Aeroplan has officially added Etihad as a partner. You can now earn and redeem Aeroplan miles by flying on Etihad.
I say “officially” because you may recall Aeroplan accidentally announced this partnership in April…of 2019. We didn’t hear anything about it for over a year, but today the partnership has been finalized.
Earn Aeroplan Miles On Etihad
Aeroplan members can earn Aeroplan miles and Altitude (elite) miles according the following table:
Redeem Aeroplan Miles On Etihad
Etihad flights are subject to the same award chart as other partners, can be mixed with other partners, and can be booked online. Best of all, there are no fuel surcharges.
- Etihad flights will be subject to our Fixed Mileage Flight Reward chart, available here
- Members will be able to book Etihad flights online at aeroplan.com, or via the Contact Centre
- Etihad flights can be combined with flights operated by Air Canada and other international partners
- Fuel surcharges will not apply on Etihad operated flights
I’ll review the comparative value of American Airlines versus Aeroplan Etihad redemptions in a follow-up post. In short, the key will be routing rules. Will you be able to route from North America to Africa via Abu Dhabi as a single award? How about back to Europe? Award space is currently limited (Etihad releases award space in gluts…it’s often feast or famine), but I am exploring options and consulting with Air Canada.
You Can Also Earn + Redeem Etihad Guest Points On Air Canada
Although not as lucrative in almost all cases, you can also earn and redeem Etihad Guest points on Air Canada.
CONCLUSION
This is great news for Aeroplan members and makes Aeroplan an even more lucrative program. And there might be more good news ahead. Aeroplan hinted at additional partners:
“As part of the relaunch of Aeroplan, we’re hard at work on introducing additional airline partners. To that end, we expect to have more news to share with you in the coming weeks.”
Will you be redeeming Aeroplan miles for travel on Etihad?
Hopefully this is a step towards Etihad joining *A unless vetoed by Lufthansa or Singapore.
I doubt LH would veto since it already partners with EY. I too would love to see EY as part of Star Alliance.
Does anyone else have consistent problems getting the Aeroplan site to show results. I continually get error messages when sites like UA or Lifemiles show a plethora of flight options?
Works fine for me today.
The app crashes a lot and I’ve found availability to be generally worse than United.
Crashes during password reset. Then crashes during flight search. Really have to be patient and keep trying. I haven’t found EY reward flights yet on a search for NYC – AUH but I’ll keep trying.
I checked entire calendar. No JFK space in J or F.
I got two JFK-AUH-SYD tix in F for early July… most likely going to cancel so those should open back up if you’re interested.
I found Syd Abu Dhabi in f and Abu Dhabi to nyc in f back to back. Was just about to use etihad now will use aeroplan. Wish I’d bought in the sale. Always wanted someone to connect Syd and jfk in etihad. My fav international product.
Now just need alaksa to allow Syd to ord on jal.
Nice find!
“Will you be able to route from North America to Africa via Abu Dhabi as a single award?”
I believe this restriction was lifted back in April of 2019 using AA miles. This transit is allowed with both QR via Doha and EY via AUH.
Also EY never has any outbound US to AUH in F unless you are purchasing from origination area using EY points. Decent returning to US availability when using partner points.
Correctioin: AUH region using AUH points, not originating destination.
That’s with AA. I meant with AC.
My mistake, Saw JNB-IAD next year in J/F for 105K using AC points. JNB-JFK J only for 75K,
Great data point. So same with AA. Good. Indeed, as you say…as long as the stopover does not occur in AUH.