The Etihad Apartment is one of the most coveted First Class seats in the airline industry. I was lucky enough to be able to book one and will share with you my experience. I will also give you some tips that will help you when you book your redemption.
I used American Airlines AAdvantage miles to book this redemption. Please refer to the American Airlines partner award chart for the specific mileage requirements based on your destination. I was interested in booking London to Abu Dhabi which requires 62,500 miles one-way.
Here are the basic steps you will need to take to book the Etihad Apartment:
- Search availability on Etihad.com looking for “Guest Seat” availability
- Call Australian American Airlines Booking Center at 61-02-9101-1948
- Give them your date, flight number and class of service which would be first in this case
- Once your ticket has been ticketed, call the Etihad Customer Service at 1 (877) 690-0767 to select your seats
Now, I will go over in detail for each step in the booking process.
Searching Availability
Etihad Airlines flies the Apartment exclusively only on their A380. So you need to make sure you book first class on the following routes (Round-trip):
- New York – Abu Dhabi
- London – Abu Dhabi
- Sydney – Abu Dhabi
- Mumbai – Abu Dhabi
- Melbourne – Abu Dhabi
For my trip, I was looking for availability from London to Abu Dhabi. The most seats I saw available were two. Which is all that I needed for me and my wife. So if you are looking for more than two, it could be harder.
Go to Etihad.com and click “Plan and book” Then click “Book flights with miles”
Then enter in your flight details, “Roundtrip” or “One-way”, make sure to select “First” and then click “Search flights”
Below are the results you will see. You must ensure there is “GuestSeat” availability. If there is no “GuestSeat” availability then it is sold out. In this case there were two seats available. Perfect.
Next, you need to call the Australian American Airlines call center at 61-02-9101-1948 . You have the option of calling the U.S customer service line to book but they often don’t find the inventory and can sometimes be plain rude. I was able to call the Australian help desk using Skype. I added $10 USD to my account and made the phone call. The call should only take about $1 USD to make. So you will still have about $9 USD remaining for any other calls you might make in the future. The agent was extremely nice and helpful!
When I called the agent, I simply stated the following:
- I wanted to book an award ticket on Etihad
- Stated my date of travel
- The routing, in this case London to Abu Dhabi
- Class of service, which was First Class
- My AAdvantage Account Number
- Credit Card number to charge the fees. Make sure they don’t charge the phone booking fee since this ticket cannot be booked online
Once the agent confirms the space is available and books your tickets, they will give you an American Airlines record locator. The reservation will also show up in your AAdvantage account. The status will show as ” On Request”
In about two to three business days, you should get an email confirming your ticket has been “Ticketed.”
In my case, it was still about one week and my booking was still “On Request.” I simply made a phone call again to the Australian Service Desk and they quickly were able to have it “Ticketed” with-in 20 minutes.
Once your booking has been “Ticketed” you will receive an email that should also have the Etihad record locator in it. Unfortunately you are unable to select your seats online with your Etihad record locator. You will need to call the Etihad service desk at 1 (877) 690-0767. Provide them with your Etihad record locator and they will gladly be able to select a seat for you. The agent I spoke with was extremely nice and was able to book for us seat 3A and 4A. These seats are great for couples as a part of the Apartment slides down and you can see right into the next Apartment. You can then check you seat assignment online on Etihad.com using your Etihad locator.
And that is it, you are booked for the Etihad Apartment!
This one-way ticket in First Class is going for $3,264! That means I only paid $495Â in fees for $6,528 worth of travel!
I hope this How-To-Guide really helped a lot of you. Please comment below and let me know if you have any additional questions or comments. Please check out my YouTube channel and all my other social media outlets. I will be flying the Etihad Apartment myself July 2017. Be on the look out for the video review of my experience.
Happy Travels!