Forget to add your frequent flyer number? Etihad has you covered

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Ever forgotten to add your rewards number to a booking and spent hours later trying to reclaim the miles you've flown? Yeah, me too. Fortunately, Etihad has recognized these issues, and has introduced a new feature designed to award your miles when you've entered your information incorrectly, or even forgotten it entirely:

Though Etihad Guest continues to fly under the radar, this is a pretty cool move on its part. As far as I know this is the first airline program to proactively award members with mileage they've earned, even without frequent flyer numbers attached to the reservation. This does beg the question, however — how are they identifying members? Of course, airlines have all your identifying information (name, date of birth, passport number), but what programs are they running in order to match you to your loyalty account number? And why aren't other airlines and hotels doing it?

From the example email above it looks like Etihad is still wanting members to enter their information, though I'm curious to know how often you can utilize this benefit before the airline gets upset. Whatever else, however, this is a really decent thing for Etihad to do; no longer will you leave lost miles on the table on your flights. That'll get you that much closer to Etihad's phenomenal A380 Apartment.