:rant on:

The more I think about this issue with all FLEX and SAVER F inventory coming from the old SAVER bucket, the more annoyed I am. Just recently the Alaska Airlines award chart came out for EK. While I have to use 300,000+ EK miles for an F JFK-MLE return redemptions, an AS member only needs to use 180,000 AS miles for the same redemption. JL members only need 135,000 JL miles.

All of these partner airline awards come out of the Z SAVER bucket. So, as an EK Skywards Gold, I need to use 50%+ more miles and have to compete for available F seats with members from other airlines. Under the old scheme at least I could avail myself to FLEX F inventory in exchange for being a loyal EK flyer and paying the exorbitant amount of EK miles required, and with the old FLEX F inventory that came out of the A bucket I wasn't competing for seats from people redeeming from other airline programs.

With this change in the FLEX F bucket, when it comes to redemptions EK is treating its loyal customers far worse than customers from other airlines.

When actually comparing milage earned, assuming you are top tier on either FFP, for various J bookings on EK that I tested, you will earn nearly as many AS miles as EK miles. For example, a FLEX J return JFK-MLE earns 39,750-43,750 EK miles (based on award accelerators) or 39,300 AS miles. Yet, to redeem using EK miles it takes 50% more miles than AS miles!! How does it, then, make any sense to credit to EK vs. AS if in the future you plan to redeem premium cabin seats using your miles?

:rant off: