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(Photo by Tobias Arhelger/Shutterstock)
Etihad Guest has some of the most interesting airline partners in the travel world. Many of these are based in Europe and provide service to the U.S. on limited routes.
The two most interesting are Air Serbia and Brussels Airlines.
Air Serbia from NYC to Belgrade
Let’s start with Air Serbia. The Serbian airline offers nonstop service from its Belgrade (BEG) hub to New York-JFK. This is the airline’s only long-haul route and is operated by an Airbus A330.
This plane is outfitted with a proper business-class cabin, though it uses old Virgin Atlantic seats. Regardless, it’s the only way to fly nonstop from the U.S. to Belgrade, saving you a ton of time over connecting in London Heathrow (LHR), Frankfurt (FRA) or another major European hub.
(Photo by Ryan Patterson for The Points Guy)
One of the most popular requests we saw was for a better redemption rate for paid travel through Amex Travel.
The Amex Platinum’s biggest competitor the Chase Sapphire Reserve® lets cardmembers redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards points through the Chase Ultimate Rewards Travel Portal at 1.5 cents per point. This means that a $100 flight or hotel stay costs just 6,667 points, which is a pretty solid deal if there’s no award space available.
On the other hand, Amex cardholders can only redeem Membership Rewards points through Amex Travel at a set rate of 1 cent apiece. This is half TPG’s valuation of Membership Rewards points, so we typically don’t recommend using your points to book paid travel through the portal.