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
Jan 5, 2015, 5:13 am
#1246
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: BSB
Posts: 260
Create a free 5 day expertflyer account and search for Z availability on Emirates or create a Qantas account and search on classic awards the route you want. I think that on both cases you have to find at least two seats in order to Alaska be able to book one, but I´m not that sure.
Jan 5, 2015, 8:04 pm
#1247
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Jersey City, NJ
Programs: BA Silver, EK Silver, VS Gold Hilton Gold, Hyatt Diamond, SPG Gold,
Posts: 326
Create a free 5 day expertflyer account and search for Z availability on Emirates or create a Qantas account and search on classic awards the route you want. I think that on both cases you have to find at least two seats in order to Alaska be able to book one, but I´m not that sure.
Jan 5, 2015, 8:56 pm
#1248
Join Date: Aug 2012
Programs: HH Diamond, Hyatt Globalist, Marriott Gold, Club Carlson Gold, National EE, *G
Posts: 470
I tried to call tonight and, as most say, after March 2015, there is essentially nothing in F. I reached the Phx office and the woman was steadfast in saying they aren't allowed to use the "old system," then proceeded to say (conjecture is what it sounded like) that "Emirates is able to sell their seats so availability is low." Clearly she couldn't or didn't want to help out in the booking for an F seat after March 2015. I think it is pretty ridiculous that you have to get the "right" person to get this done when it was never a problem in the past.....
Jan 5, 2015, 9:01 pm
#1249
Join Date: Aug 2012
Programs: HH Diamond, Hyatt Globalist, Marriott Gold, Club Carlson Gold, National EE, *G
Posts: 470
My last call for the 2nd Flight I already had the First Class and I just told the woman that I can see saver availability on partner sites- one call to the partner desk and it was approved and before I was off the phone the booking on Alaska's website was updated.
Good luck and make sure you enter your Alaska number and say its a points booking in the prompts and it seems you get to the right people.
Good luck and make sure you enter your Alaska number and say its a points booking in the prompts and it seems you get to the right people.
Jan 5, 2015, 10:29 pm
#1250
Join Date: Jun 2012
Posts: 101
MXP stopover
Is stopover at MXP allowed?
Post #575 said "no" while post #584 said "yes"
JFK-MXP (stopover)
MXP-DXB-BKK
This itinerary cannot be booked online. The 1st agent I called did not allow it. Should I call back again?
Post #575 said "no" while post #584 said "yes"
JFK-MXP (stopover)
MXP-DXB-BKK
This itinerary cannot be booked online. The 1st agent I called did not allow it. Should I call back again?
Jan 6, 2015, 2:13 pm
#1251
Join Date: Dec 2014
Posts: 3
Just booked two F tickets in June DFW-DXB-HKG (under the same PNR but using miles from two different Alaska accounts). Here is the strategy my friend and I used to book (thank you to everyone else in this thread for your tips!)
1. Use Expert Flyer to find F availability (Z in Expert Flyer)
2. Call Alaska (or reserve online) to book J or X seats on the dates you wish to fly
3. After you have a PNR, call the general Alaskan number and once you get a CSR tell them you want to change your booking to F. They will ask for your PNR, but once they see you are flying EK the agent won't be able to help you and will transfer you to another desk
4.Once you are transferred, just tell the CSR that you want to change your flights to F and they should be able to make the changes right away and will email you an updated itinerary while you are on the phone. For reference, I called in at 11 pm PST and got a great CSR who works from home in Seattle.
I had originally called Alaska numerous times and asked each CSR to check the old system but that went nowhere for me. Based upon my experience, it's best to get something booked first and then try to upgrade to F rather than booking F from the start.
1. Use Expert Flyer to find F availability (Z in Expert Flyer)
2. Call Alaska (or reserve online) to book J or X seats on the dates you wish to fly
3. After you have a PNR, call the general Alaskan number and once you get a CSR tell them you want to change your booking to F. They will ask for your PNR, but once they see you are flying EK the agent won't be able to help you and will transfer you to another desk
4.Once you are transferred, just tell the CSR that you want to change your flights to F and they should be able to make the changes right away and will email you an updated itinerary while you are on the phone. For reference, I called in at 11 pm PST and got a great CSR who works from home in Seattle.
I had originally called Alaska numerous times and asked each CSR to check the old system but that went nowhere for me. Based upon my experience, it's best to get something booked first and then try to upgrade to F rather than booking F from the start.
Jan 6, 2015, 2:59 pm
#1252
Join Date: Apr 2012
Posts: 39
I also wanted to follow up on my experiences. I had an itinerary booked for MLE-CMB-DXB-SFO-SEA in March. I had been attempting to modify the reservation to be MLE-DXB-SFO-SEA instead. No matter what I tried, I kept running into the married segments rule and even through the MLE-DXB segment was available as an award, I could not simply change that portion. Finally space opened up for the full itinerary (slightly different dates) and I was able to hold the new itinerary, refund the original and then book the new. This also allowed me to keep my wife and I on the same PNR since we paid from separate accounts. There was also no additional partner booking fee since it had already been charged on the original booking.
Also of note, I did this exact same process the next day so that I could get my original DXB-SFO dates back -- I had found that my original reward seats were immediately available again via the Alaska web site. Looking now, I see that the other one I gave up is also available in the pool again. So, at least seats aren't going into an abyss if the awards are changed.
Jan 7, 2015, 8:29 am
#1253
Join Date: Jul 2013
Programs: AA EP, Delta Diamond, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 79
Adding a segment
Hi. Sorry this is probably a newbie question but here goes: I'm looking to book EK first class JFK-DXB-CPT. If I find availability on the JFK-DXB leg can I book that and then call back to add the DXB-CPT leg when space opens up? Will Alaska simply charge me the extra miles to add the leg to the itinerary?
Jan 7, 2015, 12:25 pm
#1254
Join Date: May 2003
Location: PDX USA
Programs: AS MVPG, AA, BA, SPG Gold, HHonors Gold, Hyatt Platinum, IHG, Hertz 5*
Posts: 690
So, here's a dose of really bad news. It'll cause us to rethink some upcoming award planning, as this was a huge money saver for us and one of the benefits we enjoyed the most. Especially in London.
http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.c...auffeur-drive/
http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.c...auffeur-drive/
Jan 7, 2015, 1:49 pm
#1255
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend, Moderator, Information Desk, Ambassador, Alaska Airlines
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: FAI
Programs: AS MVP Gold100K, AS 1MM, Maika`i Card, AGR, HH Gold, Hertz PC, Marriott Titanium LTG, CO, 7H, BA, 8E
Posts: 42,953
Wirelessly posted (beckoa's BB: Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9810; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.11+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.1.0.694 Mobile Safari/534.11+)
Originally Posted by pdxasflyer
So, here's a dose of really bad news. It'll cause us to rethink some upcoming award planning, as this was a huge money saver for us and one of the benefits we enjoyed the most. Especially in London.
http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.c...auffeur-drive/
http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.c...auffeur-drive/
Jan 7, 2015, 1:52 pm
#1256
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Somewhere over the rainbow
Programs: Airline Free Agent, Bonvoy Platinum, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 3,812
Definitely a bummer but as long as I have a flight on the A380 then life is good 
Jan 7, 2015, 1:56 pm
#1257
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Denver • DEN-APA
Programs: AF Platinum, EK Gold, AA EXP, UA 1K, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 21,603
Why not just stay home and you'll save even more money.
Jan 7, 2015, 2:48 pm
#1258
Join Date: Aug 2012
Programs: HH Diamond, Hyatt Globalist, Marriott Gold, Club Carlson Gold, National EE, *G
Posts: 470
I would agree. I think the real issue is why, after March 2015, are there no awards available for F class long haul unless you beg with a phone representative to look in the "old system? Better yet, why are higher ups telling the representatives not to look at the old system, which clearly has the correct inventory? Chauffeur drive will be a moot point if you can't get the premium seats anymore.
Jan 7, 2015, 4:11 pm
#1259
Join Date: Dec 2008
Programs: Alaska MVP Gold, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 669
Why are you saying there is no availability? I just looked on EF and there is plenty of availability past March. I just looked up random dates in April/May for SFO-DXB and DFW-DXB and there are a lot of Z = 2 open. Are you not reading the previous pages correctly?
Last edited by ffman999; Jan 7, 2015 at 6:10 pm
Jan 7, 2015, 4:16 pm
#1260
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: SEA
Programs: AS 75K
Posts: 759
No availability on AS.com specifically (regardless of what EF says), which means the only way to get a ticked booked through AS is to contact an agent and have them use a different system than the website.