A few weeks ago, Thrifty Traveler reported something really intriguing: Air France KLM Flying Blue displays more award availability for travel on Etihad Airways than other Etihad partners. That’s not just close-in award availability, but also very far out on the schedule. While they charge more miles than American Airlines does, that can easily be mitigated by a good transfer bonus — and by the fact that you can book 9 or 10 months in advance.
Unlike American Airlines, which mostly seems to get access to Etihad availability only within 30 days of departure (with a few route exceptions), Flying Blue appears to have access to business class award space through the end of the calendar. You won’t be booking Etihad First Class apartments via Flying Blue as I’m only seeing up to business class availability. Still, their business class product looks quite nice (as seen above from Stephen Pepper’s flights during our 3 Cards 3 Continents challenge).
The big news here is that availability extends really far out. I had seen Thrifty Traveler’s report on this a couple of weeks ago, but it slipped my mind until today when I was looking at award options from Europe to the United States in December 2025 and stumbled on this option from Athens to Boston via Abu Dhabi. That’s no doubt “the long way home”, but it might appeal to someone interested in sampling Etihad’s product — or certainly for someone looking to take advantage of the stopover that Flying Blue allows on a one-way award (note that you need to call to book an award with a stopover).
As you can see, that award wasn’t a cheap way to get from Europe to the US at 119K miles and $436 in taxes & carrier-imposed surcharges, but if you were booking it with Abu Dhabi as a stopover, it might make sense.
Prices between Abu Dhabi and the US seemed to vary a bit by destination and might vary based on date. The mileage prices I’m seeing vary a little bit from what Thrifty Traveler reported, but taxes & fees from Abu Dhabi to the US are ringing in around $250 one-way regardless of the mileage price on the routes I’ve checked.
To give some examples of the number of miles you’ll need to book these awards, Abu Dhabi to Boston rang in from 87,500 miles one-way in business class on my searches.
However, business class from Abu Dhabi to New York started at 90K.
Washington, DC rang in at 93K in business.
Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi to Chicago will set you back 95,500 miles in the business class cabin.
Note that these prices aren’t as good as American’s prices for the same awards (which would be 70K miles), the key, um, advantage here is that you can book far in advance (like 10-11 months in advance of departure!). Furthermore, if you can get something like a 25% transfer bonus, the route to Boston would cost you 70,000 transferable points.
It’s also worth noting that you’re getting a much better deal here than you would booking via Etihad Guest (which would charge north of 100K one way). And while you do need to be aware of Flying Blue’s $70 fee to cancel an award, that’s far better than dealing with the punitive Etihad Guest cancellation penalties of 25% of the miles redeemed if cancelling far in advance up to 75% of the miles redeemed for cancelling within 7 days of departure. Flying Blue’s $70 cancellation fee is a much better deal.
Overall, this is great news for those looking to fly Etihad business class with Flying Blue miles. It’s surprising to see this expanded availability via Flying Blue, particularly with the way that Etihad’s partnership with Air Canada Aeroplan seems to have more or less crumbled to the point of only making economy class awards available.
Doing a flexible search (no departure date) for Abu Dhabi to Boston one-way in Business, to get the availability calendar like one always does with AF searches. Except, I get this message: Sorry, there are no flights available on this date. Please try again.
I did not select a date. Left that blank so as to pull up the calendar.
How do you search for Etihad award space on AF??? I can’t find anything!
There’s no magic – just the same way you search for any award via AF. If you’re not finding anything, I guess there isn’t availability on the dates you’re trying.
Not really… Mot people search for AF awards by the calendar, but I just figured that you have to play minesweeper (search each individual day) for EY awards.