Apr 5, 2014, 3:23 pm
Last edit by: eponymous_coward
Emirates award guide using Alaska Airlines miles
Routing Rules:
All trips must start or end in North America.
One open jaw and one stopover allowed on each one-way award.
No fees for changes/cancellations prior to 60 days from departure.
North American Gateway Cities:
West Coast
Seattle
San Francisco
Los Angeles
Central
Chicago
Dallas
Houston
East Coast
Boston
New York (JFK)
Orlando (Effective September 1, 2015)
Washington DC (IAD)
Canada
Toronto
Award Chart Links*:
Middle East & Africa
Asia
Europe
*If region is not listed on chart its not available.
Perks
Chauffeur Drive NOT Available
Car service is not available for all Business Class and First Class passengers on Alaska Airlines ticketed award tickets on Emirates flights (as of Jan 2015). The chauffeur will not confirm if you use the EK website for this, though the website makes it look you can make a reservation.
Lounges
Access is available for all passengers traveling in Business and First Class. Not all cities have lounges and many may be operated by a Partner. There have been some reports of people having an issue accessing the Dubai lounges as the tickets may appear in their system as non-revenue employee travel. This is not as much of a problem as it used to be but in case it comes up please advise the lounge attendant that you are on an Alaska Airlines award.
Dubai Connect
AS Awards on EK do not qualify for Dubai Connect, which is the service that offers the free hotel.
Tricks to find Transoceanic availability
Instead of performing a blanket, i.e. SEA-DXB search, perform: SEA-MED.
Madinah is a destination that is only served by EK. Consequently, if there is availability, only EK will show up in the calendar results.
Routing Rules:
All trips must start or end in North America.
One open jaw and one stopover allowed on each one-way award.
No fees for changes/cancellations prior to 60 days from departure.
North American Gateway Cities:
West Coast
Seattle
San Francisco
Los Angeles
Central
Chicago
Dallas
Houston
East Coast
Boston
New York (JFK)
Orlando (Effective September 1, 2015)
Washington DC (IAD)
Canada
Toronto
Award Chart Links*:
Middle East & Africa
Asia
Europe
*If region is not listed on chart its not available.
Perks
Chauffeur Drive NOT Available
Car service is not available for all Business Class and First Class passengers on Alaska Airlines ticketed award tickets on Emirates flights (as of Jan 2015). The chauffeur will not confirm if you use the EK website for this, though the website makes it look you can make a reservation.
Lounges
Access is available for all passengers traveling in Business and First Class. Not all cities have lounges and many may be operated by a Partner. There have been some reports of people having an issue accessing the Dubai lounges as the tickets may appear in their system as non-revenue employee travel. This is not as much of a problem as it used to be but in case it comes up please advise the lounge attendant that you are on an Alaska Airlines award.
Dubai Connect
AS Awards on EK do not qualify for Dubai Connect, which is the service that offers the free hotel.
Tricks to find Transoceanic availability
Instead of performing a blanket, i.e. SEA-DXB search, perform: SEA-MED.
Madinah is a destination that is only served by EK. Consequently, if there is availability, only EK will show up in the calendar results.
Consolidated Emirates (EK) awards availability/booking/routing thread
Oct 23, 2014, 6:46 pm
#1126
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 16
Been looking to book a F award in April 2015 to Asia, but AS.com availability has been stalled in March for the past 3 weeks. EF shows Z=2 for all segments I'm looking at in April. Tried the call center once without luck. Should I be patient on AS.com or keep trying the call center?
Oct 23, 2014, 7:39 pm
#1127
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: BOS/ORH
Programs: AS 75K
Posts: 18,323
Been looking to book a F award in April 2015 to Asia, but AS.com availability has been stalled in March for the past 3 weeks. EF shows Z=2 for all segments I'm looking at in April. Tried the call center once without luck. Should I be patient on AS.com or keep trying the call center?
Oct 23, 2014, 8:13 pm
#1128
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Denver • DEN-APA
Programs: AF Platinum, EK Gold, AA EXP, UA 1K, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 21,593
Oct 24, 2014, 3:11 am
#1129
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Tehran (IKA), Vancouver (YVR), Nice (NCE)
Programs: QR Platinum (Oneworld Emerald), AZ Freccia Alata (Skyteam Gold), Shangri-La GC (Jade)
Posts: 235
remember married segments rule so in order to change the last segment you will need to make sure there is still space on the segments that are not changing.
BTW there is no chauffer service for YVR or IKA. Its only available in 70 cities. See list
BTW there is no chauffer service for YVR or IKA. Its only available in 70 cities. See list
I have been looking into an online change and it reroutes me through Seattle to DXB in J rather san through SFO in F for my dates. I tried through LAX as well and it still doesn't work out.
Is the availability shown on the website identical to the availability seen by agents or would it be better to call?
Oct 24, 2014, 5:35 am
#1130
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Denver • DEN-APA
Programs: AF Platinum, EK Gold, AA EXP, UA 1K, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 21,593
Not sure if I was just lucky or there has been a change but on two separate occasions in the past month (two different agents), I was able to make a change to one segment without have to do the married segment thing. YMMV.
Oct 24, 2014, 8:33 am
#1131
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: New York City
Posts: 801
Sometimes the operating airline releases awards as married segments, sometimes it does not.
Oct 24, 2014, 10:55 am
#1132
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Tehran (IKA), Vancouver (YVR), Nice (NCE)
Programs: QR Platinum (Oneworld Emerald), AZ Freccia Alata (Skyteam Gold), Shangri-La GC (Jade)
Posts: 235
)I just called in and she had to rebook the whole itinerary
, refund my initial booking and recharge both miles and cash on my account. It ended up working just fine for me, but the agent told me that with Emirates when they try to make changes, the whole itinerary gets cancelled!
By the way, I really love AS agents. They are all very helpful and friendly.
Stacey helped me and she was great! ^^^
Oct 24, 2014, 3:03 pm
#1133
Join Date: Dec 2008
Programs: Alaska MVP Gold, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 669
I was able to change one leg of my itinerary without rebooking the whole thing. It really depends on which agent you get. But yes, agreed, Alaska agents are the best!
Oct 24, 2014, 3:33 pm
#1134
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: DFW
Programs: AA 1M
Posts: 31,473
Oct 24, 2014, 3:34 pm
#1135
Join Date: Dec 2008
Programs: Alaska MVP Gold, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 669
I don't believe so. I know the PNR was the same.
Nov 6, 2014, 6:06 pm
#1136
Join Date: Feb 2014
Posts: 9
Hey everyone, just wanted to thank everyone who has contributed to this thread, I have gotten so much useful information here and have recently completed a booking.
So my SPG points finally transferred to AS and I decided to make my first attempt at booking ORD-SEA-SFO, SFO-DXB-AMS for April in first. I looked up the award space on Expert Flyer to make sure it was open and went ahead to call.
I got a friendly agent and explained what I needed, she could not see the award space as expected (wasn't showing online), so I said I read that AS was allowed to manually sell EK award space. She started saying that AS agents aren't allowed to communicate with other airlines about award space. I got ready to HUCA, BUT she then said she would try a different method
She wound up doing it manually and got me booked in first. She also was able to get me 23hrs in SEA before having a stopover in SFO then doing SFO-DXB-AMS on EK
Can't wait for the trip!
So my SPG points finally transferred to AS and I decided to make my first attempt at booking ORD-SEA-SFO, SFO-DXB-AMS for April in first. I looked up the award space on Expert Flyer to make sure it was open and went ahead to call.
I got a friendly agent and explained what I needed, she could not see the award space as expected (wasn't showing online), so I said I read that AS was allowed to manually sell EK award space. She started saying that AS agents aren't allowed to communicate with other airlines about award space. I got ready to HUCA, BUT she then said she would try a different method
She wound up doing it manually and got me booked in first. She also was able to get me 23hrs in SEA before having a stopover in SFO then doing SFO-DXB-AMS on EK
Can't wait for the trip!
Nov 6, 2014, 6:17 pm
#1137
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: New York City
Posts: 801
Hey everyone, just wanted to thank everyone who has contributed to this thread, I have gotten so much useful information here and have recently completed a booking.
So my SPG points finally transferred to AS and I decided to make my first attempt at booking ORD-SEA-SFO, SFO-DXB-AMS for April in first. I looked up the award space on Expert Flyer to make sure it was open and went ahead to call.
I got a friendly agent and explained what I needed, she could not see the award space as expected (wasn't showing online), so I said I read that AS was allowed to manually sell EK award space. She started saying that AS agents aren't allowed to communicate with other airlines about award space. I got ready to HUCA, BUT she then said she would try a different method
She wound up doing it manually and got me booked in first. She also was able to get me 23hrs in SEA before having a stopover in SFO then doing SFO-DXB-AMS on EK
Can't wait for the trip!
So my SPG points finally transferred to AS and I decided to make my first attempt at booking ORD-SEA-SFO, SFO-DXB-AMS for April in first. I looked up the award space on Expert Flyer to make sure it was open and went ahead to call.
I got a friendly agent and explained what I needed, she could not see the award space as expected (wasn't showing online), so I said I read that AS was allowed to manually sell EK award space. She started saying that AS agents aren't allowed to communicate with other airlines about award space. I got ready to HUCA, BUT she then said she would try a different method
She wound up doing it manually and got me booked in first. She also was able to get me 23hrs in SEA before having a stopover in SFO then doing SFO-DXB-AMS on EK
Can't wait for the trip!
Ha! Well done.
Although that routing is borderline insane (flying >3x the ORD-AMS distance), I'm sure you'll enjoy.
Nov 7, 2014, 9:18 pm
#1138
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Treasure Coast, FL
Programs: DL Diamond, Marriott LT Plat, HH Diamond, Avis Preferred Plus, National Executive
Posts: 4,578
Currently on my award trip with EK and no issues for lounge access in DFW, DXB and BKK thus far.
Nov 7, 2014, 9:27 pm
#1139
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 599
Well, all I can say is bling, bling, bling! Just did ORD/DXB/AMS with the DXB/AMS on the 380 and all in F. Good grief! I think the shower is larger than mine in my master bath! Okay, the seats are a lot of very shiny stuff and a good portion of it is basically for show such as the mini-bar - it's just juices and water. The large IFE screen is really nice and the choices on the system are many. The service is excellent - almost too much at times, to be honest, but very professional without being cold at all. I liked having my bags in my suite and they fit easily. If you travel with a larger carry-on, you could be crowded as there is no overhead. The starry ceiling is really nice and, as far as I could remember, pretty accurate as to constellations! Food - excellent. Liquors and wines - excellent. The 14 hours to DXB passed quickly and the nearly 8 to AMS did as well. I stayed overnight at Le Meridien in one of the "club" rooms which includes a private limo to and from the airport. Again, the service was almost too much! Great rooms, great service, etc. DXB's F lounge and direct gate from the lounge is really super! I had breakfast in the lounge and it was very nice and the service was very good as well. Did get the question about the kind of ticket I was on from the lounge gatekeeper - she asked if it was an award and I said yes and that was the end of it. They seem to be familiar with we AS award travelers now. ORD lounge fine and the limo to the airport was fine. Overall - long way around to get to Switzerland but worth it at least once and I'll very likely do it again when I have a few extra days to stay in Dubai - would like cooler weather as it was over 100 at midnight on the patio outside my room......for an Alaskan that's hot!
I want to know - how much would I miss out on if I book just business class (as opposed to first) due to not having enough miles.
Would I still get access to limo during stopover?
Access to shower?
Access to lounges in Dubai?
Huge difference in seating? Aren't business class lie-flat too? Would first-class basically give me privacy or more?
Sevice, food, wine, entertainment etc I'm sure is topnotch in both, since even their economy which I've flown many times is impressive.
Last edited by nomii; Nov 7, 2014 at 9:37 pm
Nov 8, 2014, 3:25 am
#1140
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: CLT
Programs: AA ExPlat, Hyatt Globalist, Bonvoy Lifetime Titanium
Posts: 1,551
What is the transfer time from spg to as?