Getting >$.09/Capital One Mile w/ Etihad Miles on AA Close In Flight <500 miles + 50% Transfer Promo

Image courtesy Etihad

Despite a recent "devaluation", Etihad Miles are still a fantastic mileage currency, especially after adding recently with that devaluation significantly superior domestic options on AA vs what was available previously, especially for short haul &/or multi-leg flights (whereas previously, the only good domestic options were long haul one leg itineraries) under 500 miles (with plenty of viable options between 500-1000 miles as well, even at double the price).

My dad sent me an email this morning and follow up text about a flight he wanted tomorrow from Richmond to VA. We're 5 days from Christmas, so those aren't cheap in $. He was Delta Diamond, and Delta had a good direct flight going to where he wanted to go. The problem from my vantage point was the price, 34.8k Delta miles.

34.8k Delta Skymiles Screenshot for a main economy ticket

I wasn't going to book that blindly without checking some alternatives. The first alternative I checked was Etihad. Etihad had both economy & business class options with the same departing airport and destination airport around the same time. The face price of an economy ticket was 6k and it was 10k in business class.

Value Per Point (Without Factoring in Status Benefits)

Considering the value per point, $394-$18.57/6043 miles = $.062/mile

Things get better when factoring in the 50% transfer promo I used to get these miles from Capital One. $394-$18.57/(6043 miles/1.5) = $.093/mile

Call Etihad (Not AA) to Add Frequent Flier # & Global Entry (TSA Pre Included) if Getting Errors Online (<15 mins for me)

I got error codes when attempting to add his Global Entry # & his frequent flier number online in the initial booking on the Etihad website. I completed the booking and expected to have the ability to change things online after the fact (which is often available with other airlines when booking on partners). The numbers emailed to me by Etihad included a reference number and a ticket number, but neither of these numbers were able to do anything for me on the AA website, showing error codes instead. I contacted AA, and the rep initially sounded a bit clueless, stating that if it was booked with a partner, nothing could be done on AA's end. I countered that I've done this process before without an issue on British Airways & on Qantas. She asked for the flight number & my dad's name. She was able to pull up the AA code I needed. I thought it would be easy to add things now online, and didn't check to ensure that was the case before hanging up. That was a mistake. However, it did give me an opportunity to have a <15 minute discussion with Etihad where they added both my dad's AA account and his global entry number. In between the 2, I checked to see if it was possible after my dad's frequent flyer number was added if I could then add his global entry number, and that wasn't the case. Etihad had no hold time, while AA had a 13-17 minute call back time frame. Next time, I should just call Etihad to get the frequent flyer number.

What About Status & Seat Selection?

My dad has AA million miler status, conferring gold status. As such, once his AA # was on the booking, I was able to immediately pick a preferred seat for him for free.

Image courtesy AA

Ideally once it's 23 hrs, 59 minutes, and 59 seconds before the flight, I'll be checking him in and upgrading freely to economy plus, saving even more & bringing the value up to about 10.5 cents per Capital One Mile.

$394+$46-$18.57/(6043 miles/1.5) = $.105/Capital One Mile

Before that time comes, it's best to check SeatGuru & the individual preferences of the passenger if not booking for yourself or for yourself & others:

Image courtesy Seat Guru

Then check in before picking your new seat (in my case, my dad prefers aisle seats on short flights).

Image courtesy AA

No seats in business/1st were available in $, and they also weren't showing the seat maps on Expert Flyer (it's a flight operated by Republic Airways as American Eagle), so I called into AA knowing that an upgrade to business would be a long shot, and they affirmed that assumption.

Missing Online Airport Code Combinations Didn't Take Long To Resolve

I've had some issues in the past with city pairs not being available online, even if the code could be found as the origin, especially from small or medium sized airports like I typically fly out of (Richmond, VA & Norfolk, VA). I'm not sure if it's from me performing bookings or me complaining about it, but I've noticed a noticeable improvement in things since doing both & giving it a bit of time for Etihad to correct. With this booking, there were no issues with city pairs.

Speculative Transfer for 50% Promo

I did a large transfer promo from Capital One to Etihad Miles long before this specific flight date was ever a thought. I priced various itineraries, but this one wasn't even a consideration at the time. After I made the transfer, Etihad devalued their miles, in a sense, where the original intended usage of the miles (international flights, particularly business class with Brussels Airlines & other carriers to Europe from DC) may never actually be used, while adding value to bookings that are precisely like this one that cost less now than they did then.

Many in the miles game argue against "speculative" transfers like I did. That's where you do a transfer to a carrier during a transfer promo period without a specific use case in mind (presumably on a specific date that you can book right away). There was a big change that many considered a net negative. That said, the higher the promo transfer (especially when considering prior transfer promos from the mileage used and from other mileage currencies), the lower the probability of taking a net loss if the promo would put the value of miles above or close to the TPG valuation of the transferred miles.

Speculative transfers don't always work out well, but they've worked out very well for me, especially since I check Frequent Miler for the historic transfer promos prior to transfer and have diverse mileage currencies to choose from.

Sample of Alternative Viable but Inferior Mileage Currencies I Could Have Used

There are a wide variety of alternatives I could have used, but because of the miles flown based currency of Etihad, and the $ rates I saw, no alternatives were present that were worth looking into. That said, here are some examples as a point of comparison:

British Airways Avios (8250 miles +$5.60 in economy; 16,500 +$5.60 in business class) has historically had the best AA transfer promo options among the 3 AA options listed below:

Image courtesy British Air

Qantas Miles:

Image courtesy Qantas

AA miles (typically harder to earn than Qantas or British Air):

Images courtesy AA

While Virgin Atlantic awards on Delta can be viable, they won't be available close in.

The same is often true of KLM or Air France Flying Blue awards:

Image courtesy Air France

JetBlue miles could have been used, but they, like SW, are priced heavily dynamically with a rather narrow range of value compared to the other currencies shown here, so after seeing a high $ rate, weren't worth checking.

I didn't check United or their partners since they don't fly direct to LGA (with the only close direct option being to EWR - Newark, taking my dad further from his final destination vs LGA). Interestingly, Flight Connections doesn't show JetBlue's route to LGA (thought it shows its route options from RIC to BOS, FLL, & MCO), but it's available, as we saw on Google Maps:

Image courtesy FlightConnections