Posting this as a PSA because this one is pretty brutal.
Found a partner award for 6,000 miles plus about $39 in taxes. Checkout screen showed exactly that. After hitting pay, Etihad somehow converted the cash portion into miles at an awful rate and charged me 10,299 miles and $0 instead.
Called in right away and sent screenshots. Agent confirmed it looked wrong but said because the flight was within 7 days it had to be escalated to the website team. I specifically asked them to call me before canceling in case prices changed.
Two days later, I noticed the flight was just gone. No email, no miles back.
Called again and was told the website team confirmed it’s a bug, but the back end team accidentally canceled the booking and can’t reinstate it. Miles refund will apparently take 21 to 28 days.
Same agent as before, very sympathetic, but clearly limited in what she could do.
So yeah, if you’re booking Etihad awards and see anything funky with miles vs cash at checkout, be extremely careful. This bug is way worse than the usual pricing mismatch.
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