I will be traveling to the Middle East next month and had hoped to fly Star Alliance (AC/LHR) as I am still pathetically pursuing SE status every year. The itinerary is Victoria-Dubai-Riyadh-Abu Dhabi-Dubai-Victoria. My company's travel agent said it would be over $14k for this itinerary with AC in J class and we ended up booking Alaska Air to Seattle and then all the other flights are Emirates and Etihad at a cost of less than $7k.

This seems a bizarre price difference especially as the timing is better with Emirates (they go direct to Dubai from Seattle) and they supposedly are a great airline to fly. I try to be loyal to AC but not at any price. I am surprised to see such pricing inefficiencies in what is supposed to be a very competitive business.