Can You Book Etihad First Class Apartment Awards Online with AAdvantage Miles? TravelSort reader Sam writes “I noticed that Etihad now appears as an option when doing certain AAdvantage award searches, but when I try to view Etihad First Class or Etihad Business Class award space, there's none–only economy awards. Will it be possible to reserve Etihad First Apartment or Etihad Business Studio awards online at AA.com soon?”
Previously all Etihad awards were only available by calling AAdvantage; it's interesting that, as this reader pointed out, Etihad is now displayed for certain routes, although disappointingly, only for economy awards. This is likely on purpose, as AAdvantage isn't keen to have its members maximize the value of their AAdvantage miles by booking first class awards, which cost AAdvantage more when reimbursing partner airlines than economy class awards do.
I verified that on several routes, only Etihad Economy awards appear on AA.com:
Here's JFK to AUH, where only economy awards are available:
It's similar with AUH-IAD:
And the same story with AUH-LAX, only economy awards.
Typically, AAdvantage award availability on Etihad matches what you can see under “Guest Seat” availability when searching using Etihad Guest, Etihad's frequent flyer program. For Etihad First Class and Etihad Business Class, this is not being made available online currently.
That said, I verified that it's still possible to book these awards by calling in. I was just able to put on hold the following NYC JFK to Abu Dhabi AUH Etihad First Apartment award:
And here's a hold for an AUH-JFK Etihad First Apartment award:
Do you wish it was possible to book Etihad premium class awards online?
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