Etihad has recently had what is probably the most draconian cancellation policy on the planet. If you wanted to change your flight eight or more days before departure, you could do it for a AED 100 (~$27) fee…not so bad. Changes haven’t been allowed within 7 days.
However, if you wanted to cancel, things get rough. If you canceled more than 21 days out, you lost 25% of the total fare. If you canceled between 8-21 days out, you’d lose 50% of your fare, and if you canceled between 1 and 7 days pre-departure, you’d lose 75% of the total. Ouch.
A couple of weeks ago, One Mile at a Time shared that Etihad Guest is now breaking its award tickets into three different fare buckets: Value, Comfort, and Deluxe. The most expensive Deluxe fare has better change and cancellation options than were possible previously. Unfortunately, in the process, the change policy for other tickets got worse.
Etihad’s new award change/cancellation policy
- Etihad now has different “fare buckets” for award bookings and has modified award and cancellation fees in the process. The changes from the old policy are listed below in bold.
- Change fee:
- 1-7 days of departure:
- Deluxe: AED 400 (~US$108, Value and Comfort fares: not allowed)
- 8-21 days prior to departure:
- Value and Comfort: AED 200 (~US$54), previously AED 100 (~US$27)
- Deluxe: AED 100
- More than 21 days prior to departure:
- Deluxe: Free (Value and Comfort fares: AED 100)
- 1-7 days of departure:
- Cancellation fee:
- Within 24 hours of departure:
- Deluxe: 75% of fare (Value and Comfort fares: 100%)
- 1-7 days of departure:
- Deluxe: 50% of fare (Value and Comfort fares: 75%)
- 8-21 days prior to departure:
- Deluxe: 25% of fare (Value and Comfort fares: 50%)
- More than 21 days prior to departure:
- Deluxe: Free (Value and Comfort fares: 25%)
- Within 24 hours of departure:
Quick Thoughts
The primary change in all of this is that there are now “Deluxe” fares that offer a more generous change and cancellation policy, as well as additional benefits in comparison to cheaper fares.
Cancellation is free until 21 days out, and you get to keep 25% more of the fare during each subsequent time period. Changes are also free until less than 21 days out, and you can pay to change a flight up to 24 hours before departure…which seems to indicate that you could always pay to change the ticket to more than 21 days out and then cancel it if there were an issue.
Deluxe fares also get the Etihad Chauffeur service, lounge access, and advance seat selection, while Comfort fares do not. The only difference between Value and Comfort fares in economy class seems to be that Comfort gets advanced seat selection.
However, you pay a distinct premium for that increased flexibility. Taking a spin around the new pricing, it appears that Deluxe fares are 15%-50% more than Comfort and Value fares for the same class and flight (although there don’t appear to be any Value fares for premium cabin awards).
Given that you only get to keep 25% more of the fare if you do cancel, with some flights, it seems like you’re effectively paying whatever the change fee would be in advance. That might make sense for some folks, especially when the difference is on the lesser end.
In a further twist, AwardWallet reported last week that the way Etihad is determining fare cost is bizarre.
Instead of just refunding 75% of taxes and 75% of miles (for instance), it converts the miles to “cash” at a rate of 2 cents each. So, on the example pictured above, if you paid 120,000 miles and ~$600 in fees, Etihad would count the miles as $2,400 in “cash,” and add that to the $600 in fees for a total fare of $3,000. It would then give $2,250 “worth” of miles back, or ~112,500…with no cash refund, or a difference of +22,500 miles and -$400 versus a 75% refund on both.
I couldn’t confirm that over the phone with Etihad reps, but that’s not necessarily surprising given the (lack of) proficiency with the program that they usually have. If anyone has any personal experience, we’d love to hear it.
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It’s actually kind of impressive that they took such a terrible program and intentionally made it significantly worse. That’s the way to tell Bonvoy to hold your beer.