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Consolidated Emirates (EK) awards availability/booking/routing thread

Old Apr 5, 2014, 3:23 pm
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
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.
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Consolidated Emirates (EK) awards availability/booking/routing thread

Old Jun 25, 2013, 10:30 am
  #301  
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Originally Posted by OverThereTooMuch
Seems to leave the door open. So is this something that's in the near-term plans to implement, or will it require a policy change?
I believe it would require a change in technology that hasn't been deemed worth the cost for the few dozen bookings a year it would facilitate.
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Old Jun 25, 2013, 11:03 am
  #302  
 
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Originally Posted by missydarlin
I believe it would require a change in technology that hasn't been deemed worth the cost for the few dozen bookings a year it would facilitate.
Didn't res agents actually access the Qantas GDS to process the awards prior to the change? If so, why can't they continue to do so? Thanks.
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Old Jun 25, 2013, 1:13 pm
  #303  
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Originally Posted by flytoeat
Didn't res agents actually access the Qantas GDS to process the awards prior to the change? If so, why can't they continue to do so? Thanks.
I believe so, yes. When I was there we had a couple agents who were trained to use the Qantas GDS.

I dont really know. I imagine it was determined that it wasn't worth continuing to have to keep specially training agents or maintaining access to different GDS systems for a few dozen bookings a year?
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Old Jun 25, 2013, 3:23 pm
  #304  
 
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Originally Posted by missydarlin
And with res agents using the same shopping platform, the same restrictions apply to them.
Is this true of all partners? i've noticed widespread inventory discrepancies between AS.com and partner desk when looking for 7H flights, as recently as May. I've also been able to ticket things over the phone that the website would not allow, so the restrictions don't appear to be the same.

Is the partner desk's back-end the same but the res agents have a more flexible interface? Fell free to remove or redirect if this is too O/T...

and thanks for the info Missy

Originally Posted by missydarlin
I imagine it was determined that the very small number of bookings that would be negatively affected by the 330 cap wasn't worth the cost/headache/delay in implementation to get the awards online.
cost of maintaining QF-gds trained employees does sound like a plausible explanation. wonder if the idea is to eventually phase out the partner desk and roll their function into the regular res agents.
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Old Jun 25, 2013, 3:55 pm
  #305  
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Originally Posted by evoG
Is this true of all partners? i've noticed widespread inventory discrepancies between AS.com and partner desk when looking for 7H flights, as recently as May. I've also been able to ticket things over the phone that the website would not allow, so the restrictions don't appear to be the same.

Is the partner desk's back-end the same but the res agents have a more flexible interface? Fell free to remove or redirect if this is too O/T...

and thanks for the info Missy.
I haven't been over there to see what their interface looks like, so I can't give you accurate information about that.

I do know that agents are now using the same shopping platform as the web, (rather than how they were doing it before, which was a mish-mash of technologies based on who the other carriers GDS was).



Originally Posted by evoG
cost of maintaining QF-gds trained employees does sound like a plausible explanation. wonder if the idea is to eventually phase out the partner desk and roll their function into the regular res agents.
The roles have been morphing for quite some time now. We no longer advertise the partner desk number, and the only distinction on the voice recording when you call the regular 800 number is "award travel". If you actually dial the old Partner Desk number, it reroutes you to the same recording as the 800 number.
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Old Jun 25, 2013, 7:10 pm
  #306  
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Originally Posted by missydarlin
The roles have been morphing for quite some time now. We no longer advertise the partner desk number, and the only distinction on the voice recording when you call the regular 800 number is "award travel". If you actually dial the old Partner Desk number, it reroutes you to the same recording as the 800 number.
When i booked my Era award a month or 2 ago i called the reservations number on teh back of the MVPG card and teh agent had to transfer me to someone who could do partner awards. When I called the number suggested on the AS site by Jenn - 1-800-307-6912 i went straight to an agent who knew how to do CX award.
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Old Jun 25, 2013, 8:30 pm
  #307  
 
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Originally Posted by missydarlin
I believe so, yes. When I was there we had a couple agents who were trained to use the Qantas GDS.

I dont really know. I imagine it was determined that it wasn't worth continuing to have to keep specially training agents or maintaining access to different GDS systems for a few dozen bookings a year?
Got a good compromise for ya...

At the next MVP lunch, we'll offer up a FT volunteer. You take them into the AS inner sanctum, get them trained on the Qantas GDS and they'll do the bookings for us. Win-win, right?

Ok, maybe not. Thanks for the details. Agree with others that it's entirely reasonable and makes sense.
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Old Jun 25, 2013, 10:40 pm
  #308  
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
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Originally Posted by OverThereTooMuch:20990471
Originally Posted by missydarlin
I believe so, yes. When I was there we had a couple agents who were trained to use the Qantas GDS.

I dont really know. I imagine it was determined that it wasn't worth continuing to have to keep specially training agents or maintaining access to different GDS systems for a few dozen bookings a year?
Got a good compromise for ya...

At the next MVP lunch, we'll offer up a FT volunteer. You take them into the AS inner sanctum, get them trained on the Qantas GDS and they'll do the bookings for us. Win-win, right?

Ok, maybe not. Thanks for the details. Agree with others that it's entirely reasonable and makes sense.
Oh, hope I get invited to the inaugural MVP lunch!
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Old Jun 25, 2013, 11:30 pm
  #309  
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Originally Posted by CDKing
When i booked my Era award a month or 2 ago i called the reservations number on teh back of the MVPG card and teh agent had to transfer me to someone who could do partner awards. When I called the number suggested on the AS site by Jenn - 1-800-307-6912 i went straight to an agent who knew how to do CX award.
Are you talking about Era or CX?

IIRC Era never required a partner agent (PenAir either).

Its my understanding that the way it works now, is that once an agent is trained on a particular function, its added to their profile in the phone system ... so someone who is trained in several different functions will get all sorts of calls, whereas a new agent who's only been trained for regular bookings will get regular calls.

What happened to you could be a failure of the automated system to determine what you wanted.
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Old Jun 26, 2013, 5:44 am
  #310  
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Originally Posted by missydarlin
Are you talking about Era or CX?

IIRC Era never required a partner agent (PenAir either).

Its my understanding that the way it works now, is that once an agent is trained on a particular function, its added to their profile in the phone system ... so someone who is trained in several different functions will get all sorts of calls, whereas a new agent who's only been trained for regular bookings will get regular calls.

What happened to you could be a failure of the automated system to determine what you wanted.
Era for the first call and CX for the second call. I just rechecked my call history and noticed for the era call, I used the number ending in 3640 so it was reservations that transferred me. Second time fro CX was the number ending in 6912. Calling from my cell that is on my account the automated system doesn't give me options anymore just puts me to a rep after a small hold so i never know exactly where im calling.

Back on track with Emirates. Either the website is wrong or you cant use Experflyer to search for Emirates. DXB-JFK EF Shows D5 of 7/23 & 7/24 but AS site is only showing me AF & BA. There is also at least 1 Z seat but as we know website isnt working at all for F awards

Last edited by CDKing; Jun 26, 2013 at 5:57 am
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Old Jun 26, 2013, 4:41 pm
  #311  
 
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Went to the EK forum per baliktad's suggestion (not sure why my idiot self didn't think of that) and got the answer.

The 777-200LR has a fully lie flat business class seat.

Last edited by apodo77; Jun 27, 2013 at 6:06 am Reason: question answered
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Old Jun 26, 2013, 5:48 pm
  #312  
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Originally Posted by apodo77
Apologies in advance as I did not read all 16 pages and may have been answered.

For anyone who has flown SEA-DXB does the 777-200LR have a true lie flat in business or is it angled lie flat?

For the dates I am looking at that is available.

Also will the A380 out of LAX be significantly different seat wise than the SEA flight?
I have already flown on an A380 in business on other airlines so it is not a must have unless it is much different than the 777-200LR.
Since AS MP awards are allocated the same seats as everyone else, you might have better luck with your questions regarding EK service/fleet/aircraft in the Emirates forum.
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Old Jun 27, 2013, 2:25 pm
  #313  
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Doesn't AS see the same Z inventory as EF sees? I am seeing IAH-DXB showing Z1 and DXB-BKK showing Z2, but the agents are saying there is nothing.....

ETA: Apparently AS sees what I am seeing, but when they put in the request to EK, EK says ha nice try! Seat no longer exists.

Last edited by golfingboy; Jun 27, 2013 at 2:55 pm
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Old Jun 30, 2013, 9:07 am
  #314  
 
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One of my concerns in booking this vacation (see trip report here) was the unknown. I booked the outbound without having booked the return on the date I needed (I booked a dummy return in September to have something on the books). Fortunately, just two days ago, on Expert Flyer, a married segment from Singapore to Seattle popped up, with 2 in Z (first) and 2 in D (business). We'll finally fly the 380 in first, and try that shower in the sky! We're so excited.

Using Alaska miles for the booking was relatively easy and straight forward. The only hiccup I encountered was that each time (so far) I asked for lounge access, the agents were confused by the booking. One EK agent at the Dubai business lounge went so far as to ask if I were an EK employee. Once I told her I booked with AS miles, and after a short visit with a supervisor, we were allowed in. I expect the same issue on the return, but it's just a minor inconvenience.

For anyone planning to book with AS miles on short notice, at least in my experience, expert flyer was a godsend, and really helped me nail down the itinerary I needed, about a month in advance.

Last edited by Tall Travel Dude; Jul 1, 2013 at 2:12 am Reason: Fixed link
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Old Jun 30, 2013, 9:40 am
  #315  
 
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http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...bali-ek-f.html

Here's a better (I think) link to the trip report on EK. Now I'll head back to look at the pics on your blog. ^
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