ffman999

I have a partner award reservation in March on EK that has turned in a cluster. The intentional portion of my reservation has been changed dramatically and I’m not having much help with AS. Curious if you’ve ran into this problem or have ideas on how to help.

The outbound portion of my journey was automatically rescheduled for two and now three days after my initial departure (which conflicts with a previously booked hotel reservation I have). Then the inbound portion was been partially cancelled to where I have a flight from MLE-DXB, but no flight at all from DXB-SFO. Alaska didn’t even warn me about this, I just looked on the EK app and I got a notice.

When I’ve contacted Alaska they said there is nothing they can do except downgrade me to Economy (was booked in J). I get these are extraordinary circumstances, but I’ve also had AS res agents call the partner airline and pull strings before to make schedule situations like these right in the past. No offers along those lines this time.

Any advice? Has something similar happened to you?

eponymous_coward

Have you looked for EK award inventory anywhere else in the USA? Presumably what’s happened is EK has cancelled your outbound to DXB and inbound DXB-SFO on your date. What are you looking for? Is SFO your final destination or origin? What’s your full itinerary? What exactly are you looking for here? Is the problem there is zero EK award inventory for the US on your desired dates and classes of service, or do you not have a way to get to the EK flights you want to replace the cancelled ones?

Yes, I’ve had to deal with flight cancellations during COVID... usually it helps if you can research some options (it’s an EK award so you should even be able to fix it online if you want). Generally schedules aren’t being locked down until maybe a couple months before departure so if you’re booking assuming your plans for half a year or more away is going to stay the same... well, it probably won’t. It may even change more between now and then, though I think EK has full winter schedules now). The more you can help yourself the better.

http://aeronauticsonline.com/emirate...nter-schedule/

https://www.routesonline.com/news/38...00gmt-24sep20/

Oh, the other difference between now and then is there wasn’t a pandemic that’s consistently been scrambling schedules, removing service and generally screwing things up.

(I’d try for LAX or NYC, those seem to be the routes EK is most likely to run. Maybe ask Customer Care for a solid if agents aren’t much help?)

jsguyrus

Everyone has dealt with similar problems if they have tried to fly internationally in the last six months. I have dealt with both BA and AA changing flights and it can be difficult. I have found the Alaska agents to be very helpful and spent way more time helping me than they probably should. The key is do your research ahead of time so you know what's available and what to ask for.

sfozrhfco

March is a LONG time from now given the current state of air travel. Even if you are able to work something out now, the chances are not good that a flight with multiple connections would operate as scheduled. No airline flying from the US has any idea yet what international flight schedules will look like in March. Many airlines are still working on October and November--and even those are subject to last minute changes. Be prepared to go through the rescheduling process many times between now and then and be prepared to change to another destination if your desired flights end up getting cancelled or your passport is no longer welcome to travel to your connecting point or final destination due to the pandemic.

It is really not worth booking partner flights months in advance given the circumstances unless you have a lot of flexibility and time to kill rescheduling everything multiple times.

rune87

I've had my tickets changed 7 times now for a trip. AS has always been good with working to get it corrected, but I was also told by the agent that at this point most of their foreign partners are adopting a "Just cancel and try again once things settle" approach and not offering much flexibility anymore. Nobody knows what scheduled look like.

nomiiiii

OP, my emirates flights were massively changed also same as you (SEA-DXB totally cancelled), and this is the only thing that helped:

Go on alaskaair.com, and yourself find something acceptable to you available on emirates awards. The new flight you want to move to must have business class award availability.
Call alaska airlines and give them the exact flight numbers and dates you want to change to.

That is the only thing that helped. The agents themselves were totally incompetent in finding acceptable route offerings.

ffman999

Thank you all, I appreciate your help. I will report back what I find out.

Often1

AS can't force EK to open award space in J. Thus, you are stuck having to research everything yourself. If indeed your routing is SFO-MLE, consider every option from the US-MLE and then figure out how to get from SFO to that gateway. Maybe you will hit paydirt on the first try, but this can be a painstaking process.

But, you need to be prepared to do this over and over again and then face the possibility that things will change and you won't be allowed to travel at all.

Flying for Fun

I am sure I read somewhere a couple of days ago that EK has removed SFO from their entire winter schedule but I couldn't find the story.

Booking partner awards beyond 3 months is likely a "pipe dream," within 3 months a "wish list." The added difficulty will be finding saver connecting AS flights to/from whatever gateway might yield results.

I just canceled an EK award, just too many changes to salvage anything out of it but it was fun doing online changes with transcon backtracking, reversing to add on HI and then flying into YYZ with an international open jaw. EK in J on the 77W isn't an optimal redemption but the 772LR, without an F cabin, configured 2-2-2 J they are using to LAX is a J "upgrade" in the Boeing Line.





James

NoLaGent

You're absolutely right:

"We’ve reported previously that Dubai-based Emirates planned to cut back its San Francisco schedule to three to five flights a week this winter, but Emirates is constantly revising its schedules (as are many international airlines these days), and in its latest changes this week, it plans to eliminate San Francisco flights for the winter season, which runs from Oct. 25 through March 27. Emirates is also pulling the plug on Dallas/Fort Worth flights for the winter season."

Flying for Fun

Thank you! I couldn't find the article after I read it.

James

Often1

Nonetheless, OP ought to be able to find routings SFO-US Gateway-DXB-MLE. The task is then to find one which has J redemption space on the EK segments.

As others note, this is all notional. In Covid-19 times, booking anywhere more than 30 days out is a placeholder.

PaulInTheSky

What if the ticket expired in August(after one year of issue?? Still got a chance?)

Flying for Fun

I still have an outstanding segment on a QF award from March booked last September. The ticket validity is now one year from the first flight segment, not the purchase (issue) date. I changed that segment to November but the ticket is valid until March 2021. I will be changing it again.

James

PaulInTheSky

If you fly one segment and it's already back in August 2019, can I get the refund of the second segment that occurred in the pandemic?