Etihad Guest is undergoing a quiet reinvention. And if you listen carefully to Managing Director Mark Potter, India is not just part of that story — it might be at the heart of it. I sat down with Potter on the occasion of Etihad Guest’s launch of new partnerships in India to discuss what we can expect from Etihad’s loyalty programme in India.
Etihad Guest takes it up a notch in India
Mark Potter has been with Etihad Guest since 2015 and has led the programme since 2023. He was in India earlier this week to announce major partnerships that shift Etihad Guest’s presence in India from a simple airline loyalty programme to a lifestyle programme.
The conversation started casually, even playfully — airports, infrastructure, the growth of India’s metros. But very quickly, it shifted to numbers. And those numbers tell a story of acceleration.
“We’re seeing around 250,000 new customers joining the program every month,” Potter said. “To put that into a fun fact, that’s about six members every minute.”
The program now has 13.5 million members worldwide, with about 2.6 million added in the past year. Much of that growth is linked to Etihad Airways’ broader network expansion, which announced over 31 destinations last year. However, Potter was clear that the airline’s momentum alone does not explain this growth. “It allows us to take some comfort that the proposition we’re putting in the market is somewhat working, and that people are interested in it.” India, in particular, is where that proposition is being stress-tested and redesigned.
India Is Already Etihad Guest’s Second-Largest Base
Potter revealed that India is currently the second-largest membership base for Etihad Guest worldwide. Given current growth rates, he expects it to become number one “very soon.” The growth rate in India — around 24% in new member sign-ups — is outpacing most other markets. However, raw sign-ups are not the only metric that counts. “We’re seeing really strong activity and engagement rates,” he said. “It just feels like the funnel is working quite nicely.”
Yet Potter recognised a structural weakness. In India, Etihad Guest was still “heavily reliant on Etihad from an earn and redemption perspective.” That works if members are frequent Etihad flyers. It does not work if you want everyday relevance. And everyday relevance is where the new strategy begins.
From Airline-Centric to Everyday Currency
The newly announced partner portfolio in India — Bobcard, Swiggy, Flipkart, Shoppers Stop, and Postcard Hotels — is not just a list of logos in a press release. It signifies a philosophical shift. “If we want to have relevance and an engaging proposition for frequency of engagement, it needs some depth,” Potter said.
The gaps were clear: no active co-brand credit card after the previous partnership with SBICards ended; no meaningful quick-service delivery partner; no strong domestic e-commerce tie-up; no brick-and-mortar retail anchor.
Now, Etihad Guest members receive Swiggy One access, Shoppers Stop Platinum tier access, two-way SuperCoin transfers with Flipkart, a refreshed hotel proposition with Postcard Hotels, and a new co-branded credit card with Bobcard featuring fast-tracked Silver and Gold tiers and forex benefits. Potter emphasised that the point is not to manufacture incremental spending.
“We don’t want to force people to spend more than they’re capable of,” he said. “We already know you’re spending with these verticals. We want to reward you. We want to give you miles for doing that.”
In other words, Etihad Guest is trying to integrate itself into existing consumer habits rather than trying to alter them.
The End of SBICards, The Bet on BOBCARD
The previous SBICards co-brand relationship ended mutually. Potter did not dwell on the split.
“It came to a point in time that we were seeing different directions,” he said. “We’re comfortable with the choice that we both had to make.”
Instead, the focus is squarely on BOBCARD. Early interest, he claimed, has been strong even before a full public push. For Etihad Guest, a healthy co-brand is not optional — it is foundational. Credit cards drive recurring engagement, predictable earn velocity, and break the dependency on flight frequency. For now, transfer partnerships with other Indian credit cards is not a priority.
“With the new co-brand in market, we want to make sure we’re investing as much as we can in getting that up and running,” Potter said. “If other partners are interested, we’re not going to say no to exploration. It just needs to make sense.”
Beyond Flights: A More Elastic Redemption Strategy
Airline redemptions will continue to dominate — Potter called it the “lion’s share” — but Etihad Guest is quietly expanding its non-airline burn options.
The Reward Shop was revamped two years ago and localised to make transactions easier in markets like India. Flipkart transfers into SuperCoins open a retail redemption channel. The platform now supports hotel and car bookings. Members can convert miles into reward cards or even cash equivalents.
“No one wants their miles to expire,” Potter said. The strategic through-line is connectivity. Flight, car, hotel, retail, experiences — the aim is to make the currency usable across the entire journey. Experiences are likely to become a bigger part of that story.
“If I was a betting man, I would say there’s more depth coming in that space very soon.”
India as the Prototype
What makes the India build-out particularly significant is that it may serve as a template.
“The model that we’re building here in India will most likely be reflected in other growth markets such as the U.S., Europe, and the GCC,” Potter said.
From his perspective, loyalty is not passive support for airline growth; it is an offensive tool.
“If we can be very aggressive as a programme in supporting the airline as it starts up in those markets, then ultimately it grows.”
India’s importance to Etihad’s network — 11 destinations, 185 flights — makes it a natural proving ground.
And Potter is not done.
“The Swiggy One and Shoppers Stop relationship around the tiers is not the end of the story,” he said. “There’s more to come in the next couple of months.”
By his own estimate, within six months India will have “a really, really strong proposition from a program perspective, beyond what we’re talking about this evening.”
Bottomline
Etihad Guest is trying to transition from a flight-based loyalty program to a daily-use currency anchored in one of the world’s fastest-growing travel markets. The question is whether scale will translate into stickiness. Acquiring six members a minute is impressive. Convincing them to engage frequently is the real test. For now, the growth curve is steep, the partner roster is expanding, and India is clearly no longer just a spoke in the Etihad network. It is becoming the proof of concept.
What do you think of Etihad Guest’s expansion in India with the new partnerships?
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And yet, Etihad decided to orphan Intermiles, leaving members getting meagre value from the accumulated miles!