong as a safety valve, not a core strategy. If you already have Etihad miles sitting around, though, it is a very real backup plan.
Best Uses: Intra-Asia Connectors and Secondary Cities
Cathay Pacific is still the main event in Hong Kong, and many travellers would happily choose Cathay business or first if price and award space cooperated.
Lately, they often do not. Premium fares can be painful, and long-haul awards in particular can be hard to snag.
This is where Hong Kong Airlines as an Etihad partner starts to earn its keep. Many of its routes fall nicely into the mid-range distance bands where the chart is most compelling. For example:
- Hong Kong to major Japanese cities such as Tokyo (NRT) and Osaka (KIX)
- Hong Kong to regional hubs like Bangkok (BKK) or Taipei (TPE)
- Hong Kong to select mainland Chinese and Southeast Asian gateways
On these routes, economy awards typically fall in the 12,000–34,000-mile range, with business awards around 25,000–60,000 miles one way, depending on distance.
When cash fares are elevated on full-service competitors, those numbers can represent decent value, especially if you value flexibility and want to avoid ultra-low-cost carriers.
How This Partnership Helps Canadians
For Canadian travellers, this partnership mainly does three things:
- Adds another redemption path to Hong Kong when Cathay and Air Canada are either overpriced or stingy with awards.
- Improves intra-Asia connectivity once you are in the region, especially to Japan, Southeast Asia, and select secondary cities.
- Creates another outlet for Amex Membership Rewards points, which can be transferred to Etihad Guest at a 1,000:750 rate in Canada.
Etihad Guest is not going to replace Aeroplan as your primary program, but if you already dabble in secondary currencies, this partnership gives your Etihad miles a clearer job description: Hong Kong and Asia, with occasional long-haul duty out of Vancouver when the usual suspects misbehave.
Things To Watch Out For With Etihad Guest
A couple of caveats are worth repeating before you rush to shift points:
- Mileage expiry: Etihad Guest has a relatively strict expiry policy. Miles can expire if you go too long without activity, so this is not a set-and-forget currency.
- Change and cancellation fees: Partner awards tend to carry higher fees for changes and redeposits than some competing programs. If your plans are fluid, build that into your calculations.
- Chart stability: Etihad has adjusted partner pricing before, sometimes with limited notice. Treat the current Hong Kong Airlines award levels as “good for now,” not as a promise for the next decade.
None of these are deal-breakers, but they do mean you should move points with a plan in mind rather than speculatively hoarding Etihad miles just because Hong Kong Airlines joined the party.
Conclusion
Etihad Guest’s new partnership with Hong Kong Airlines gives points collectors another lever to pull for trips to Hong Kong and around Asia.
Earning Etihad miles on paid Hong Kong Airlines flights is a nice side benefit, but the real attraction is the distance-based award chart, solid intra-Asia availability, and a potential pressure valve on the Vancouver (YVR) – Hong Kong (HKG) route when cash prices and dynamic awards get out of hand.
If you already hold Etihad miles or can top up from Amex Membership Rewards, keep this partnership in your back pocket for the next time you are piecing together an Asia trip and Cathay’s best seats are nowhere to be found.
This story originally appeared on princeoftravel
