Canadian Kilometers notes yesterday that Mileage Plan miles can be redeemed for travel on Emirates to Europe. This isn’t actually new and has been the case since the partnership formed, but it’s probably a good time to post a reminder of it since Emirates launched service between New York and Milan earlier this week.
Anyway, the Mileage Plan award chart for travel on Emirates to Europe looks as follows:
As you’ll note the redemption costs seem high, and that’s probably because you can route from the US to Europe via Dubai with a stopover there.
So while you could redeem for the nonstop New York to Milan flight for 75,000 miles in business class or 100,000 miles in first class one-way…
For the same cost you could actually fly from New York to Dubai (that flight stops in Milan), then have a stopover in Dubai, and then fly back to Milan.
Though my favorite one-way redemption to Europe on Emirates would incorporate their new A380 service to Los Angeles, which will be the world’s longest A380 flight when it launches in December. You can’t beat flying Los Angeles to Dubai in A380 first class, having a stopover, and then flying from Dubai to Amsterdam, London, Munich, or Paris, which are some of Emirates’ A380 destinations in Europe.
But the moral of the story is that if you’re looking to redeem just for travel between New York and Milan you’re much better off trying to accrue Japan Airlines miles, as I noted in this post. Since they have a distance based award chart they charge just 65,000 miles roundtrip in business class or 100,000 miles roundtrip in first class. They are transfer partners with Starwood, so you get a 5,000 point bonus for every 20,000 points transferred.
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