Is MilesBooster from Etihad Guest good value?

MilesBooster is the latest innovation from Etihad Guest to help members earn miles while grounded due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It has been hard (in a good way!) to keep up this year with all the new ways Etihad Guest has introduced for members to earn miles.

What is Milesbooster?

MilesBooster lets you purchase up to three times the Etihad Guest miles you earned on flights you have actually flown in the last 12 months.

If you haven’t been flying during COVID-19 or spring and summer is your busy travel season then you may not have many flights available to boost.

How does it work?

Start by logging in to MilesBooster on Etihad Guest. You will see a list of flights from the last 12 months which are eligible to boost.

Once you have selected a flight to boost you will need to choose one of three booster multipliers. The options are a 1x Boost, 2x Boost or a 3x Boost.

Finally, pay for the miles. Ideally pay with an Etihad Guest co-brand card to earn even more miles on the transaction.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to boost more than one flight at a time. If you do want to boost multiple flights you will need to repeat the steps above for each flight.

Remember – you can only boost flights flown in the last 12 months. The number of miles you can purchase with MilesBooster is also limited to 100,000 Etihad Guest miles per year.

Is Milesbooster worth it?

My rule of thumb is to only buy miles to top up a balance when you are a little short of what you need for a specific trip. It is rarely worth it to buy miles speculatively.

Before using MilesBooster check the cost of buying miles direct as it may be cheaper. Etihad Guest members can already buy up to 100,000 miles every year. That rises to 150,000 miles for Platinum tier members.

Etihad Guest also runs pretty frequent bonus offers on purchased miles. In the last year, those bonuses have ranged from 20% all the way up to 60%. Check out my list of current miles and points offers here.

So, how does MilesBooster compare?

• Buy with no bonus – 2 cents per mile
• MilesBooster – 1.8 cents per mile
• Buy with 20% bonus – 1.7 cents per mile
• Buy with 30% bonus – 1.6 cents per mile
• Buy with 40% bonus – 1.4 cents per mile
• Buy 60% bonus – 1.3 cents per mile

At 1.8 cents per mile, MilesBooster does not appear to offer exceptional value but it is cheaper than the regular cost of buying miles from Etihad Guest.

When should you buy with MilesBooster?

In short, if you need miles and there is no bonus offer available buy with MilesBooster.

If you need to buy miles and you’ve reached your annual cap of 100,000 miles (or 150,000 for Platinum) then buy with Milesbooster.

If there is any sort of bonus on offer it will usually make most sense to buy Guest miles in the usual way.

Conclusion

Kudos to Etihad Guest for launching another new way to earn miles. The stream of innovation from Etihad that has emerged since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic has been nothing short of impressive.

I particularly like the way MilesBooster only applies to flights members have actually flown. By doing so, it rewards the most engaged and loyal Etihad Guest members.

However, there are two things I would have preferred to see. In light of COVID-19, a longer time frame such as flights flown in last 18-24 months as well as the option to buy miles for redemption flights flown would have been appropriate.