Last year I flew the Etihad First Class Apartment and it is quite an epic experience. The luxury flight between Abu Dhabi and London can cost up to 17,000 USD. But I will show you how to book it with free miles that come with credit cards in the UAE 😉
This post is now also featured on Sam Chui‘s website 🙂
If you are not convinced why this is such an exciting thing for your bucket list then you might read about the 30 crazy things that happened on my First Class Apartment on the Etihad A380 flight.
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. If I remember correctly I have even seen cheaper rates as well.
Just login to Etihad guest and feel free to search for other routes, just make sure that it shows A380 as aircraft which is the only one with the apartments. So besides London you can look for: Melbourne, Mumbai, New York, Paris and Sydney.
Credit cards in Dubai and Abu Dhabi 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!
Next to the huge sign up bonus you also get miles for each AED / USD you spend. I am not responsible for your spending behavior! Personally I only use my credit cards for things that I really need and would otherwise pay cash. Every month I pay all my cards, no debts! You are a grown up just be responsive with your money.
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.
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 – Sign Up here | 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 | 35,0000 | Etihad Guest Miles | AED 1,000 |
| ADIB Etihad Guest Classic Card | 10,0000 | 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, but the cards above have been offering good bonuses.
Why I like the Citi Prestige and Emirates NBD SPG?
The advantage of the Citi Prestige card is that you can transfer the points 1:1 to many airlines. So if you rather want to fly Singapore Airlines instead of Etihad then that’s perfectly possible! The same goes for Emirates SPG, you can use the points to stay in Starwood hotels or transfer the points to many airlines.
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.
Alternatively you can transfer SPG points to Asiana (40,000) or AA (62,500) and book a partner reward which is a bit more complicated but a super good deal.
Leave a comment if you plan on getting credit cards and let me know when you book your First Class Apartment for dirt cheap!