Etihad had made a great move allowing their new Apartment class cabins to be bookable with partner miles. Not only did they open it up for partner bookings but the availability on the route (only flying London <-> Abu Dhabi right now) is excellent! Singapore airlines took several years before they opened up their suites aboard their A380 available at the saver level, so it is great to not have to wait that long to book the new Etihad cabins.
Part of Etihad’s Residence cabin
However, an award that is not possible for partner bookings (because partners book into the Guest availability) is the incredible Residence class. That is the multi-room “seat” that comes complete with a butler and costs $20,000 for a one way trip. At least two people get to fly for that price! 🙂
But, there is a lot of availability in the Residence class for award bookings! Since there is only one available (though it says 2), if there is award availability, that means no one has even booked that high-end seat on those dates. While it does seem strange to have so much availability, that price ticket and the luxury that goes with it is probably something that the people booking would book more last minute instead of planning weeks in advance. But, if you have 2.2 million Etihad Guest miles, you can go ahead and lock in a one way in Residence class yourself! 🙂 That takes over the spot of the highest level award ticket from the Virgin Galactic spaceship. That’s ok – I don’t think you get a butler or a bed on the Virgin Galactic. 🙂
Award availability on the Etihad A380
In case you would rather not spend that many miles on that ticket, you can always book the Apartment class with partner miles (like AA for 40,000 one way). Below is availability in both Apartment and Residence for the next several weeks.
The Apartment availability is only referring to the Guest level which is all that is bookable with partner miles. Etihad has taken the A380 off the schedule until January 16.
[table “” not found /]To find award space, head over to the Etihad rewards page – here – and enter Abu Dhabi to London (or reverse). Then choose First.
Next, you need to look for Guest First space. That is what will be bookable with partner miles. In our example here, it does show it as available so you can simply call American Airlines (800-882-8880) to book it!
How far in advance do they open up the low level seating? Searches for July indicate no availability? Thanks!
From what I recall someone telling me, Etihad bases the Residence award redemption based on the price (~$20,000) and distance, hence the hefty 2 million miles price! I’m a patient type of guy and thought about possibly saving that amount of miles to someday experience it, but after learning Etihad Guest miles expire after 3 years regardless of activity, I passed on that opportunity.
What really surprised me is opening up the First Class Apt space to partners given how new this product is. I was fortunate enough to try the First Class apt on my way back to the USA via LHR after the holidays and I will admit it is definitely a game changer. I mean, you can WALK inside your apartment! Heck you can even jump inside it and comfortably fit 4 people inside it! The only con I had is the timing of the flight, which is 2:35am-6:35am. It’s basically a redeye flight and the food served were mainly late dinner/light bite/breakfast items.
I hope to fly it again on an ulta longhaul route like AUH-SYD or AUH-JFK someday.