Apr 2, 2016, 9:31 am
Last edit by: eponymous_coward
Emirates award guide using Alaska Airlines miles. Note that Alaska Airlines cannot book EK F any longer- it's just J or Y. F awards were ceased on 3/31/2021.
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.
Only AS and EK can be used for the award.
North American Gateway Cities:
West Coast
Seattle
San Francisco
Los Angeles
Central
Chicago
Dallas
Houston
East Coast
Boston
New York (JFK, EWR)
Washington DC (IAD)
Fort Lauderdale
Orlando
Canada
Toronto
Mexico
Mexico City (via Barcelona)
Award Chart Links*:
Middle East & Africa
Asia
Note: EK flies DXB-HKG-BKK but otherwise it is DXB-final stop
Europe
Note: EK flies JFK-MXP-DXB and EWR-ATH-DXB but otherwise routing will be via DXB
*If region is not listed on chart it's 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.
Only AS and EK can be used for the award.
North American Gateway Cities:
West Coast
Seattle
San Francisco
Los Angeles
Central
Chicago
Dallas
Houston
East Coast
Boston
New York (JFK, EWR)
Washington DC (IAD)
Fort Lauderdale
Orlando
Canada
Toronto
Mexico
Mexico City (via Barcelona)
Award Chart Links*:
Middle East & Africa
Asia
Note: EK flies DXB-HKG-BKK but otherwise it is DXB-final stop
Europe
Note: EK flies JFK-MXP-DXB and EWR-ATH-DXB but otherwise routing will be via DXB
*If region is not listed on chart it's 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 (2016 and Later)
Aug 15, 2016, 6:32 pm
#196
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,395
Aug 16, 2016, 7:28 am
#198
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Mountain Time Zone
Programs: AS Million Miler/Marriott Lifetime Titanium/ IGH Ambassador
Posts: 5,991
One assumes that any seat map at that moment in time reflects which seats are available for selection. Not sure why an airline would show seats open when their computer knows their sold.
Aug 16, 2016, 10:01 pm
#199
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: 6km East of EPAYE
Programs: UA Silver, AA Platinum, AS & DL GM Marriott TE, Hilton Gold
Posts: 9,582
All airline seat maps are imperfect, and EK is no exception. I don't doubt that open seats are shown as open, but you can never rely on seat maps to show how many seats are or aren't booked.
Aug 21, 2016, 7:46 am
#200
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Netherlands
Programs: HH Diamond, Hyatt Diamond, Hertz 5*, SPG Gold, Carlson Gold, Marriott Gold
Posts: 25
Aug 22, 2016, 11:59 am
#201
Join Date: Nov 2012
Posts: 22
So I luckily booked a one way first class award from JFK-DEL via EK on 3/27/16 for a 2/20/17 flight for 90,000 AS miles, knowing full well I could change the ticket without any fees. Lucky for me this was before the unannounced devaluation.
I need to change my ticket however and haven't been getting anywhere with AS customer service reps. There doesn't seem to be any award availability to Del via AS, and any change to the destination will change the award redemption from 90,000 miles to 150,000 miles. If I'm able to find a flight to Delhi I'll be able to make the one time change w/ no add'l miles needed.
There are plenty of award flights to Mumbai, but no EK flights to Del, only British Airways.
I'm able to see (Z) first class avails on Expert Flyer to Dubai on 3/4 from JFK, and I'm able to find a 3/6 economy flight (x partner award availability) to Delhi on 3/6. Should the agent be able to see this award availability? I have up until Dec 20th to make the change, but I've been checking daily and haven't found any EK award avails to Del.
I need to change my ticket however and haven't been getting anywhere with AS customer service reps. There doesn't seem to be any award availability to Del via AS, and any change to the destination will change the award redemption from 90,000 miles to 150,000 miles. If I'm able to find a flight to Delhi I'll be able to make the one time change w/ no add'l miles needed.
There are plenty of award flights to Mumbai, but no EK flights to Del, only British Airways.
I'm able to see (Z) first class avails on Expert Flyer to Dubai on 3/4 from JFK, and I'm able to find a 3/6 economy flight (x partner award availability) to Delhi on 3/6. Should the agent be able to see this award availability? I have up until Dec 20th to make the change, but I've been checking daily and haven't found any EK award avails to Del.
Aug 22, 2016, 12:23 pm
#202
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,395
So I luckily booked a one way first class award from JFK-DEL via EK on 3/27/16 for a 2/20/17 flight for 90,000 AS miles, knowing full well I could change the ticket without any fees. Lucky for me this was before the unannounced devaluation.
I need to change my ticket however and haven't been getting anywhere with AS customer service reps. There doesn't seem to be any award availability to Del via AS, and any change to the destination will change the award redemption from 90,000 miles to 150,000 miles. If I'm able to find a flight to Delhi I'll be able to make the one time change w/ no add'l miles needed.
There are plenty of award flights to Mumbai, but no EK flights to Del, only British Airways.
I'm able to see (Z) first class avails on Expert Flyer to Dubai on 3/4 from JFK, and I'm able to find a 3/6 economy flight (x partner award availability) to Delhi on 3/6. Should the agent be able to see this award availability? I have up until Dec 20th to make the change, but I've been checking daily and haven't found any EK award avails to Del.
I need to change my ticket however and haven't been getting anywhere with AS customer service reps. There doesn't seem to be any award availability to Del via AS, and any change to the destination will change the award redemption from 90,000 miles to 150,000 miles. If I'm able to find a flight to Delhi I'll be able to make the one time change w/ no add'l miles needed.
There are plenty of award flights to Mumbai, but no EK flights to Del, only British Airways.
I'm able to see (Z) first class avails on Expert Flyer to Dubai on 3/4 from JFK, and I'm able to find a 3/6 economy flight (x partner award availability) to Delhi on 3/6. Should the agent be able to see this award availability? I have up until Dec 20th to make the change, but I've been checking daily and haven't found any EK award avails to Del.
Aug 22, 2016, 1:01 pm
#203
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: SF
Programs: UA MM, AA 2MM, Bonvoy LTP, HH Dia
Posts: 1,132
I've had different experiences... as recently as last week. AS website has bugs-- particularly when it comes to changing tickets. Definitely doesn't hurt to call and ask if they can see what you do on Expertflyer.
Aug 22, 2016, 1:50 pm
#204
Join Date: Nov 2012
Posts: 22
Thanks @eponymous_coward & @ps9a that's helpful.
Curious why I was able to book an award on that route to Del, but now it doesn't look like there is any availability at all on that route at all for weeks in either direction via the AS website.
Curious why I was able to book an award on that route to Del, but now it doesn't look like there is any availability at all on that route at all for weeks in either direction via the AS website.
Aug 22, 2016, 1:55 pm
#205
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,395
There were well-documented shortcuts that existed a while back, but those went away (AS reps have been told by management NOT to do manual/long sells of EK award inventory after this got publicized as a workaround on FT/blogs and EK told AS to knock it off- the details are buried somewhere in the old EK award thread, probably).
So if it's not there on the website and AS reps aren't seeing it using their tools (which are generally based off of the website), it's not going to happen. Whether or not there's Z or X on EF is irrelevant. OP can play HUCA I suppose but there's no magic wand of "make my award appear for me" here.
Aug 22, 2016, 3:04 pm
#206
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: 6km East of EPAYE
Programs: UA Silver, AA Platinum, AS & DL GM Marriott TE, Hilton Gold
Posts: 9,582
Bananastand1984 you just need to wait until you get closer. AS can not and will not open seats for any of us.
I did something similar booking far out, waiting for my 1 change. It's all part of the risk/ game/ fun
I did something similar booking far out, waiting for my 1 change. It's all part of the risk/ game/ fun
Aug 22, 2016, 3:35 pm
#207
Join Date: Nov 2012
Posts: 22
@madone59 seems like AS has solid award space on EK through 2/19/17 to DEL, I'm crossing my fingers they open up for 3/4 soon, although I've been checking for the past 3 months with no luck. Do you have any add'l information as to when they might open up award space on EK? I'm 197 days out, which is still a decent amount of time. I have 137 days for them to open it before I have to cancel the ticket.
Aug 22, 2016, 6:54 pm
#209
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: 6km East of EPAYE
Programs: UA Silver, AA Platinum, AS & DL GM Marriott TE, Hilton Gold
Posts: 9,582
. Have you looked at other US departure cities and just positioning?
Aug 23, 2016, 7:38 am
#210
Join Date: Nov 2012
Posts: 22
@madone59 I have not, but I feel like I'm going to deal with the same issues of changing my ticket since the departure airport would then change (or does that not matter?) JFK seems to have a bunch of flights, I'm hoping AS gets their .... together and opens up that award space.