In February 2024, Etihad Guest updated its change and cancellation fees for award tickets, introducing the world’s most punitive policy. This was announced as part of a larger overhaul of the Etihad Guest program. Then in June 2025, the program updated these fees again. Now in November 2025, the program has updated the fees for a third time.
The sad thing is, through all versions of these changes, the policy has been the most punitive in the industry. It’s just a question of which aspect of the policy is the worst. While other frequent flyer programs have largely eliminated change and cancellation fees on awards, Etihad Guest is increasingly aligning award ticket policies with revenue ticket policies, so it’s outrageously complex.
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For me the simple reality remains that Etihad Guest has the strictest cancellation policies of any frequent flyer program in the world.
With many loyalty programs, airline award ticket cancellation fees are lower than ever before, reflecting how we’ve seen many tickets become a lot more flexible. Nowadays many programs don’t even charge any fees to cancel an award ticket, which is a great option to have.
Etihad Guest’s policy, meanwhile is the opposite extreme. On the one hand, I see where Etihad is coming from. The idea is that revenue fares and award fares are aligned in terms of policies. At the same time, when that’s counter to the industry norm, it’s a serious competitive disadvantage.
You’d think that Etihad would want to make its frequent flyer program a competitive advantage, given its smaller scale than Emirates and Qatar Airways, so the program has to play “catch up” a bit. But instead, the policies are not only very strict, but honestly, quite confusing and hard to keep track of, especially given the pace at which they change.
I’d engage in the Etihad Guest program a lot more if it weren’t for this policy. I value flexibility a lot, and I simply don’t want to risk basically forfeiting the entire cost of a ticket if my plans change within 72 hours of departure (never mind that even outside that window, the fees are potentially significant).
Bottom line
Etihad Guest has updated its change and cancellation fees on award tickets for the third time since early 2024. The program has the industry’s most stringent policies on this front, and that applies both before and after the most recent changes.
A great solo travel tip spotted this week on One Mile at a Time.
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