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 7, 2015, 4:32 pm
#1261
Join Date: Jun 2005
Programs: AS MVPG
Posts: 2,209
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.
If EK got fed up with AS for circumventing the agreement, I could see them further cracking down on availability.
Jan 7, 2015, 5:17 pm
#1262
Join Date: Aug 2012
Programs: HH Diamond, Hyatt Globalist, Marriott Gold, Club Carlson Gold, National EE, *G
Posts: 470
I'd say no availability is quite a crack down already. What restrictions are you speaking of that EK wanted to have specifically on AS awards?
Jan 7, 2015, 5:17 pm
#1263
Join Date: Aug 2012
Programs: HH Diamond, Hyatt Globalist, Marriott Gold, Club Carlson Gold, National EE, *G
Posts: 470
I presume you mean EF? LwoodY2K sufficiently explains my point.
Jan 7, 2015, 5:41 pm
#1264
Join Date: Jun 2005
Programs: AS MVPG
Posts: 2,209
The availability shown by the website is the availability that's suppose to be for AS awards. That's what an AS employee said, I don't think there is anything public about the actual details.
Jan 7, 2015, 7:18 pm
#1265
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: SFO
Programs: VS Gold
Posts: 1,178
Perhaps the clever folks at the respective airlines have noticed the workarounds being discussed on FT, and are making an effort to reenforce the new SOP's that they intended.
Jan 7, 2015, 8:33 pm
#1266
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: BOS/ORH
Programs: AS 75K
Posts: 18,323
I still think EK is broken. Even if it is on AS site there is no guarantee it will work
Jan 7, 2015, 9:03 pm
#1267
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Austin, Texas
Programs: Airline nobody. Sad!
Posts: 26,062
. He's smugly proud of having four, but I've pulled an even better maneuver than that. And no, I won't be detailing it on the internet 
.
Jan 8, 2015, 8:44 am
#1268
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: ANC
Programs: AS; Hyatt; Bonvoy
Posts: 1,718
That's what I was implying, that perhaps EK just said "no more after March" or something. But FWIW, I did check a random date in April and saw business class available JFK-DXB. I've got no insider knowledge or anything, just that this sort of thing has happened before. Even at 100K AS miles, it's a pretty good deal for an EK F seat.
The availability shown by the website is the availability that's suppose to be for AS awards. That's what an AS employee said, I don't think there is anything public about the actual details.
The availability shown by the website is the availability that's suppose to be for AS awards. That's what an AS employee said, I don't think there is anything public about the actual details.
My online EK "Manage Booking" pages include the chauffeur drive links as they have for previous travel on the airline. I guess I made it in under the wire ...
Jan 8, 2015, 5:42 pm
#1269
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: LAX
Posts: 301
Is anyone else having issues with EK inventory showing on ExpertFlyer?? I'm used to the Alaska site not showing the correct inventory, but all of a sudden a bunch of flights on different dates out of different cities that I've been monitoring daily for weeks that have been Z=1 or Z=2 are ALL returning "No Entries." Hopefully a glitch???
Jan 8, 2015, 7:47 pm
#1271
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: LAX
Posts: 301
Looking at Z inventory - which as I said had gone from a lot of Z=1 and Z=2 to nothing all of a sudden. But! Edit! Upon my latest check (of course I've been obsessing over this for the last two hours - my bf is SO close to the 90k needed to get on my SFO-MLE itinerary!), it appears the inventory that had disappeared across my many saved queries is back!
Jan 11, 2015, 8:57 am
#1272
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Florida
Programs: Hyatt Diamond. SPG Plat. Marriott Plat.
Posts: 522
I'm seeing a lot of availability again past March... Anyone else?
Jan 11, 2015, 9:47 am
#1274
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Florida
Programs: Hyatt Diamond. SPG Plat. Marriott Plat.
Posts: 522
Jan 11, 2015, 10:07 am
#1275
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: BOS/ORH
Programs: AS 75K
Posts: 18,323