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.
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