Good morning everyone, I hope your week is going well. I have a rant to get off my chest about Etihad Guest customer service and the Etihad Reward Card app. Long story short, 2,500 Etihad Miles expired while my account was suspended and I wasted 907 Etihad Miles on a $5 Amazon gift card balance reload. I understand that the previous sentence makes no sense, but if you will indulge me, here is the complete story…
I received an email from AwardWallet on September 23, that my 2,500 Etihad Miles were going to expire in 7 days on September 30. I received a reminder email from AwardWallet a month earlier about these expiring miles, so I transferred 1,000 American Express Membership Rewards Points to my Etihad account because I *assumed* that receiving more miles would keep my current stash of Etihad Miles from expiring. Wrong!
I signed into my Etihad account and confirmed that my current balance was 3,500 miles, but 2,500 miles were set to expire on September 30. I searched Etihad’s site to see if there was a way to redeem or earn miles to keep my current balance from expiring and stumbled onto the Etihad Reward Card app (which I also have a rant about below). I downloaded the Etihad Reward Card app, tried to sign in, and then I saw that my Etihad account was suspended due to unusual activity. I called Etihad customer service and explained that my Etihad account was suspended and the *helpful* agent said that I would need to email guest@etihadguest.com for assistance.
I sent an email on Monday, September 23, explaining the situation and hoped for a quick response.
3 days later, on Thursday, September 26, I finally received a response that my “account is under review” due to “multiple login attempts” and that I would need to “provide any Photo ID for verification” in order to “review and activate the account.”
I replied a few hours later on Thursday, September 26, with a photo of the front and back of my driver’s license.
5 days later, on Tuesday, October 1, I finally received a response that my “account is now active” and that I can “earn and redeem miles with Etihad.” Yay!
Unfortunately, the 2,500 miles had already expired by the time Etihad was able to restore my account and respond to my email. I then sent a screenshot of the expired miles and asked for the miles to be restored so that I could redeem them. I *assumed* Etihad would be able to help me out here since they suspended my account and took more than a week to restore access.
2 days later, on October 4, Etihad finally responded and said they were “unable to reinstate the miles beyond their expiry date. We do not make exceptions in this case… we hope that you will be able to understand our position.” Nope, I do not understand your position! I do not understand why transferring in 1,000 miles did not reset the expiration date; I do not know why my account was suspended; I do not know why it takes several days to respond to emails and restore my account; and I do not understand why you could not restore 2,500 miles for all the trouble I have gone through.
Since I was a *little* annoyed in Etihad, I wanted to burn the remaining 1,000 Etihad Miles I had in my account and never look back. As I mentioned earlier, I downloaded the Etihad Reward Card app…
Then I signed into my account and requested the Virtual Reward Card. Like everything else, this process was not instant and the app said “your order is being processed. Your Etihad Guest Reward card will be available in 7 business days from th…”. From when?? I took this screenshot at 7:47am on October 2.
About 18 hours later, I received an email that my request was approved and I could now load my Etihad Reward Card.
The app showed my current balance of 1,000 miles and said I could load $5 USD to my card. This is a terrible value since those 1,000 miles were 1,000 American Express Membership Rewards Points and now they were only worth $5 USD :( The loading process was instant and I now had a $5 virtual Visa gift card to use for the next 1 day and 23 hours.
I added that card to my Amazon account and it asked me if I wanted to use the Card Currency of Swiss Francs. That was very strange, so I elected to use the card in US Dollars. The $5 Amazon gift card balance reload went through smoothly.
Back on the Etihad Reward Card app, I went to the transactions screen and it said my card was loaded with $5.18 USD, but lower on the screen it said that I loaded the amount of $5.00 USD . Even more strangely, it only charged me 907 miles instead of the 1,000 miles it said previously. My virtual card showed a balance of $0.00 USD, so I clicked the Unload Card button.
Confusingly, the confirmation screen said that 0 miles have been credited back to my account, but on the next screen, it showed that I have 93 miles remaining.
To summarize, Etihad’s customer service and Rewards Card app are frustrating, confusing, and unpredictable. Note to self, don’t try to save those 93 Etihad Miles from expiring, it is not worth the time or headache involved. Hopefully my rant about Etihad provided equal parts entertainment and education. If you have any questions about Etihad miles expiring or about the Etihad Rewards Card app (I couldn’t delete that app fast enough), please leave a comment below. Have a great day everyone!
The things we do when playing these games! We often miss the forest for the trees. I have certainly had my share of such pursuits before realizing what I was doing.
Ya, I agree. I also assume that all airlines have similar policies and get burned when my assumptions turn out wrong.
Hi Grant – Thanks for this article. This is a great reminder that I need to brush up on the new Etihad expiration rules, or better yet, just use up my modest balance of Etihad miles and then forget about the program. There are a few mileage bands for Etihad redemptions on AA where the rates aren’t too bad, so maybe I can find something there that works.
Yes, I would definitely try to use them up on a decent redemption and then never look back. Hope you and Philly are doing well :)
good grief, what a mess.
Yes indeed :(