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)
Feb 16, 2018, 7:42 am
#391
Join Date: Apr 2014
Programs: Hilton - Diamond, IHG - Spire Amb
Posts: 901
Success ... partially.
Monitoring at the very beginning of the booking window I saw availability for EK LAX-DXB-MLE. I repeated the search for 2 passengers and it still showed for the times that I wanted.
Of note, I appear to have been able to book past the booking window - intra us flights were not available (only available 1 day prior to the EK flight). The initial date selection allowed to 1/xx/2019, but when award calendar displayed, 1/xx+1/2019 was selectable. And final arrival is 1/xx+3/2019.
Per my question a bit above that was answered, it is my understanding that I can call alaska to add intra us connections for no additional fee, and upgrade my wife from business to first when available?
And then just monitor with Expertflyer for 1st availability? (despite some of the reports of phantom space above?) Or does anyone use awardnexus etc?
Monitoring at the very beginning of the booking window I saw availability for EK LAX-DXB-MLE. I repeated the search for 2 passengers and it still showed for the times that I wanted.
- Load up google chrome for myself, and IE for my wife.
- repeat the search for 1 person in each window
- click forward a step in each window.
- pay in google chrome
- click pay in IE
- Person 1 completes, person 2 get red message saying unable to confirm availability and despite several tries it fails
- I finally just did person 2 in business hoping that 1st will show up in the next 10-11 months.
Of note, I appear to have been able to book past the booking window - intra us flights were not available (only available 1 day prior to the EK flight). The initial date selection allowed to 1/xx/2019, but when award calendar displayed, 1/xx+1/2019 was selectable. And final arrival is 1/xx+3/2019.
Per my question a bit above that was answered, it is my understanding that I can call alaska to add intra us connections for no additional fee, and upgrade my wife from business to first when available?
And then just monitor with Expertflyer for 1st availability? (despite some of the reports of phantom space above?) Or does anyone use awardnexus etc?
Feb 20, 2018, 7:36 am
#392
Join Date: Apr 2014
Programs: Hilton - Diamond, IHG - Spire Amb
Posts: 901
Well, no replies from my last post but I'll post a follow up question to see if anyone has advice.
I'm torn between moving on flights later one day and attempting the Monday for the apparent 2 seats, versus continuing to hold out hope for another seat in 1st showing up in either LAX or SFO. Neither I nor my wife wants to fly out of separate airports for the US-DXB leg.
Does anyone have any sage advice to share?
- Evidently, once a flight is booked with emirates, you can't modify any leg without releasing the inventory and rebooking according the Alaska partner desk.
- I'm currently stuck with 1st for me LAX-DXB-MLE, but no availability out of LAX for my wife.
- So I changed hers to SFO-DXB-MLE With SFO-DXB in 1st and DXB-MLE in business.
- There appears to be only 1 seat in 1st out of LAX or SFO on that sunday.
- Searches for Monday show 2 seats when searched, but that is what happened when I went to search for SFO that 2 seats showed and then the partner desk could not get both seats to confirm and could only confirm 1 seat in 1st.
I'm torn between moving on flights later one day and attempting the Monday for the apparent 2 seats, versus continuing to hold out hope for another seat in 1st showing up in either LAX or SFO. Neither I nor my wife wants to fly out of separate airports for the US-DXB leg.
Does anyone have any sage advice to share?
Feb 20, 2018, 9:08 pm
#393
Join Date: Jan 2010
Programs: UA, AS
Posts: 2,393
Well, no replies from my last post but I'll post a follow up question to see if anyone has advice.
Does anyone have any sage advice to share?
- Evidently, once a flight is booked with emirates, you can't modify any leg without releasing the inventory and rebooking according the Alaska partner desk.
- I'm currently stuck with 1st for me LAX-DXB-MLE, but no availability out of LAX for my wife.
- So I changed hers to SFO-DXB-MLE With SFO-DXB in 1st and DXB-MLE in business.
- There appears to be only 1 seat in 1st out of LAX or SFO on that sunday.
- Searches for Monday show 2 seats when searched, but that is what happened when I went to search for SFO that 2 seats showed and then the partner desk could not get both seats to confirm and could only confirm 1 seat in 1st.
Does anyone have any sage advice to share?
ETA:
Also, I have never done an EK award but regarding the AS comment that they must release the whole award to rebook on EK. I would question that. If you go to manage your wife's reservation online and select to change flights will it allow you to change only the first segment online? If it does I would try that. There is some risk involved but if the online change tool let me do it I would try it. At least some partner airlines are able to modify segments individually online. It may come back with a message for you to call in which is not by itself an indicator of a serious problem.
Last edited by skimthetrees; Feb 20, 2018 at 9:22 pm
Feb 21, 2018, 10:00 am
#394
Join Date: Apr 2014
Programs: Hilton - Diamond, IHG - Spire Amb
Posts: 901
What date are you looking at? EF is showing 2 F on all of 1/6,1/7,1/8 right now LAX-DXB. It sounds from your timeline you might be on the 1/6 flight now? There should be 2F seats on these although that is not a guarantee AS can see them. If you are flexible and can move dates then ask AS what is available.
ETA:
Also, I have never done an EK award but regarding the AS comment that they must release the whole award to rebook on EK. I would question that. If you go to manage your wife's reservation online and select to change flights will it allow you to change only the first segment online? If it does I would try that. There is some risk involved but if the online change tool let me do it I would try it. At least some partner airlines are able to modify segments individually online. It may come back with a message for you to call in which is not by itself an indicator of a serious problem.
ETA:
Also, I have never done an EK award but regarding the AS comment that they must release the whole award to rebook on EK. I would question that. If you go to manage your wife's reservation online and select to change flights will it allow you to change only the first segment online? If it does I would try that. There is some risk involved but if the online change tool let me do it I would try it. At least some partner airlines are able to modify segments individually online. It may come back with a message for you to call in which is not by itself an indicator of a serious problem.
We called last night and got a delightful gal who was able to modify both of our reservations. Now we both are MSP-SEA-SFO-DXB-MLE in 1st on all legs except the SEA-SFO leg (which we are waitlisted for). I was really excited about getting the A380 1st class, but now I see the 1st class on the new 777-300ER on the DXB-MLE route and I think (this is heresy right?) that that looks better!
The wonderful agent we spoke with was unable at first to get the DXB-MLE leg changed from business to first for my wife despite it showing available. After I hung up, she call my phone back within 2 minutes - she had kept trying several times after I hung up and got it to confirm!!!! I was so ecstatic. She really went above and beyond.
Some notes for others
- Yes, they can modify a reservation without releasing the inventory . I had 1st LAX-DXB-MLE, and we dropped the LAX-DXB leg and replaced with SFO-DXB while keeping me in the DXB-MLE 1st class seat.
- trust expertflyer and not the alaska web site. Expertflyer showed availability for SFO-DXB but a search on alaska didn't show it. I called just to see, and sure enough the partner desk saw availability and moved me from LAX to SFO. Similarly, expertflyer showed another DXB-MLE 1st class seat that alaskaair didn't show.
- We were able to initially book the first class on EK on the website without our positioning legs and then the partner desk was able to add those later.
- Even if EK initially comes back to the agent with unconfirmed, they can keep trying, and on the third try it confirmed.
Feb 21, 2018, 11:11 am
#395
Join Date: Jan 2010
Programs: UA, AS
Posts: 2,393
That's fantastic news Carl! Glad it worked out for you. You should double confirm everything to make sure there are no issues. Make sure Alaska has issued both your tickets (13 digit ticket number assigned, not just a PNR). When you pull up your booking on the AS website you should see a " E-ticket: 027xxxxxxxxxx" under the passenger information for each passenger. Get the Emirates PNR from AS (probably shows in your AS res as "Emirates confirmation code: xxxxxx"?) and retrieve your reservations on the emirates website and make sure it looks OK there too.
Try pulling up your reservations on CheckMyTrip using the Emirates PNR (not sure it will work but if it does this should show any problems):
https://classic.checkmytrip.com/plne...&SITE=XCMTXXNS
Try pulling up your reservations on CheckMyTrip using the Emirates PNR (not sure it will work but if it does this should show any problems):
https://classic.checkmytrip.com/plne...&SITE=XCMTXXNS
Feb 21, 2018, 12:11 pm
#396
Join Date: Apr 2014
Programs: Hilton - Diamond, IHG - Spire Amb
Posts: 901
That's fantastic news Carl! Glad it worked out for you. You should double confirm everything to make sure there are no issues. Make sure Alaska has issued both your tickets (13 digit ticket number assigned, not just a PNR). When you pull up your booking on the AS website you should see a " E-ticket: 027xxxxxxxxxx" under the passenger information for each passenger. Get the Emirates PNR from AS (probably shows in your AS res as "Emirates confirmation code: xxxxxx"?) and retrieve your reservations on the emirates website and make sure it looks OK there too.
Try pulling up your reservations on CheckMyTrip using the Emirates PNR (not sure it will work but if it does this should show any problems):
https://classic.checkmytrip.com/plne...&SITE=XCMTXXNS
Try pulling up your reservations on CheckMyTrip using the Emirates PNR (not sure it will work but if it does this should show any problems):
https://classic.checkmytrip.com/plne...&SITE=XCMTXXNS
Apr 17, 2018, 9:36 am
#397
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: New York
Programs: AA EXP, Hyatt Globalist, Marriott Titanium
Posts: 260
Does EK impose blackout dates on award travel? Trying to book EX-US flights in mid-december but I'm seeing a big fat nothing on every ex-US flight from 12/13 to 12/31. Is this a yearly thing they do, and do they ever reopen space as the period draws near?
Apr 17, 2018, 10:30 am
#398
Join Date: Mar 2016
Location: LAX
Programs: AS MVPG, IHG Diamond Elite
Posts: 1,445
Does anyone know if the AS EK Awards (First/Business itinerary) include the Dubai Connect benefit? I have a LAX-DXB (F) and DXB-HND (J) award for May, and wondering if I can get them to pay for a hotel for the ~12 hr layover.. I'm assuming not since I've been hearing the Chauffer-drive service is not offered to pax on AS awards, but figured I'd check if anyone had been successful.
Also, anyone know if I might be able to snag an F seat for the DXB - HND flight as well since the itin priced as a F award? Would I just monitor for Z fare availability from ExpertFlyer and call in to AS to re-ticket if it becomes available?
Also, anyone know if I might be able to snag an F seat for the DXB - HND flight as well since the itin priced as a F award? Would I just monitor for Z fare availability from ExpertFlyer and call in to AS to re-ticket if it becomes available?
Apr 17, 2018, 11:41 am
#399
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: BOS/ORH
Programs: AS 75K
Posts: 18,323
Does anyone know if the AS EK Awards (First/Business itinerary) include the Dubai Connect benefit? I have a LAX-DXB (F) and DXB-HND (J) award for May, and wondering if I can get them to pay for a hotel for the ~12 hr layover.. I'm assuming not since I've been hearing the Chauffer-drive service is not offered to pax on AS awards, but figured I'd check if anyone had been successful.
Also, anyone know if I might be able to snag an F seat for the DXB - HND flight as well since the itin priced as a F award? Would I just monitor for Z fare availability from ExpertFlyer and call in to AS to re-ticket if it becomes available?
Also, anyone know if I might be able to snag an F seat for the DXB - HND flight as well since the itin priced as a F award? Would I just monitor for Z fare availability from ExpertFlyer and call in to AS to re-ticket if it becomes available?
Apr 17, 2018, 12:05 pm
#400
Join Date: Mar 2016
Location: LAX
Programs: AS MVPG, IHG Diamond Elite
Posts: 1,445
Apr 17, 2018, 1:00 pm
#401
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: BOS/ORH
Programs: AS 75K
Posts: 18,323
Apr 18, 2018, 7:40 pm
#402
Join Date: Jan 2010
Programs: UA, AS
Posts: 2,393
Not that I have heard of. I do notice that AS has no EK availability in that time frame. There is not a lot but QF does show some EK availability in that range so there is either a problem or a block with AS EK space. Call AS to find out which it is. If there is a block it is most likely on the AS side since other partners are seeing some space. If it is an AS block that would be disturbing because if they have decided to block it in December they might decide to block it other times of the year.
Apr 19, 2018, 3:43 am
#403
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: New York
Programs: AA EXP, Hyatt Globalist, Marriott Titanium
Posts: 260
Not that I have heard of. I do notice that AS has no EK availability in that time frame. There is not a lot but QF does show some EK availability in that range so there is either a problem or a block with AS EK space. Call AS to find out which it is. If there is a block it is most likely on the AS side since other partners are seeing some space. If it is an AS block that would be disturbing because if they have decided to block it in December they might decide to block it other times of the year.
Apr 21, 2018, 12:18 am
#404
Join Date: Jan 2010
Programs: UA, AS
Posts: 2,393
Although, on further searching, I did find something. I doubt AS could book it though since it appears to be a married segment. QF shows ATL(AA)-JFK(EK)-DXB available on 12/16.
Last edited by skimthetrees; Apr 21, 2018 at 12:37 am
Apr 21, 2018, 9:52 am
#405
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: BOS/ORH
Programs: AS 75K
Posts: 18,323
Its 2 awards since you cant mix and match partners.