Etihad has released a ton of business and first class award space between London and Abu Dhabi, including first class apartments aboard its A380. This is just a look at one month of nonstop first class availability for 2 passengers between London and Abu Dhabi. American Airlines charges 62,500 miles each way (and far less in taxes departing Abu Dhabi) in first class or 42,500 miles each way in business class (keep in mind though that you’ll still need to get to/from London).
Note that some of that may be first class 787 space. You want the A380 for Etihad apartments.
Greg has flown Etihad apartments and it looks amazing.
As you can see above, you’ll pay a few hundred dollars in taxes departing London. Departing Abu Dhabi is much cheaper.
Business class is widely available for four passengers.
According to Dan’s Deals, you can not book via AA.com. You can find space at AA.com, but you’ll have to call or apparently you can chat via the AA app. Remember that American Airlines allows a hold for 5 days on a partner award, so even if you’re not 100% certain of plans, you could at least get a hold on something. These awards should also be cancellable for free. Air Canada does not seem to have access to this space.
Remember that you can transfer 1:1 from Bilt Rewards to American Airlines, otherwise you’ll need to have AA miles to book this.
H/T: Upgraded Points
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Seeing Etihad First AUH-LHR with solid availability Jan through August on AA (62.5k miles, both directions). Of course it’s a mix of A380 (Apartments) and 787 (no Apartments).
Do NOT see this availability on Aeroplan (again, what’s up, up north?). Have not tried to book so don’t know if can be done online or only via call/chat AA rep.
Seems dead. EY instantly canceled my hold, while I was chatting with AA reservations, and now I can’t find any dates with A380 First available AUH-LHR or LHR-AUH.
Apparently I was just minutes too late. Phone rep said that etihad pulled the award availability. I’m now looking online for any nonstop lhr-auh in first and see none.
Just had AA phone rep tell me the flight/reservation I was trying to book was “automatically canceled by Etihad.” Got all the way to the payment part of reservation. She is trying to investigate now while I’m on hold.
Getting an error trying to check out on AA
Check the second to last paragraph of the article. You’ll need to call to book (or possibly chat through the app)
I’m sure you are — the post notes that you can’t check out on AA and how to do it (call or chat).
Last night I managed to find a couple of first class award seats AUH-IAD in February through AA (AC didn’t show the space) that wouldn’t ticket but allowed me to do a hold so I called to have them issued.
Did your ticket get issued? I never got the confirmation email for mine and miles were never redeemed.
Issued and miles pulled from my account. It took less than a day.