While Etihad miles offer poor value redeeming on their own flights, there are some great deals using Etihad miles to book partner awards. Etihad miles are easy to accrue as Etihad Guest is a 1:1 transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards, Citi ThankYou Points, and Starpoints from SPG.

An Etihad sweetspot neither Scott nor I was aware of was brought to our attention by a saavy reader who wrote the following email:

Hi Scott,

I’ve read your blog for a long while now and really appreciate your tips.

On Wednesday of this week, Hilton introduced a new pricing scheme along with a few other changes to their loyalty program.

This is the old Hilton chart that will no longer, technically, apply.

Rooms now have variable rates that will fluctuate with supply/demand and the price of the room. Hilton has promised though that the point price of a room won't rise higher than what its category was priced on this old chart.

Seems pretty similar to what was already happening considering the variance in price of many hotel categories.

Transfers of Citi ThankYou Points to Virgin Atlantic miles will have a 25% bonus through tonight, 11:59 PM ET March 2, 2017.

This is a fantastic deal that sets up a chance to book one way awards to Europe for 8,000 ThankYou Points + $152.60.

You must transfer ThankYou Points in 1,000 point increments, so until March 2:

1,000 ThankYou Points = 1,250 Virgin Atlantic miles

Getting ThankYou Points

Citi Prestige Card: 50,000 bonus ThankYou Points after $4,000 in purchases made with your card in the first 3 months the account is open.

The Citi / AAdvantage Platinum Select MasterCard is offering 50,000 bonus American Airlines miles after spending $3,000 in the first 3 months.

The CitiBusiness / AAdvantage Platinum Select World MasterCard is also offering 50,000 bonus American Airlines miles after spending $3,000 on the card in the first three months.

According to One Mile at a Time, both of these 50k bonus offers will end at some point tomorrow, so if you were thinking of applying for these do so now before the bonus drops. 

Credit card links have been removed from posts and added to the

I tweeted this deal first from @MileValueAlerts. Follow @MileValueAlerts on Twitter and follow these directions to get a text message every time I tweet from that account.

This post is part nine of a series about how to maximize value when transferring your Chase Ultimate Rewards to loyalty program partners. 
Maximizing Your Ultimate Rewards Series Index

Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: United MileagePlus
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Singapore Krisflyer #1
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Singapore Krisflyer #2 
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Korean SkyPass #1
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Korean Skypass #2
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Korean Skypass #3
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: British Airways Avios 
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Flying Blue
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Virgin Atlantic Flying Club #1(this post)
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Virgin Atlantic Flying Club #2 (future post)
Maximizing Ultimate Rewards: Southwest Rapid

The Chase Sapphire Reserve®, the Citi Prestige, and the The Platinum Card® from American Express card are premium credit cards with huge benefits and high annual fees to match.

The first year, these are fantastic cards. The second year, the value is less certain. We'll look at canceling and downgrading options in this post.

The First Year

Many people are scared off by that annual fee, which makes sense at a superficial level. We all got interested in miles and points to save money, not spend it.

The Barclaycard AAdvantage Aviator Red World Elite MasterCard is out and it comes with a super easy sign up bonus. You'll earn 40,000 American Airlines miles after your very first purchase and paying the $95 annual fee, which is essentially buying 40,000 American Airlines miles for $95 (or .23 cents each).

Right now it's easy to earn a ton of American Airlines miles, thanks to this new offer and the personal and business Citi AAdvantage cards that are each publicly offering 60,000 American Airlines miles for spending $3k in three months.

Transferable points are points you earn from a credit card that you can transfer to many different types of airline miles or other points. They are valuable because they give you so much flexibility. Each airline program has strengths and weaknesses in terms of the number of miles you need and the availability from point A to point B.

This post is part eight of a series about how to maximize value when transferring your Chase Ultimate Rewards to loyalty program partners. 
Maximizing Your Ultimate Rewards