Reader Question: Royal Air Maroc Award Confusion When Redeeming Etihad Guest Miles?

A LoyaltyLobby reader sent us a question redeeming Etihad Guest miles on Royal Air Maroc flights.

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You can access Etihad Guest here.

Here’s the question from the reader:

I would appreciate your input/ opinion regarding redeeming Etihad Guest miles for travel on Royal Air Maroc. I’ve been trying to book a flight from Montreal to Cairo with connection-stopover in Casablanca for the first week of September 2021 in business class. I am aware that Etihad Guest agents are a real mixed bag and I encountered a lot of confusion.  Up to now, all of them told me that I need to pay for two segments of 44000 miles (88000) for this booking.

I tried to explain to them that the distance should not bet calculated on a per segment basis, but rather on a per direction basis, they put me on hold for 5-10 minutes and they tell me that I need to pay two segments for this travel.

When I asked for clarification from one agent from their Philippine Call Centre, he referred me the following Etihad Terms and Conditions for booking with Royal Air Maroc:

“For connecting routes mileage values will be calculated from origin to point of transit/stopover to destination”.

Any insights are appreciated!

Etihad redemption table for Royal Air Maroc:

Here are the terms for Royal Air Maroc awards using Etihad miles:

• Reward tickets are not valid on codeshare flights
• Seats are subject to availability
• Children from 02-12 years of age will be charged the adult mileage value and must be booked in the same booking as the accompanying adult
• Infant tickets will be charged at 10% of the adult mileage value and must be booked in the same booking as the accompanying adult
• One-way tickets are permitted
• Applicable taxes and surcharges will have to be paid at the time of ticket issuance
• Reward tickets are valid for a maximum period of one year from the original date of issue
• Using miles for upgrades on partner flights are not permitted
• Stopovers are permitted; Royal Air Maroc will not provide hotel accommodation. Open Jaws are not permitted
• Name changes and re-routing are not permitted
• Cancellation / Refund and changes are as per Etihad Guest Terms and Conditions
• For connecting routes mileage values will be calculated from origin to point of transit/stopover to destination.

Route

“For connecting routes mileage values will be calculated from origin to point of transit/stopover to destination.”

The most logical way to understand this is to calculate the total miles for the flights flown (YUL-CMN-CAI) rather than YUL-CAI.

It doesn’t spell out that Royal Air Maroc awards would be prices based on segments (YUL-CMN and CMN-CAI) that the Etihad Guest agents have indicated.

So the question is whether the reader should be charged 44K or 88K Etihad Guest miles?

The terms are unclear, and the Eithad Guest agents interpret the most beneficial rules to the airline.

Conclusion

I have had my own issues with Etihad Guest and BusinessConnect to the point that I lost access to my personal account with 100K+ miles when they “upgraded” their systems years ago.

Suddenly, you couldn’t have both accounts under the same email address, and the issue was never resolved.

Etihad has some very attractive awards with partners. Still, plenty is left for interpretation, and you always need to call Etihad to redeem partner awards, as nothing can be done online.

How would you interpret the rule that Etihad Guest has in place for Royal Air Maroc?