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)
May 18, 2016, 10:32 am
#106
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Mountain Time Zone
Programs: AS Million Miler/Marriott Lifetime Titanium/ IGH Ambassador
Posts: 5,992
May 18, 2016, 11:34 am
#107
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: SF
Programs: UA MM, AA 2MM, Bonvoy LTP, HH Dia
Posts: 1,132
It would be quite easy to only allow elite flyers to buy AS miles. More drastically, AS could quit selling miles at such attractive prices to all flyers. They could even end the SPG/AS transfer partnership and torch their BAC credit card partnership.
Any and all of these actions would make elite status more valuable on AS and please the subset of AS flyers that doesn't like sharing it's mileage program with card spenders/churners and mile buyers.
Alas, they're not going to take any of these actions, because the money they make selling miles to BAC, SPG, and members directly more than offsets the annoyance of flyers who earn all of their miles from flying.
15 years ago, it was difficult to amass large mileage balances without airline loyalty. Today, it's quite easy.
May 18, 2016, 12:00 pm
#108
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: 6km East of EPAYE
Programs: UA Silver, AA Platinum, AS & DL GM Marriott TE, Hilton Gold
Posts: 9,582
May 18, 2016, 12:26 pm
#109
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: SF
Programs: UA MM, AA 2MM, Bonvoy LTP, HH Dia
Posts: 1,132
My Order
Purchase Information
Number of Miles 60,000 miles
Bonus Miles 30,000 bonus Miles
Total Miles 90,000 miles
Cost of Miles $1,650.00 USD
Tax Recovery Fee $123.75 USD
Total $1,773.75 USD
2cpm is not all that different from other airlines, so if you're making a semantic argument, I guess I could say that Alaska could start selling miles at "less attractive" prices... or simply "ugly" prices. If that's better, please mentally cut/paste. My argument, however, is that Alaska is selling miles, because they can make money doing it. And then they raised prices on EK alone-- possibly EK raised monetary rates on AS for their redemptions... possibly EK threated to end their partnership... possibly EK just voiced frustration with the number of people sitting up front on AS awards.
All of that is noise. I strongly believe their decision to raise EK awards had nothing to do with Alaska and their relationships with their most loyal flyers and everything to do with the finances and future of their relationship with EK.
Last edited by ps9a; May 18, 2016 at 12:38 pm
May 18, 2016, 1:05 pm
#110
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Mountain Time Zone
Programs: AS Million Miler/Marriott Lifetime Titanium/ IGH Ambassador
Posts: 5,992
I'm not sure that Alaska's Mileage Plan exists primarily to reward those "that are loyal and fly a lot." Granted, making this subset of flyers feel special can entice them to continue flying AS. And some flyers will remain loyal to an airline because that airline makes them feel feel valued. On the other end of the spectrum, some fly an airline simply because it is the most convenient given their flying patterns from their home airport--they'd prefer not to connect en-route to their final destination.
It would be quite easy to only allow elite flyers to buy AS miles. More drastically, AS could quit selling miles at such attractive prices to all flyers. They could even end the SPG/AS transfer partnership and torch their BAC credit card partnership.
Any and all of these actions would make elite status more valuable on AS and please the subset of AS flyers that doesn't like sharing it's mileage program with card spenders/churners and mile buyers.
Alas, they're not going to take any of these actions, because the money they make selling miles to BAC, SPG, and members directly more than offsets the annoyance of flyers who earn all of their miles from flying.
15 years ago, it was difficult to amass large mileage balances without airline loyalty. Today, it's quite easy.
It would be quite easy to only allow elite flyers to buy AS miles. More drastically, AS could quit selling miles at such attractive prices to all flyers. They could even end the SPG/AS transfer partnership and torch their BAC credit card partnership.
Any and all of these actions would make elite status more valuable on AS and please the subset of AS flyers that doesn't like sharing it's mileage program with card spenders/churners and mile buyers.
Alas, they're not going to take any of these actions, because the money they make selling miles to BAC, SPG, and members directly more than offsets the annoyance of flyers who earn all of their miles from flying.
15 years ago, it was difficult to amass large mileage balances without airline loyalty. Today, it's quite easy.
But as it is things are changing but still the bloggers and scammers did play a role in the decision as has and is in other programs. Frankly I wish it would all go back to the original format, revenue based. That would end all this crap.
And if one has a AMEX PLT their two for one is a great deal
May 18, 2016, 2:20 pm
#111
Join Date: Oct 2014
Location: Bay Area, CA
Programs: Currently: UA 1K | Previously: AS MVPG75K, SPG Gold, Kimpton IC, HH Gold
Posts: 144
Admittedly the wrong place to ask this. But can you be more specific on the Amex Plat good deal? I have one and I can't figure out if it's worth it. Are you referring to the buy-2-full-fare-tickets-for-price-of-1-full-fare deal? That always struck me as a bad deal, as one can get discounted premium tickets. (Or so I thought...)
May 18, 2016, 7:38 pm
#112
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: BOS/ORH
Programs: AS 75K
Posts: 18,323
The Problem is AS doesn't have an annual cap on purchasing miles like any other carrier. Its harder to abuse other programs. If you had enough credit cards, money and time you could buy millions of miles a year.
May 19, 2016, 6:07 am
#113
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Mountain Time Zone
Programs: AS Million Miler/Marriott Lifetime Titanium/ IGH Ambassador
Posts: 5,992
Admittedly the wrong place to ask this. But can you be more specific on the Amex Plat good deal? I have one and I can't figure out if it's worth it. Are you referring to the buy-2-full-fare-tickets-for-price-of-1-full-fare deal? That always struck me as a bad deal, as one can get discounted premium tickets. (Or so I thought...)
will let you know the outcome
May 19, 2016, 7:10 pm
#115
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Mountain Time Zone
Programs: AS Million Miler/Marriott Lifetime Titanium/ IGH Ambassador
Posts: 5,992
May 19, 2016, 11:07 pm
#116
Join Date: Jan 2001
Posts: 2,841
On two occasions this year, I've booked two business class seats on AF/KL: YVR-AMS-CPT-CDG-YVR for less than $2,300 USD per ticket.
Last edited by flytoeat; May 19, 2016 at 11:25 pm
May 30, 2016, 4:55 pm
#117
Join Date: Feb 2015
Posts: 109
Question about married segments:
My understanding is that EK award travel on AS uses married segments. From what I understand this means if you change one leg you must change the flight(and hope availability exists for the leg you didn't want to change). The Alaska website forces this when doing a flight change. That said I hit some odd behavior :
I have a flight in Feb from SFO--DXB(layover 4 days)--MLE that I had booked in First for the A380 and business for the MLE leg.
Today, Expertflyer gave me notice that first opened on the leg to MLE. Doing a search on their website, no first was available in SFO, but was from LAX. I figured I would just take a positioning flight, so I went ahead to the change flight interface.
One of my options actually kept my SFO leg in first, despite the website showing no availability on that leg, and Expertflyer showing the same. It let me confirm this. How is this possible? I actually just logged in and checked, and of the options if I were to change again, it still lets me keep that SFO flight without seats available.
I've confirmed on EK that the rebooking went fine. So what gives? Is EK now allowing splitting segments again?
My understanding is that EK award travel on AS uses married segments. From what I understand this means if you change one leg you must change the flight(and hope availability exists for the leg you didn't want to change). The Alaska website forces this when doing a flight change. That said I hit some odd behavior :
I have a flight in Feb from SFO--DXB(layover 4 days)--MLE that I had booked in First for the A380 and business for the MLE leg.
Today, Expertflyer gave me notice that first opened on the leg to MLE. Doing a search on their website, no first was available in SFO, but was from LAX. I figured I would just take a positioning flight, so I went ahead to the change flight interface.
One of my options actually kept my SFO leg in first, despite the website showing no availability on that leg, and Expertflyer showing the same. It let me confirm this. How is this possible? I actually just logged in and checked, and of the options if I were to change again, it still lets me keep that SFO flight without seats available.
I've confirmed on EK that the rebooking went fine. So what gives? Is EK now allowing splitting segments again?
May 30, 2016, 6:59 pm
#118
Community Director Emerita
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Anywhere warm
Posts: 33,755
I have a flight in Feb from SFO--DXB(layover 4 days)--MLE that I had booked in First for the A380 and business for the MLE leg.
Today, Expertflyer gave me notice that first opened on the leg to MLE. Doing a search on their website, no first was available in SFO, but was from LAX. I figured I would just take a positioning flight, so I went ahead to the change flight interface.
One of my options actually kept my SFO leg in first, despite the website showing no availability on that leg, and Expertflyer showing the same. It let me confirm this. How is this possible? I actually just logged in and checked, and of the options if I were to change again, it still lets me keep that SFO flight without seats available.
I've confirmed on EK that the rebooking went fine. So what gives? Is EK now allowing splitting segments again?
Today, Expertflyer gave me notice that first opened on the leg to MLE. Doing a search on their website, no first was available in SFO, but was from LAX. I figured I would just take a positioning flight, so I went ahead to the change flight interface.
One of my options actually kept my SFO leg in first, despite the website showing no availability on that leg, and Expertflyer showing the same. It let me confirm this. How is this possible? I actually just logged in and checked, and of the options if I were to change again, it still lets me keep that SFO flight without seats available.
I've confirmed on EK that the rebooking went fine. So what gives? Is EK now allowing splitting segments again?
May 30, 2016, 7:11 pm
#119
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Mountain Time Zone
Programs: AS Million Miler/Marriott Lifetime Titanium/ IGH Ambassador
Posts: 5,992
Did you do the change on the Alaska website or the Emirates website? The change would need to be done via Alaska as the ticket is issued on their stock. That might be indeed what you did, but I was unaware it could be done online. If so, this is very interesting information.
May 30, 2016, 8:36 pm
#120
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: SF
Programs: UA MM, AA 2MM, Bonvoy LTP, HH Dia
Posts: 1,132
Question about married segments:
My understanding is that EK award travel on AS uses married segments. From what I understand this means if you change one leg you must change the flight(and hope availability exists for the leg you didn't want to change). The Alaska website forces this when doing a flight change. That said I hit some odd behavior :
I have a flight in Feb from SFO--DXB(layover 4 days)--MLE that I had booked in First for the A380 and business for the MLE leg.
Today, Expertflyer gave me notice that first opened on the leg to MLE. Doing a search on their website, no first was available in SFO, but was from LAX. I figured I would just take a positioning flight, so I went ahead to the change flight interface.
One of my options actually kept my SFO leg in first, despite the website showing no availability on that leg, and Expertflyer showing the same. It let me confirm this. How is this possible? I actually just logged in and checked, and of the options if I were to change again, it still lets me keep that SFO flight without seats available.
I've confirmed on EK that the rebooking went fine. So what gives? Is EK now allowing splitting segments again?
My understanding is that EK award travel on AS uses married segments. From what I understand this means if you change one leg you must change the flight(and hope availability exists for the leg you didn't want to change). The Alaska website forces this when doing a flight change. That said I hit some odd behavior :
I have a flight in Feb from SFO--DXB(layover 4 days)--MLE that I had booked in First for the A380 and business for the MLE leg.
Today, Expertflyer gave me notice that first opened on the leg to MLE. Doing a search on their website, no first was available in SFO, but was from LAX. I figured I would just take a positioning flight, so I went ahead to the change flight interface.
One of my options actually kept my SFO leg in first, despite the website showing no availability on that leg, and Expertflyer showing the same. It let me confirm this. How is this possible? I actually just logged in and checked, and of the options if I were to change again, it still lets me keep that SFO flight without seats available.
I've confirmed on EK that the rebooking went fine. So what gives? Is EK now allowing splitting segments again?