Etihad’s Sweet Spot on Royal Air Maroc Just Took A Big Hit

Well, this is certainly a disappointment.

It seems Etihad has changed the rules for booking award flights on its partner Royal Air Maroc. Now, this isn’t the typical devaluation in which an airline jacks up the redemption rates across the board. Instead, this deals specifically with the routing rules that govern flights on Royal Air Maroc that are booked with Etihad Guest miles.

While it’s still possible to get some great value out of this particular sweet spot, it’s nowhere near as sweet. Let’s take a quick look at this redemption option then get into the change and what it mean for you.

The Royal Air Maroc Sweet Spot

So, Royal Air Maroc.

It’s not exactly a household name in the states as it only operates flights to 4 U.S. airports — Boston (BOS), Miami (MIA), New York (JFK) and Washington Dulles (IAD). However, Etihad distanced-based award chart for flights on Royal Air Maroc is quite good.

Since flights between the U.S. and Casablanca easily clear 3,000 flight miles, you’ll need 22,000 Etihad miles to book a one-way economy ticket and 44,000 Etihad miles if you want to book business class.

What has made this such a great option is that you could get a connecting flight to Europe, other parts of Africa or even Doha in the Middle East. With the announcement of flights from Casablanca to Beijing, I was really hoping this would be the cheapest business class option to Asia.

In fact, some were even able to find a great Etihad phone agent who knew how to include a stopover in Casablanca on the way to the final destination. That made this just even sweeter.

What’s Changing?

This was all great until a few days ago. I started getting emails from readers who were struggling to include a connection. Many Etihad phone agents were pricing these trips as two separate awards — one from the U.S. to Casablanca and another from Casablanca to Doha (or another city).

This seemed to indicate that Etihad would now be charging per segment. However, the terms and conditions on Etihad’s site didn’t indicate any kind of change. As you can see in the image below, there’s nothing about per segment award rates:

I took that screenshot yesterday evening. However, I checked the terms again this morning and noticed one line had been added. As you can see below, the line states that “For connecting routes mileage values will be calculated from origin to point of transit/stopover to destination.”

I’ve spoken with Etihad’s Twitter team who have confirmed this change. Additionally, I’ve heard from a few others who have been told about this change over the phone.

Etihad Guest Phone Agents Are Confused

If you were a bit confused by the language Etihad used in the new terms, you aren’t alone. In the last 24 hours, a friend has booked two business class flights between the U.S. and the Middle East with a connection at the listed 44,000-mile rate. On the other hand, a reader tried speaking with multiple Etihad phone agents and was quoted 88,000 miles for a very similar itinerary.

Honestly, I don’t blame the phone agents for being confused. If Etihad really is changing its terms to price awards segment by segment, it should take a page out of Virgin Atlantic’s book and be very clear about it.

Here’s how Virgin Atlantic explains its award rates for flights on Delta:

All miles shown in the tables below are for a roundtrip. For a one-way ticket, simply half the amount of miles. If a journey requires a connecting flight or stopover to reach the destination, miles are charged for each sector.

It might be annoying, but at least everyone is clear on what they mean.

How To Book Royal Air Maroc Going Forward

If you can book a flight out of Boston, Miami, New York or Washington, D.C., using Etihad miles to fly to Morocco is still a great way to go. In fact, 88,000 miles for a one-way business class ticket to the Middle East or Asia with a stopover in Morocco is still a solid deal. It’s not amazing like it used to be, but it’s nothing to sneeze at.

Now, using Royal Air Maroc to get to Europe is the one that hurts me the most. I’ve long promoted it as a great alternative if you’re having trouble finding a non-stop flight to a city in Europe. The flight from the east coast to Casablanca takes a similar amount of time and you could connect to several European cities including Madrid and Rome.

Now, instead of needing 22,000 and 44,000 miles for economy and business class, respectively, you’ll need to calculate additional miles for the connection. If you connect to Madrid, the additional 12,000 miles brings you to a total 56,000 Etihad miles.

Yes, a stopover on a one-way is still nice and the redemption rate is still quite good but it’s no longer special. In this case, you might decide to just book the 1.5-hour flight from Casablanca to Madrid in economy to save 6,000 miles.

If you fly to Rome via Casablanca, it’s a bigger blow. This itinerary will now require an additional 20,000 miles on a business class ticket bringing the total to 64,000 Etihad miles. Again, not terrible but not special. I’d definitely want to include a stopover to really get the most out of this one.

How To Earn Etihad Guest Miles

When you consider that Etihad Guest miles are still some of the easiest to earn, this change hurts but it could be a lot worse. If you want to earn Etihad miles, you can transfer points from American Express Membership Rewards, Capital One, Citi ThankYou Points and Marriott Bonvoy.

I’ve always preferred to transfer Amex Membership Rewards as the transfer process almost instantly. It doesn’t hurt that Amex has several cards with lucrative bonus categories that make earning points easier.

Final Thoughts

I won’t lie to you. This one hurts a bit. It’s always fun to find amazing ways to extract maximum value from points and miles. This change definitely makes it a bit harder to do so. If there’s a silver lining, though, it’s that Etihad didn’t gut their Royal Air Maroc award chart so you can still get some great value out of it. I just hate to see changes like this.