Etihad 20K Bonus Miles for New Etihad BusinessConnect Account (10K in 2 Accounts)

Etihad is offering 20,000 bonus miles, 10,000 bonus miles for your Etihad Guest personal account, and 10,000 miles for your new Etihad BusinessConnect account, when you sign up for a new BusinessConnect account.

Terms:

New BusinessConnect account must be created, with two travellers sign up for it
Person signing up for the new BusinessConnect account must connect it with his/her Etihad Guest account
Sign up both travellers and connect the BusinessConnect account to a personal Etihad Guest account between September 22 and October 31, 2013
All bonus miles will be credited 10 working days after promotion ends
To be eligible, company may not already be registered with Etihad BusinessConnect and may not already have a corporate contract with Etihad Airways

Here are the steps, then I'll discuss why you may want these Etihad bonus miles:

1. Sign up for Etihad BusinessConnect

Go to etihadbusinessconnect to sign up your business.

2. Connect Your Etihad Guest Account and One Other Business Traveler's Number to the BusinessConnect Account

After signing up your business (see screenshot of the BusinessConnect registration page), be sure to connect your personal Etihad Guest Account and also sign up one other business traveler (who already has an Etihad guest account).

3. Email Your Etihad Guest Number and Company Name

Email your Etihad Guest number and your company name to businessconnectoffer@etihad.ae

Why Etihad Miles Can Be Useful

Sure, you could just buy some merchandise at the Etihad Reward Shop but the 10,000 bonus miles in two accounts could be useful for certain flights from Etihad's Abu Dhabi (AUH) hub to other cities.

You might ask–why not just include those flights on a single AA award? Well, the problem is that the American AAdvantage routing rules mean you can't transit a third region, with a few exceptions. I covered this in American AAdvantage Oneworld Explorer Award Chart and Rules, but here's a recap:

From the U.S., the only regions you can transit en route to a third region are North America via Europe to India, North America via Europe to Africa, and North America via Asia Region 1 to Asia Region 2.

So why not use a Oneworld Explorer Award? Well, that doesn't work because, as its name implies, it's Oneworld partners only–and Etihad is not in Oneworld.

This means that, while you can book an AA award to cover Etihad First Class from NYC to AUH and include a connecting flight elsewhere in the Middle East, India, and the Maldives (for example, our Etihad Business Class flight from Male to Abu Dhabi and Etihad First Class from Abu Dhabi to NYC was one award, for 90K AAdvantage miles), you cannot fly Etihad to Europe or Asia on one AAdvantage award.

Another aspect is if you want to stop in Abu Dhabi or Dubai for a few days: you can't do this on a single AAdvantage award, even if your onward flight is within the Middle East, India, or to the Maldives, so if you want a stopover, you'll need a separate award for your next flight.

Finally, while in the past it was easy even for non-fliers to earn tons of AAdvantage miles with Citi AAdvantage credit cards and BankDirect, this has gotten harder. See Citi AAdvantage: Official 50K AA Miles Offer But No More Churning and BankDirect Devaluation.

On the other hand, many of my Award Booking clients have plenty of SPG points, and Etihad is a transfer partner (see Starwood Preferred Guest Airline Transfer Partners: Turn SPG Points into Miles) so transferring some of those points to Etihad Guest, given a headstart of 10,000 Etihad bonus miles, can make sense.

So here are some examples of what to do with those 10,000 Etihad bonus miles:

Abu Dhabi to Athens in Business Class: 26,013 Miles

10,000 Etihad bonus miles, plus
17,000 SPG points transferred to Etihad

Abu Dhabi to Moscow (DME) in Business Class: 29,946 Miles

10,000 Etihad bonus miles, plus
20,000 SPG points transferred to Etihad
(with 5000 Etihad miles left over, thanks to 5000 mile bonus with 20,000 SPG points transfer)

Abu Dhabi to Frankfurt in Business Class: 39,020 Miles