Today a rumor has been swirling around (first seen by myself on @AwrdTravel101) that Etihad will be joining Star Alliance as early as the end of March and that the American Airlines partnership would be terminated as a result. Others are reporting that instead of joining Star Alliance Etihad will create a partnership with United instead. Either way if you have American Airline miles that you’d like to redeem on Etihad, I’d be doing it sooner rather than later. Award availability is expected to be either removed today or tomorrow.
I have no accurate these rumors actually are, as I have no idea what they are based on. That being said I trust Richard Kerr (behind @AwrdTravel101) that I’d consider this highly reliable. Where there is smoke there is usually fire though and I can see why Etihad would want to end the American Airlines partnership given that American Airlines ended codeshares with Etihad already.
