Update: One or more card offers in this post are no longer available. Check our Hot Deals for the latest offers.
Emily Jablon: Daraius and I celebrated Christmas in Macau and Hong Kong with his family for ~8 days. It was our 1st time to Macau and Hong Kong and we were very excited to visit!
An Asian Holiday – Trip Report Index:
- Part 1 – Using Miles and Points to Get to India And Hong Kong
- Part 2 – Etihad Lounge in Washington, DC
- Part 3 – Using Miles for Two $8,000 First Class Seats to Mumbai, India
- Part 4 – By Air and Sea – Cathay First Class to Hong Kong, Ferry to Macau
- Part 5 – A Free Stay in a ~$360 Per Night Suite at the Grand Hyatt Macau
- Part 6 – A Surprise Trip to the Panda Pavilion, Street Entertainment, and a Historic Walking Tour
- Part 7 – Historic Sites, Street Food & a Show in Macau
- Part 8 – Egg Tarts & Other Delicacies in Macau
- Part 9 – Our Free Stay at the Conrad Hong Kong
- Part 10 – Spectacular View of Hong Kong From Victoria Peak & the Amazing Symphony of Lights
- Part 11 – Hong Kong Walking Tour of Shops, Flowers, and More
- Part 12 – The Best Gnocchi Emily’s Had in Her Entire Life and Other Meals in Hong Kong
- Part 13 – From Fine Dining to Food Stalls, Eating in Hong Kong
- Part 14 – Sipping Champagne in the Cathay Pacific First Class Lounge, Hong Kong
- Part 15 – Cathay Pacific First Class from Hong Kong to the US
- Part 16 – Conclusion and Blog Giveaway
How You Can Do It Too!
You can enter the Etihad lounge if you are traveling First or Business Class with Etihad.
We redeemed 90,000 American Airlines miles for a 1-way flight in First Class (plus fees) from the US to Mumbai, India. Coach costs ~$950, Business Class costs ~$6,000, and First Class costs ~$8,000.
So you are getting a lot of value for your American Airlines miles!
How Many Miles You Need:
- Coach Class: 45,000 American Airlines miles
- Business Class: 67,500 American Airline miles
- First Class: 90,000 American Airlines miles
But you can’t find Etihad award seats on the American Airlines website. You have to check for award seats on Etihad’s website and then call American Airlines to book your ticket. I’ll have a series of posts on this soon.
How to Get the Miles:
1. Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite™ Mastercard®
You get 100,000 miles when you spend $10,000 within 3 months using the Citi American Airlines Executive card. So this is the easiest way to get the points to fly First Class on Etihad.
Here are 40+ Ways to Complete Minimum Spending to help with the high minimum spending requirement.
2. Citi American Airlines Cards
The Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite™ Mastercard® and CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Mastercard® each get you 50,000 miles when you spend $3,000 within 3 months.
3. American Express Starwood Hotel Cards
The Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express
and the Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card from American Express each get you 25,000 Starwood points when you spend $5,000 within 6 months. Starwood points transfer to American Airlines at a 1:1 ratio. And you’ll also get a 5,000 point bonus each time you transfer 20,000 points to American Airlines.
If you earn the bonus on both cards you will have 60,000 Starwood points (50,000 points from the sign-up bonus + 10,000 points from completing the minimum spending). You can transfer Starwood hotel points to American Airlines. 60,000 Starwood hotel points transfers to 75,000 American Airlines miles (60,000 miles + 15,000 transfer bonus).
That gets you enough for a 1-way Business Class ticket on Etihad.
Christmas in Hong Kong – Etihad Lounge in Washington, DC
Emily Jablon: Daraius and I were flying from Austin to Dallas to Washington, DC on American Airlines. And connecting to Etihad from Washington, DC to Mumbai, India via Abu Dhabi.
Dallas was having a bad winter storm, and flights had been canceled the previous 4 days. Daraius decided it was not worth the risk of having our flight canceled, too, so he called American Airlines and asked them to cancel our segments from Austin to Dallas and Dallas to Washington, DC.
He had already booked a back-up reservation on Southwest (remember that you don’t pay change fees with Southwest and if you book a flight with points and cancel, the points go back into your account!). This was expensive at ~21,000 Southwest points, but we really didn’t want to miss our international flight from Washington, DC. And the cash price of a last minute ticket cost a LOT of money!
American Airlines was reluctant to cancel those flights, because the flights weren’t officially cancelled as yet. But he managed to coax them to cancel those segments for free.
He then booked us on a Southwest flight to Washington, DC and added me as his companion.
The worst part was getting up at 3:00 am for our 6:00 am flight. Ouch! But the best part was getting to see my friend Kristen during our long layover. Oh, and both our American Airlines flights from Austin to Dallas and Dallas to Washington, DC were eventually cancelled, so this worked out pretty well!
As we were checking-in, we noticed someone with more luggage than ourselves.
The luggage belonged to a family of 5 traveling together.
It was a long day or 2 of traveling, but pampered accommodations on the flights (and between flights) made it an enjoyable experience.
Inside the Etihad Airways Lounge
We checked in a few hours prior to our departure at Washington, DC, and made our way to the lounge. Because we had First Class award tickets, we could enter the lounge for free.
We got in to Washington, DC early in the morning and our flight on Etihad wasn’t until the evening. Daraius and I found a comfortable couch on which to relax and charge our electronics for the rest of the journey.
That’s when Daraius realized that he had left his laptop at security and ran to get it back!
The lounge was fairly spacious and modern.
There was a TV with newspapers and magazines.
There were a lot of magazines to choose from…
…as well as books to read.
There were lots of sofas.
There was a separate dining space with modern tables and chairs.
The dining area extended into the bar, which had additional seating.
Lots of Food Choices
We enjoyed delicious dates, chocolate covered strawberries, baklava, and chocolate chip cookies.
The food was delicious!
In addition to the dessert buffet, we had a selection of Mediterranean appetizers on the savory buffet.
It looked and tasted very fresh.
I liked the cheese and hummus a lot, though the pita bread was a bit stale!
Selection of fruits…
…dates and yummy chocolate chip cookies. The dates were delicious!
In the lounge was a kids’ play room…
…and office.
There were also showers in the lounge.
Everything looked so nice.
Before our flight, we decided to have a snack. Here is the menu:
We sat down to eat.
Daraius had the Moroccan lamb tagine with couscous.
It was tasty.
Soon enough, it was time for boarding. You can board the plane directly from the lounge without having to go to the gate! That was kind neat.
How You Can Do It Too!
You can access the lounge if you are traveling First or Business Class with Etihad.
We redeemed 90,000 American Airlines miles for a 1-way flight in First Class (plus fees). Coach costs ~$950, Business Class costs ~$6,000, and First Class costs ~$8,000. So you are getting a lot of value for your points!
How Many Miles You Need:
- Coach Class: 45,000 American Airlines miles
- Business Class: 67,500 American Airline miles
- First Class: 90,000 American Airlines miles
But you can’t find Etihad award seats on the American Airlines website. You have to check for award seats on Etihad’s website and then call American Airlines to book your ticket.
How to Get the Miles:
1. Citi American Airlines Executive Card
You get 100,000 miles when you spend $10,000 within 3 months using the Citi American Airlines Executive card. So this is the easiest way to get the points to fly First Class on Etihad.
Here are 40+ Ways to Complete Minimum Spending to help with the high minimum spending requirement.
2. Citi American Airlines Cards
The Citi American Airlines Personal card and Citi American Airlines Business card each get you 50,000 miles when you spend $3,000 within 3 months.
Note: You are allowed 2 Citi Personal cards within 65 days. But you can NOT get more than 1 Citi card at a time. Wait 8 days to apply for a 2nd Citi card.
3. American Express Starwood Hotel Cards
The Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express
and the Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card from American Express each get you 25,000 Starwood points when you spend $5,000 within 6 months. Starwood points transfer to American Airlines at a 1:1 ratio. You’ll also get a 5,000 point bonus each time you transfer 20,000 points to American Airlines.
If you earn the bonus on both cards you will have 60,000 Starwood points (50,000 bonus points + 10,000 points from completing the minimum spending). You can transfer Starwood hotel points to American Airlines. 60,000 Starwood hotel points transfers to 75,000 American Airlines miles (60,000 miles + 15,000 transfer bonus).
That gets you most of the way to a First Class ticket on Etihad.
Bottom Line
The Etihad Lounge in Washington, DC was a great place to stop for a snack and get some work done before our flights. It isn’t very big, but we were impressed!
But we were even more impressed once we got on the plane and settled into Etihad First Class!
Just to clarify about the Citi 100K offer, the 8 day rule is still working however, the 65 day rule is not. just to give you some insight, I’m working on my 4th Citi 100K card, it’s been a challenge to get the spend but well worth it. This was the first and only blog I read for a year, your blog makes it easy to understand, I have since graduated and just want to thank you for it. My partner and I are working on our RTW trip, of course with miles and points.
@Tony – Thanks for reading and hope you have a wonderful trip!
any chance of addressing the numerous questions regarding the boatload of AA miles used in your first post on your asian holiday around christmas?
does Ethiad have Chaufeur door to door service ?
Can you access this lounge if you arrive IAD on Etihad F for a domestic AA connection?
Emily/Daraius,
Really helpful walkthrough! When you say, “Washington DC,” by the story you relate I assume you mean Dulles airport, as opposed to Reagan, since Dulles is much bigger and could house this fantastic lounge. It was Dulles, is that right?