Etihad Airways
2026
Miles Calculator Redesign
Redesigning the miles calculator so Etihad Guest members can quickly see how many miles they'll earn or need for any trip.
Overview
Rethinking a Tool Members Weren’t Getting Value From
Etihad’s miles calculator worked, but it fell behind. Competitors offered upgrade calculations and visual results; we didn’t. The form felt rigid, results led nowhere, and many members had miles in their accounts with no clear idea how to use them.
The Impact
We rebuilt the calculator around four goals: match and exceed what other airlines offer, make calculating effortless, show members everything their miles can do, and connect results to their own trips and next booking.
Problem
Outdated, Overcomplicated, Underused
Members weren’t using the calculator to book flights or request upgrades. The tool asked them to imagine a trip, when what they cared about was the trip they’d already booked or were about to.
01 No Upgrade option · 02 Generic, form-heavy inputs · 03 No personalisation · 04 No next step after calculating · 05 Same experience for every member
Research
Benchmarking the industry
I benchmarked the miles calculators of four major airlines to understand what members had come to expect. Earn, Spend and Upgrade modes, visual results, and tier-based filtering were standard. Etihad was missing several, including upgrades entirely.
Comparing them side by side also showed what made the best ones work: they were quick to use, made results easy to understand, and always showed members what they could do next.
What we learned
Four gaps stood out. We were missing features members expected, like upgrades. The form felt heavier than it needed to be. Results were a number with no explanation of what miles could be used for. And nothing connected the calculation to the member’s own trips or next booking. Closing one gap wouldn’t be enough; the redesign needed to address all four.
“Flew AUH-JFK for an expected 6,844 miles but was only credited 4,956 tier miles.”
Etihad Guest Gold member
Public post, FlyerTalk forum
Ideation
Exploring interface directions
Early explorations focused on making miles feel tangible. Instead of a plain form, I placed the route on a map so users could see where they were going and what it was worth in miles.
I explored two modes. Earn miles shows how many miles a trip earns across fare types, based on cabin, journey type, tier and airline. Spend miles lets users explore destinations and see how many miles they need for each cabin.
Early explorations of the Earn and Spend modes, using a map to connect miles to real destinations.
Choosing the right direction
In the first direction, the results panel sat on top of the map, hiding the route and making fares hard to compare.
Moving the results below the map kept the route visible and placed all fares side by side, making it easier to compare them at a glance. I reviewed both directions with [the product team] before moving into high-fidelity design.
Designs
Bringing miles to life on the map
The final design connects miles to real destinations. Users choose a route and instantly see what it’s worth, with the journey drawn on the map and results that are easy to compare.
Earn mode: pick a route, cabin and tier, then compare how many Etihad Guest Miles and Tier Miles each fare earns, right below the route on the map.
Lessons
Launch is just the beginning
This project showed me that design is never really finished. Even after launch, we keep refining the experience, fixing bugs as they surface, and improving details based on how people actually use it. AI has made that loop faster. It's easier than ever to explore new ideas, prototype them quickly, and test what could come next. We're already exploring turning the flat map into an interactive globe, making it even more immersive to see where your miles can take you. For me, that's the most exciting part of product design: launching something good, then making it better.
