The best ways to earn Etihad Guest Miles without flying

This post outlines six of the best ways to earn Etihad Guest Miles without flying.

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One of the more pleasant surprises over the last 18 months has been how my stash of airline miles and hotel loyalty points have continued to grow despite COVID-19 travel restrictions keeping the Expat Flyer family firmly grounded.

Earlier in the year, it looked like near-normal travel was possibly on the cusp of resuming this summer. However, with the Delta variant surging around the world it appears travel disruption is going to remain a fact of life for at least a little longer.

With that in mind, I thought it would be worth sharing a refresher on six of the best ways to earn Etihad Guest Miles without flying.

1. Earn a co-brand credit card signup bonus

All Etihad Guest co-brand credit cards come with a signup welcome bonus of various sizes. The number of miles on offer ranges from 5,000 all the way up to 100,000 Etihad Guest miles.

Some of these co-brand credit cards include a bundle of additional benefits and perks such as accelerated elite status, upgrade vouchers, lounge access and complimentary airport transfers.

The Emirates Islamic Etihad Guest Premium card comes with one of my favourite perks of all UAE issued credit cards. You will earn back 50% of the Etihad Guest Miles spent on booking flights and upgrades with Etihad. This benefit is unlimited and significantly increases the value of your miles.

If you are serious about collecting Etihad Guest Miles you really need to have a co-brand card in your wallet or purse. Check out the current list of the best Etihad Guest co-brand credit card welcome offers available.

How many miles can you earn? Promotional welcome bonuses have been up to 100,000 Etihad Guest Miles over the last year.

2. Transfer points from other loyalty programmes

Etihad Guest lets you convert credit card, hotel and loyalty points from 47 partners into Etihad Guest Miles.

The partners include credit cards, banking, hotel and travel loyalty programmes, retail and shopping. Air Arabia’s AirRewards scheme is the newest transfer partner.

Etihad Guest runs occasional transfer bonuses which can make converting points more lucrative. In the past, the bonus has been up to 50% extra miles.

Check out the ultimate guide on transferring partner points to Etihad Guest.

How many miles can you earn? Unlimited – depends on how many points you have sitting in other loyalty programmes.

3. Buy Etihad Guest Miles

One option is to buy miles direct from Etihad. This is by far the quickest and easiest way to pick up Etihad Guest Miles without flying.

Etihad runs frequent bonus offers on miles purchases and these can be quite generous. The bonus has been as high as 60% over the last year.

You can expect to see some sort of offer every other month or so. The biggest bonuses can be good value, particularly if you have a specific redemption in mind.

Check out the ultimate guide to buying Etihad Guest Miles to see whether buying miles makes sense for you.

How many miles can you earn? You can buy up to 100,000 Etihad Guest Miles per year. Platinum Tier Guest members can purchase up to 150,000 miles per year.

4. Earn Etihad Guest Miles on hotel bookings

There are multiple ways to earn Etihad Guest Miles on hotel bookings. Etihad Guest has 16 hotel booking partners.

Travel Rewards and Rocketmiles are the most rewarding while Booking.com has the widest selection of hotels available.

Etihad Travel Rewards

The most lucrative way to earn miles on hotel bookings is via the Etihad Travel Rewards portal.

There are over 300,000 hotels around the world are available to book on the Travel Rewards site. The earning rate will vary by hotel but is typically between 10-30 miles per $1 USD spent.

You will earn a minimum of 1,000 miles per night and miles will be credited to your account within two weeks.

Book on Etihad Travel Rewards.

Rocketmiles

Earn between 500-10,000 Etihad Guest Miles per night when you book a stay via Rocketmiles. There is a 25% miles bonus on top when you pay with certain Etihad co-brand credit cards. Miles will credit to your Etihad Guest account within two weeks.

Book with Rocketmiles here.

Booking.com

Booking.com offers over 28 million listings across 229 countries and territories worldwide so you will not be short of options.

You will earn between 3-6 Etihad Guest Miles per $1 USD spent on bookings made using using Etihad Guest Booking.com/etihadguest.

Keep in mind that it can take up to 75 days for your Etihad Guest Miles to credit to your account.

Book on Booking.com here.

How many miles can you earn? You can earn between 500-10,000 Etihad Guest Miles per night when booking with either Travel Rewards or Rocketmiles.

5. Download the Etihad Guest app and link credit cards

The Etihad Guest mobile app includes a cool feature allowing you to link up to 5 UAE Visa payment cards to your Etihad Guest app. Once linked you will earn Guest Miles and Tier Miles on your spend with over 650 miles on the go partners in Abu Dhabi.

The list of current miles on the go partners includes:

• Yas Mall – over 350 stores
• WTC Mall – over 200 stores
• Al Jimi Mall – over 200 stores
• Ferrari World
• Yas Waterworld
• Warner Bros.
• CLYMB Abu Dhabi
• Al Jaber Optical
• Farfetch
• Fairmont Bab al Bahr
• Yas Plaza Hotels – six hotels on Yas Island

Download the Etihad Guest app on the App Store and Google Play.

How many miles can you earn? 1 Guest Mile AND 1 Tier Mile for every AED 3 you spend with any miles on the go partner.

6. Pay your rent with a credit card

This is a niche opportunity but it is worth checking whether your landlord will allow you to pay some or all of your rent by credit card.

Last summer Aldar announced that it would allow tenants to pay rent by credit card and even absorbs the fees for the transaction.

How many miles can you earn? Real estate transactions generally earn miles at a discounted rate. However, a rent payment of AED 100,000 could still earn close to 10,000 Etihad Guest Miles with some cards.

Other miles and points offers

Let me know in the comments if you have found any other good opportunities to earn Etihad Guest Miles without flying that should be on this list.

For other opportunities to build up your stash Etihad Guest Miles check out our regular roundup of airline, hotel and credit card points and miles offers about to end.