How useful is an Etihad Guest Family Membership?

This post contains everything you need to know about setting up an Etihad Guest Family Membership. 

What is an Etihad Guest Family Membership? 

An Etihad Guest Family Membership allows you to pool all of the miles earned individually by a family group in a combined pot.

The ‘Family Head’ can then spend from the combined pool of miles on redemptions and rewards on behalf of the group. 

Individual members are still able to redeem the Guest miles they have personally earned. However, they can not spend from the combined mileage balance; only the Family Head can do that. 

There are a couple of benefits to setting up a Family Membership. Firstly, it is a much faster way to accumulate the miles needed for a particular reward or redemption. 

This is particularly helpful if you have family members who are not flying or earning at a sufficient rate to redeem flights. A Family Membership prevents those miles from being wasted. 

Secondly, it simplifies and makes booking family travel safer. Booking from a combined mileage balance keeps everyone on the same booking reference. That can be a big help when managing any necessary booking changes, check-in at the airport or in the event of travel disruption.

Family Membership does not have any impact on Etihad Guest status. Individuals will continue to earn elite status based on the Tier Miles they have earned personally.

Who can you include in your Family Membership? 

Etihad Guest allows you to include up to 9 people in a Family Membership. Family members who are eligible to become family guests are: 

• brothers
• sisters
• father
• mother 
• spouse(s) 
• children
• grandchildren 
• grandparents 
• parents-in-law 
• step-parents
• stepchildren 
• step siblings
• step-grandchildren 
• nieces
• nephews 
• household help (limited to one only)

For example, our Family Membership includes six people: Mrs Expatflyer, Junior Expatflyer, two grandparents, our nanny and myself. 

Unlike some other loyalty programmes, there is no requirement for members to share the same residential address. 

However, Etihad Guest does reserve the right to audit and confirm the family relationship. When adding my two-year-old to the Family Account, Etihad requested a copy of his birth certificate. This was despite the fact we shared the same surname.

How do you set up an Etihad Guest Family Membership?  

First, decide who will be the Family Head. The head should either be the person redeeming most often from the account or any member with an Etihad Guest co-brand credit card. 

Log in to Etihad Guest. Click on ‘Family Membership ‘and then ‘Get Started ‘.

You will be asked to invite your first family member. You need to have three things to hand; their Etihad Guest number, the full name used on their account and indicate their relationship to you.

Members under the age of thirteen will then receive an invitation to join the Family Membership via their registered email address. They need to accept the invitation to complete the process. 

Members of a Family Membership are free to leave after an initial one-month lock-in period. They will retain the miles balance they have earned. However, the family pool will be reduced by a corresponding amount.

Is it worth setting up a Family Membership? 

Yes, pooling all of the miles a family earns makes accumulating miles quicker and redeeming them easier. 

There is one alternative to a Family Membership. Etihad Guest will now let you transfer miles to anyone. However, a 10% service fee is added to each transfer, making it an expensive way to share miles. There are no fees for spending miles from a pooled Family Membership. 

FYI – Emirates Skywards also allows members to combine their Skywards Miles in a My Family account.

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