Gulf carrier Etihad Airways offers up to two free nights as part of their stopover program. If you have bought a ticket with the airline (and not going from/to Oman), you can get either a 40% discount on luxury hotels or free nights in a more basic hotel.
Since all their itineraries require a change of planes in the United Arab Emirates’ capital, this is a great chance to make your time there worthwhile.
In some instances, hotels showed no availability despite all requirements being met. Even worse, you can’t check availability before completing your booking. Because of this, it is very risky to actively plan benefitting from the offer.
Sadly, the stopover can only be applied to completed bookings. Even worse, sometime hotels display no availability despite your booking matching all requirements. This means, you cannot plan ahead to add a stopover to your booking. The only thing you can do is completing a booking and then hoping there is availability during your travel dates.
To book the stopover, you need to use Etihad’s multi-city search. At least in one direction, you need to spend more than 24 hours in Abu Dhabi.
After completing your booking, you can enter your name and bookings reference on Eithad’s website.
A number of eligible hotels will be presented to you. It may happen that no hotels are available at the time of booking. There is no way to check if the hotel of your choosing is available during your intended stopover – only after the booking process. You can add a discounted hotel to your booking up to three days before your arrival in Abu Dhabi.
Participating Hotels
| 3-star hotels | 4-star hotels | 5-star hotels (40% discount) |
|---|---|---|
| Centro Al Manhal | Aloft Abu Dhabi | Bab Al Qasr |
| Premier Inn Abu Dhabi Int. Airport | City Seasons Al Hamra Hotel | Shangri La Qaryat Al Beri |
| Ibis Abu Dhabi Gate | Golden Tulip Abu Dhabi Downtown | Dusit Thani |
| Centro Capital Centre | Premier Inn Capital Centre Hotel | Anantara Eastern Mangroves |
| Southern Sun Abu Dhabi | Grand Hyatt Hotel & Residences Emirates Pearl | |
| Traders Hotel, Qaryat Al Beri | Jannah Burj Al Sarab | |
| Holiday Inn Abu Dhabi | ||
| Novotel Abu Dhabi Gate | ||
| Ramada Corniche | ||
| Pearl Rotana Capital Center | ||
| Al Ain Palace | ||
| Hawthorn Suites by Wyndham Abu Dhabi | ||
| Novel Hotel Abu Dhabi |
Cover Picture: © Pixabay-user neildodhia und Pixabay license
Comments (4)
Its a borderline scam. I know several people who booked flights hoping to get this “free” stopover but had to pay hundreds for their 2 night stay. I emailed their customer care prior to booking and they refused to tell me if the hotels are available on my travel dates. So basically it is not free, it is a lottery where chances of winning are very poor.
It seems that with this advert Etihad Airways wants to discourage customers from flying with them. It is absurd to propose something they cannot guarantee.
Das ist Scam, weil man erst buchen muss um dann herauszufinden, dass es keine verfügbaren Hotels gibt. Gibt viele Posts darüber bei Reddit. Ihr solltet das nicht supporten.
Hello Christoph! The warning banner actively discourages people from adding a stopover to their itinerary during the booking process. It’s still a useful bit of information for people with an already existing booking.