Alaska & Emirates have had a partnership since early 2012, and as we recently found out, it’s actually a very lucrative partnership for both airlines. Emirates now flies twice a day to Seattle, and Alaska puts an average of over 300 passengers per day on Emirates flights.
Beyond that, I think it’s fair to say that many of us have benefitted from the redemption side of the partnership, as it’s possible to redeem Alaska Mileage Plan miles for travel in Emirates first class. And Emirates first class is possibly my favorite first class product in the world.
Anyway, in today’s news, Alaska and Emirates have announced a new codeshare and lounge agreement.
To summarize, this new agreement includes the following:
- A new codesharing agreement, whereby Emirates will begin marketing up to 300 daily Alaska Airlines flights (in practice this won’t have many implications for consumers, as you can already book Alaska and Emirates on one ticket, given that they have an existing partnership)
- Emirates Skywards Gold & Platinum members will soon have access to Alaska Board Rooms anytime they book an Emirates flight which connects to Alaska Airlines
- Alaska MVP Gold and MVP Gold 75K members will soon have access to the Emirates Business Class Lounge in Dubai when flying Emirates
- Emirates and Alaska elite members will soon enjoy reciprocal priority check-in and boarding in Dubai, Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles
Alaska elite members will soon enjoy priority check-in at Dubai Airport
Here are the relevant parts of the press release (the rest of the press release talks about things we already know about, like the ability to redeem Alaska miles on Emirates):
Greater Connection Choice Across the Combined Network
With two daily flights now departing from Dubai to Seattle, the enhanced codeshare agreement gives passengers easy connections to 49 cities including Honolulu, Denver, Las Vegas, Portland, Phoenix, Pullman, Sacramento, Spokane, Anchorage, Juneau, and Fairbanks as well as Canadian destinations such as Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Victoria.Business Class Lounge Access and Priority Check-in
In addition to the codeshare agreement, Emirates Skywards® Gold & Platinum members will soon have access to Alaska Airlines Board Room lounges in Anchorage, Seattle, Portland, and Los Angeles any time they book an Emirates flight that connects with Alaska Airlines. Likewise, Alaska Airlines MVP® Gold and MVP® Gold 75K members will also enjoy access to Emirates Business Class lounges at Dubai. At a later date, Emirates and Alaska Airlines elite members will also enjoy reciprocal priority check-in and boarding at Dubai, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Bottom line
It’s great to see the partnership between Alaska and Emirates thrive, especially given that it’s one so many of us have benefitted from. It’s pretty cool to see what a big impact a fairly small airline in the Pacific Northwest can have on the regional success of a global airline.
While I don’t think any of these new benefits are earth-shattering, they’re certainly nice additions to what’s already a very cool partnership.
@Lucky, Any additional updates on the Alaska & Emirates Add Codeshare & Reciprocal Elite Benefits that were first announced back in 2015?
I haven't seen any information on Alaska's web site regarding this.
Cheers..
Is the AK website going to start giving information as to what flights have code share? Delta, American, British and Emerites?
@Al EY's F hard product at the seat on the A380 hands down beats the EK's hard product at the seat on the A380. The shower and the bar and on EK beat EY. The alcohol on EK beats EY. The food on EY beats EK. So it's kind of a toss up when you look at it like that.
EY has 10 A380s on order. EK has 140. Your chances of getting an A380...
@Al EY's F hard product at the seat on the A380 hands down beats the EK's hard product at the seat on the A380. The shower and the bar and on EK beat EY. The alcohol on EK beats EY. The food on EY beats EK. So it's kind of a toss up when you look at it like that.
EY has 10 A380s on order. EK has 140. Your chances of getting an A380 when you fly EK are vastly better than flying EY so right there EK gets an edge. When you look at the F hard product on the EY 777 or 787, of which the former makes up the backbone of the fleet, EKs hard product pulls ahead. EK has also said they plan to match EYs First Apartments/The Residence hard product. If that comes to fruition then it's a no brainer to choose EK unless food is by far your main concern. That's just my thoughts though.
Isn't your favourite F product EY's?
With this partnership and Iceland Air do you think the Alaska website will start allowing searching & bookings using these carriers? Right now the Alaska site only lets the user search for actual Alaska flights unless you are using miles which opens up all the partner airlines. That would certainly be a nice feature.
@Nick L
When I was in Dubai on an Alaska award ticket, they scanned my ticket and the ticket told them that we didn't have lounge access. However, after we told them it was an award ticket, the front desk agent let us in anyway. So it may depend on the individual you get at the time.
Wake me up when we can use the chauffeur service on award flights again.
@ JR:
Have there been more issues with people getting lounge access in Dubai when they booked a ticket with Alaska miles? I'll be there in May, so I hope that's not the case.
How about giving F award flyers access to the F lounge? Would be nice to have that in writing...
Thanks for everything Ben!
Definitely a big plus for Alaska elite members!!! I'm not sure whether EK Gold/Plat members would be impressed by AS Board room though. ;) Either way, it's great to see EK partnering up with other airlines versus just being on their own, which I think they can easily do. I just hope that EK will continue to let AS members redeem for EK F. Don't get me wrong -- I can see EK letting AS...
Definitely a big plus for Alaska elite members!!! I'm not sure whether EK Gold/Plat members would be impressed by AS Board room though. ;) Either way, it's great to see EK partnering up with other airlines versus just being on their own, which I think they can easily do. I just hope that EK will continue to let AS members redeem for EK F. Don't get me wrong -- I can see EK letting AS members redeem for EK business class in the future, but I don't know why I think the EK F redemption is just too good to be true.
Smart move. The enemy of my enemy (Delta) is my friend.
I long for the day that Emirates can start flying the A380 out of Seattle. However, it sounds like the current runway configuration at SEA can't handle the A380 wingspan.