Source: Ginger Around The World
Last year I flew the Etihad First Class Apartment several times and I think it is certainly one of the very BEST First Class out there. The luxury flight between Abu Dhabi and London can cost up to 10,000+ USD. But I will show you how to book it with free miles that come with credit cards in the UAE 😉
Earning loads of Etihad Guest miles without flying?
Champagne, wagyu beef and onboard showers. It all sounds fun but how can you book this for a reasonable price? Well “earning and burning” air miles is the smartest way possible. The cool thing is that you don’t even need to fly to get those miles!
This is just the on board bar by the way:
How many miles do you need exactly to fly First class?
First class between Abu Dhabi and London will cost you about 88,000 Etihad Guest miles.
You can also pay just 75% miles plus cash for the remaining 25% of 88,000 miles, which is 66,000 miles plus about 220 USD (0.01 cents per mile for 22,000 miles), this is a even better deal!
Video of my Etihad First Class Apartment Flight
Credit cards in UAE are giving free miles?
If you fly a lot in Business class you might already have enough miles but if you just do a few economy flights every year then you might never get there. But there is no need to panic!
There is a way to earn these miles instantly! Credit card companies love to seduce you with offers and you just have to take advantage of them. And it gets better because some credit cards give you up to 55,000 miles if you join!
Each card has an annual fee but you get a lot of miles and loads of other benefits. Some cards give you lounge key so you can access lounges in airports for free!
Basically you are buying the miles super cheap, cheaper than on Etihad’s website. On top of that booking with miles is cheaper than paying cash but availability is limited.
Be careful as there are a lot of credit cards with poor travel benefits or misleading miles. I did quite some research and here is a list with the cards that offer the best sign up bonuses.
| Credit Card | Sign Up Bonus points | Points Type | Annual Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Citi Prestige | 30,000 | Citi Thank You points 1:1 transferable points | AED 1,500 |
| Emirates NBD SPG world | 35,000 | SPG points 1:1 transferable points 5,000 bonus for every 20.000 points | AED 1,500 |
| ADIB Etihad Guest Platinum Card | 50,000 | Etihad Guest Miles | AED 1,500 |
| ADIB Etihad Guest Gold Card | 35,000 | Etihad Guest Miles | AED 1,000 |
| ADIB Etihad Guest Classic Card | 10,000 | Etihad Guest Miles | AED 500 |
| NBAD Etihad Guest Infinite | 55,000 | Etihad Guest Miles | AED 2,500 |
| NBAD Etihad Guest Singature | 35,000 | Etihad Guest Miles | AED 1,500 |
| NBAD Etihad Guest Platinum | 10,000 | Etihad Guest Miles | AED 500 |
| ADCB Etihad Guest Infinite | 50,000 | Etihad Guest Miles | AED 2,500 |
| ADCB Etihad Guest Platinum | 25,000 | Etihad Guest Miles | AED 1,000 |
Sign up bonuses change all the time.
During promotional period, I've seen the NBAD Etihad Guest Platinum card is giving as much as 110,000 bonus!
Booking a reward flight in First Class
So once you have the credit cards, the points will be transferred to your Etihad guest account in 4 – 8 weeks. If you have the Citi or SPG card then you can transfer those points to your Etihad account within a few days. Then all you need to do is logging in to your Etihad guest account and look for availability and book using points. If you are a few thousand miles short you can still buy miles during the checkout. The whole point is that you book with miles which you got for *free* instead of paying cash for it. Even if you calculate the full cost of the credit card which is not even fair because you will use other benefits of the card it’s still many many times cheaper then paying cash for the flight.
Leave a comment if you plan on getting credit cards and let me know when you book your First Class Apartment for dirt cheap!
Source: Ginger Around The World
Sam’s Travel Hacks
