Hi:
I have a accumulated good amount of miles (close to 1million) on EK only to realize that buying an award ticket (out of US) is highly expensive in terms of miles and crazy taxes EK charges. Not to mention Saver award tix come with all kinds of restrictions.

Then, I thought of using the miles for US domestic airlines - Jet blue and Alaska but availability is always a problem when you need it (not to mention the lengthy process to check the availability of the partner airline tickets).

Purchasing anything on EK High Street is also out of reach. $50 Macy's card for over 21,000 miles!!!

I don't why i accumulated so many miles.....Any idea which is the best way to use them??? Wish i was smart enough before i accumulated these....

I think you need to change your mindset here. Whilst there are taxes, why don't you think of the miles as a discount on paying for a ticket? I'd imagine that the taxes are similar to an economy flight, but you get to fly first class for that amount. So in your position, I'd look for somewhere in the world I wanted to go and fly there in comfort.


T

Depending where you're flying, KE will be significantly cheaper (both in terms of miles and the lack of YQ).

It is also much better value for Skywards miles on EK to purchase a revenue ticket and upgrade with miles. Unfortunately EK do charge extortionate surcharges for straight out redemptions.

To follow on from stargold's suggestion - JL might be a good bet if you want to go TPAC?

Now that you have those miles, better spend time to find how to use them most productively rather than complain.
Don't get me wrong : what you say is totally well-founded and I have the same "problem".
I'd join toothy by advising you to see them as "free gifts" and not "return on investment".
I recently offered a Swarovski goody to my young daughter. I don't remember how many hours I've flown for this, but she was very happy, and that's all that matters.

I totally disagree with about how hard it is to check availability on AS.

I do not hold AS membership and have redeemed 3 awards on AS via EK miles.

You can search for them here: https://www.alaskaair.com/planbook?awards=yes

If it is in the 'lowest' category, then EK can book the same exact reward.

You can also check for similar inventory via AA as well, but why not go to the source.

Once you find the availability via AS, you call EK and book. They sometimes have some nonsense about waiting for confirmation (automated system) and requiring to hold and call back, but usually you can call back pretty quickly to finish the booking.

Wait wait, your profile says you are a 75k. So, I am not sure what the deal is except you don't want to redeem on AS.

Rasheed

Rasheed... Yes I am 75k and I can use my AS miles to get dirt cheap award tickets in F and J class on EK... I save AS miles for that... It's 50% cheap ...

Which is it? Too expensive or 50% cheap?

EK should look after its skywards members before partners.

The new baby is the US market for EK (they have now also companion fares ex US which are nearly half the price than before), so do not expect any change soon (unfortunately)

To be fair to m3red, the AS partnership has been going on for longer than the recent US expansion by EK with similar issues about reward availability etc.

The agreement seems to work for both parties commercially - we don't know exactly how much AS pays EK for those seats, after all!

Sure, I just wanted to say that it will not change in the near future because of that.