Archer7

Have booked two business class seats from SEA to DXB and then to FCO on Alaska miles. Have never flown Emirates and the reviews are all over the map. On booking we were offered the chauffeur from FCO to Rome, but not from our home near SEA to the airport. Weird. I can't tell if we qualify for Dubai Connect on a mileage partner ticket. My wife and I are both a bit nervous about the logistics and the in-flight experience. Any veterans of this route who can put our minds at ease?

sergad

Have only done F on Emirates so can't comment on Business. As for your other questions, unfortunately the answer is no to both. There have been several comments about the car service and Dubai connect is not offered on AS award tickets.

98103

Get the EK locator from your AS reservation and go to Manage Reservations on the EK site. This will provide all of the chauffeur services that you can book on an award ticket. Contrary to sergad's comment, when I booked WAW-DXB-SEA on a business award ticket, I was able to secure chauffeur service from my hotel in Warsaw to the airport, and to and from my hotel in Dubai during my stopover, and to my residence back in Seattle.

Normally, EK provides overnight lodging for J passengers if there is an overnight layover, but does not provide this on award tickets.

The EK business product is sufficient (book window/aisle), but I think there are better out there, like CX. That said, just about any business class seat is better and more comfortable than coach.

CDKing

Make sure you grab one of the sets of 2 so you don't end up with the dreaded middle seat

macfadsj

I flew EK business class to the Maldives lat year and it was totally acceptable.
Food was decent, flight attendants were good.

SFO777

I would spend the extra 25K and try to move up to First.
I got stuck in J last year on a DXB-JNB 77W when there was only one F seat and Mrs. SFO got it.
Maybe I'm spoiled, OK I am definitely spoiled but after 14 hours in F, it was not the best experience and I had a window seat in the forward cabin.
Also did a much shorter CMB-DXB in J on a two class 77W. Meh.

On a 15 hour flight, J on the A380 would be acceptable but not the 77W, IMO.

MrSkimo

I agree with 98103. We booked a LAX - Dubai - Joberg over Christmas using miles only. I don't recall anyone offering us chaffeur service, but we logged on to manage our booking on Emirates website and made arrangements there for both layover and final destination. On the way home, we had a mechanical delay and they put us up in a hotel.

I thought the window side business seats in business were fantastic on the A380. Loved the standup lounge in the back.

AKCuisine

Sorry to be the bearer of not-so-good news, Archer7. I've flown EK several times from both SEA and from LAX, and I'm booked again for travel in a few months.

1) Chauffeur service has been discontinued for all award tickets as of January. Even though a link may show up, the bookings are invalid.

Read the EK Booking thread and you'll see that one poster was notified at 7 AM that the car they thought they'd arranged for transfer to the airport that day would not be arriving.

Do not plan to have car service provided on J or F awards.


2) Dubai Connect has never been available on partner award tickets.


IIRC, EK flies a B777 on the SEA-DXB route the poster mentioned. it does not have the same J configuration as the A380.

It sounds like you flew on an A380 LAX-DXB MrSkimo, and it has a 1-2-1 configuration. The OP is flying SEA-DXB and J has a 2-3-2 configuration.

Also, the B777 does not have the lounge you referred to in your post.

sejalal

Last year, I flew SEA-DXB-IKA using Alaska miles. Great flight but I was denied access to the Emirates lounge based on some stupid reciprocal agreement between the two airlines. Will no longer waste my miles on Emirates. I'm going to give Etihad a try now.

AKCuisine

Which Emirates lounge refused admittance and what class of service were you flying?

If you were arriving - and not flying out again on EK - lounge access isn't available whether you're on a revenue ticket or an award. Their lounges are only for departing flights and depend on class of service.

There are numerous posts reporting widespread success in using EK departure lounges when flying on award tickets in business or first, especially in DXB where the lounges are wonderful.

IIRC, the only recent post I can recall was someone stating they weren't allowed into the EK lounge inMunich . But that's a single data point, FWIW.

98103

I was initially denied access to the lounge EK uses at WAW, which is not one of theirs. They called EK, and I ended up talking to someone in DXB who indicated the class of travel I was booked in was the same as for staff travel, which is why the invite didn't print out on my boarding card. Once they believed I wasn't an airline employee, the EK person talked to the guardian of the (mediocre) lounge, and I was granted entrance.

WNHHTraveler

AKCuisine is right, chauffeur service is no longer available to AS award tickets. Even if the website allows you to do the booking, Emirates is cancelling these without notifying the traveler. This has been reported and discussed on many of the frequent traveler blogs.

UAPremierExec

mileage tickets no longer get chauffeur or Dubai connect services.

SFO777

Apparently AS tickets are indeed coded similarly to employee tickets, as I was also asked whether I was an EK employee a couple years ago at the B FCL in DXB. After I told dragon no that it was an AS ticket, she welcomed us in. Strange... although nothing surprises me any more with EK.

Archer7

Thanks all for the quick feedback, I really appreciate it even though it isn't what I hoped. It is not the end of the world to get myself to SEA-TAC or to figure out my own arrangements to layover in Dubai, but those extra perks would have been a treat.

As a credit to the Alaska rep who helped me (I am Alaska Gold) she really worked to find business class seats on miles for us. My trip originally originated out of YVR to SEA, but wouldn't book by starting in SEA. We Live In Olympia so going to YVR made no sense. She put me on hold a long time,but came through with confirmed business sea - Dubai then to FCO. Coming home we have BA business from FCO to LHR to Sea.
It has gotten very difficult to get to Europe on Alaska miles in J or F.
I love Alaska,but the mileage perks to fly my wife to Europe in J or F is really important to me and are getting harder to arrange.

I don't under why Alaska's calendar doesn't allow award tickets with no mixed cabin segments. Is Alaskas pull really that weak?