Etihad Airways Partners aligns elite benefits across member airlines

I've been a little tied up with work - both official and personal - which his probably why you haven't seen much action on the blog recently. However, there's some useful information that's out today, that I thought might interest our readers.

Etihad Airways Partners - the collection of airlines that Etihad owns or assists with operations to some degree or other - announced an alignment of elite benefits across airlines. Here's a delve into this update.

First, here's the link to Etihad's announcement.

What this means is that if you're a Silver, Gold or Platinum member with any of the Etihad Airways Partner Airlines, you can get consistent benefits when traveling with any of the airlines in that alliance (there are some exceptions, which we'll come to shortly).

Here's the re-aligned set of benefits.

As far as lounge access goes, Gold and Platinum members are entitled to one guest except in Jet Airways lounges. oneworld and SkyTeam Lounges excluded. Etihad Guest Gold members will have access to the Al Reem Lounge in Abu Dhabi International Airport when travelling in Economy.

Baggage allowance is based on a piece and weight concept and is dependent on airline and destination.

Bottom line

Clearly there was some level of inconsistency earlier, which this change seeks to align. Offhand, I can't see much downside to the changes (that is to say, a member receiving fewer benefits than earlier), but I'll reconfirm that separately, at least with regards to Jet Airways.