They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. If that is indeed true, SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) must be feeling extremely flattered right now.
SAS rocked our world last year by offering 1 million miles to every person who flew with 15 different SkyTeam airlines by the end of the 2024. Greg, Nick and I subsequently took part in that challenge, creating a separate Million Mile Madness challenge of our own. We had an incredible amount of fun and each of us – eventually – earned 1 million SAS EuroBonus miles.
Well, Etihad has decided to draw inspiration from SAS and has launched The Extraordinary Challenge. By being the first person to travel to 15 different destinations around the world, you’ll earn 5 million miles. The second and third placed people will earn 3 million and 1 million miles respectively.
The Deal
- Earn up to 5 million Etihad Guest miles by being one of the first three people to travel to 15 different destinations:
- 1st place – 5 million miles
- 2nd place – 3 million miles
- 3rd place – 1 million miles
- Direct link to registration.
Key Terms
- Registration required.
- The competition commences at 26 May 2025 00:01 AM GMT +4 and ends at 25 May 2026 23:59 GMT+4 (“Competition Period”). Winners will be selected no later than 15 June 2026 23:59 GMT +4
- To enter the competition, Entrants must complete the following tasks:
- Register as an Etihad Guest member (if not already an existing member), activate their membership account and enrol into the competition.
- Ensure to add their Etihad Guest membership number to all the flights booked as part of the competition and to be eligible for the competition;
- Fly to or from all the specified 15 destinations in the shortest cumulative time namely: Algiers (Algeria), Atlanta (U.S.), Chiang Mai (Thailand), Hanoi (Vietnam), Hong Kong (Hong Kong), Krabi (Thailand), Medan (Indonesia), Peshawar (Pakistan), Phnom Penh (Cambodia), Taipei (Taiwan), Tunis (Tunisia), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Sochi (Russia), Prague (Czech Republic), Warsaw (Poland).
- The Entrants who completed above (A), (B), (C) and can show they held the longest enrollment into the competition from the time competition commences (goes live) on 26 May 2025.
- Winner Selection: The winner(s) will be assessed based on the number of tasks completed and the cumulative time taken to complete them, ie. which Entrant(s) was found to have:
- completed all of above requirements (A),(B) AND completed (C) flown to all Required Destinations in the shortest cumulative time AND (D) was enrolled as participant to the competition for the longest period of time (i.e. Entrant who made the earliest enrollment into the competition from when it went live on 26 May 2025).
- in the event where Entrant(s) have proven to complete tasks (A), (B), and (D); but have partially completed (C) by flying to a minimum of 10 countries from list of Required Destinations in the shortest possible time; then at Promoter’s sole discretion such candidates will be shortlisted for the winning prize(s), until and unless, there is another Entrant who showcased they completed all four requirements before the end of the Competion Period.
- In the instance that a route gets cancelled, the route will be exempt from the challenge and the challenge will go ahead with the rest of the remaining routes. Therefore, members would need to complete all other destinations excluding the cancelled routes to win the prize.
- Once the campaign ends on 25 May 2026, no further retro claims will be processed towards identifying the winners.
Quick Thoughts
This is a very interesting challenge seeing as a total of 9 million miles are up for grabs, with the winner earning 5 million of them. I’m much less excited about it compared to the SAS EuroBonus Millionaire challenge though, for one key reason.
That reason is that you could fly to all 15 destinations as quickly as you could and end up with nothing. With the SAS challenge, every single person who completed 15 eligible flights was guaranteed to earn 1 million miles regardless of how many other people were similarly successful. With this Etihad challenge though, only the three fastest people will win. That’s a huge disincentive because there’s no way of knowing if someone else has/will travel faster than you until it’s too late.
Given what’s happening in world affairs right now, it’s also a little curious that Etihad has decided to include Sochi in Russia as one of the required destinations.
Something that’s surprisingly not specified (unless I missed it in the lengthy terms) is whether or not you have to fly on Etihad metal to/from every single destination. The terms state that you have to have your Etihad Guest membership number added to all your flights, but it doesn’t state whether or not partner flights credited to Etihad are eligible.
Something else that’s not specified is if award flights are eligible or not. If they are, is it only flights booked through Etihad Guest that are eligible? Are award flights booked through a partner program but flown on Etihad metal eligible? Are award flights booked through a partner program and flown on partner metal but with your Etihad Guest membership number attached eligible? With regards to the latter I suspect not, but it’s somewhat strange that Etihad hasn’t spelled all this out in the terms.
If you decide to participate in this challenge and will be booking paid Etihad flights, be sure to click through from a shopping portal as Etihad is available on many of them. If you have the Capital One Shopping browser extension installed, visit Etihad’s website and then you’ll hopefully get a targeted offer via email. Less than an hour after visiting the registration page on Etihad’s website to get further details of the challenge, Capital One Shopping emailed me with the opportunity to earn 8% cashback on Etihad flights.
Question
Are you planning on trying to win 1, 3 or 5 million miles with Etihad’s The Extraordinary Challenge? Let us know in the comments below.
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Even if none of the challenges mentioned were an issue (travel restrictions, visa turnaround time, etc.), it’s plausible that multiple people…more than 3, and up to a plane-full…could identify and book the exact same itinerary that allows them to navigate all 15 destinations by the earliest possible completion date and time (i.e. they all fly together).
Imagine that 10 people booked and traveled this “perfect itinerary”. If they all retained their program membership through the end of the challenge, it would relegate the contest to the tie-breaker of first to register…conceivably separated by only seconds…leaving 7 of the 10 people with nothing, not even a firm handshake, despite demonstrating *FLAWLESS* flight search and booking skills.
It’s as if a team of lawyers with a penchant for sadism designed this, lol.
This appears to be a very poorly thought out promo. I can’t imagine that they are going to get much positive media coverage due to the destinations and the rules.
The winner has already gone to at least two destinations. As you point out, the fact that almost everybody ends up with nothing is quite a disincentive.
Besides Russia and Pakistan, I think it’s fairly difficult for a US citizen to go to Algeria
Yes, you need to send your American passport to the embassy in Washington or the consulate in New York (depending on which state you live in), and their motto is not, “We work quickly and efficiently.” It took me weeks to get the visa. If you don’t already have one, this is unlikely to work.
The relevant Algeria flight doesn’t operate until November. So the grand prize winner of the gamble has plenty of time to easily get to Algeria if that flight launches. Just need to be positioned in AUH to take the inaugural flight and gamble that competitors on that flight number 0-2.
The winner will more than likely be someone from UAE, in sh’allah.
Someone with a UAE passport who resides in Abu Dhabi and has a prior history of extensive travel to North America and Europe would presumably be best positioned to gamble on this promo working out and do it for the lowest cost.
I think of this promo as an example of a “fool and her/his money are soon parted”.
Worst idea ever. Why would someone want to fly through spots like Peshawar Pakistan and Sochi Russia ? Are they planning to forego human rights not just within UAE AND BEYOND ?
Plus it’s about time not experience. So Etihad is not really about enjoying – it’s about transporting like cattle across 15 destinations.
They are so stingy. If you ask for seconds in the business class – they don’t have more food. Prolly the worst med east airline.
This is right on the brand value. Not surprised !
I don’t hate myself enough to do this.
This is such a ridiculous and useless challenge. One of the destinations is in Pakistan and other one in Russia. As of this writing, getting a visa for Pakistan for 1.4bn Indian citizens is next to impossible so that rules out 20% of possible population. And add the Russian element to that, and you are looking at more than half the world population not even eligible for this challenge, regardless of whether they are interested or can afford to compete.
Yes. I understand that not everything has to be US- or Western- centric, especially for their customer base — but they’ve made it very difficult for a large % of the world’s population to even consider doing this. Add the winner-takes(-almost)-all, and the fact that registration is already open, and this seems more aimed at a publicity headline (“Win 5M miles!”).
It’s even worse in that some of the destinations chosen will be difficult for those not Western-based as well. Residents of China will have a hard time getting Visa approval to visit Taiwan, and the US will do a pretty good job of excluding visits to Atlanta for a number of citizens from countries they aren’t on friendly terms with. Without in depth research the whole promotion is probably specific in choosing countries that UAE citizens will be some of the only ones that can complete it easily.
Worst than Starbucks for life contest. Spend Thousands$$ and give away tons of personal information and in exchange you receive “a chance”.
Notably, the tie-breaker is date of enrollment into the challenge. Enrollment is already open. Since this is probably a problem with a single solution, odds are a number of people will complete it simultaneously and you would have needed to be an early enroller to win.
reflects the CULTural difference between Scandinavia and the Middle East / UAE [a narrow version of United]
winner takes all vs all sharing in the wealth / winnings [and a lot more miles given away]
even if I had time — hard pass on Etihad. Makes me less want to fly them ever again (Only once). Not much in Emirates from a tourist perspective (Beyond luxury hotels / shopping malls and the like and the odd sporting event), even less in Abu Dhabi.
An amazing number of theme parks if you have kids and that is your thing.
The country doesn’t consistently care about “forbidden” things in Islam — such as prostitution and alcohol use by visitors — so I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise that they are also encouraging gambling in a way with this promotion.
This is Gambling, and is stupid
When do Etihad points expire? The rule changed last year.
18 months without any activity, but sadly transfers in from transferable currencies no longer count as eligible activity – you have to either fly with Etihad or credit miles from a partner flight unless you have high enough Etihad status.
Sounds more like it is Glengarry Glen Ross that should feel flattered.
I would do this challenge too, but it’s a losing gamble for me as at least 3 people are likely to beat my ability to do it. 😀
And odds are that even if I were to consider going to Russia for personal travels — and I am not under the current circumstances — the Russian embassy would sit on my passport and drag out time to issue any visa.
And then there is perhaps the Pakistani visa problem.
This promo probably works best for someone with a passport that doesn’t require a Russian and Pakistani visa stuck into a passport prior to travel to the relevant two countries.