Alaska & Aer Lingus To Launch Partnership This Spring

Maybe the YQ charges on Aer Lingus metal awards using Alaska miles will be better than the alternative partner awards to Europe.

DaninMCI,

You can use Alaska miles to get flights to Europe on American for very low fees.

But of course you will have to change planes in Dallas and Chicago.

@Tom, this is true. Assuming there is availability on AA. For most of the past 4 years, that just hasn't been the case.

Ugh. I wish Alaska would somehow increase its East Coast presence, maybe create a hub. If they did that, I'd switch right away. But, they don't make sense for 75% of my flights.

This is GREAT news. I like ending my Europe visits with at least one night in Dublin. It is just so much easier to pre-clear customs before you even leave Ireland. Then when you arrive in the US, you can just GO.

I hope, however, that Alaska does better with this rollout than it has with Finnair. We have yet to see how/when you can redeem Alaska miles for flights on Finnair. Alaska had at one point listed that this option was coming in the fall 2017. Now it's coming soon. I am being to doubt it if will ever come, but maybe that's just me. It won't mean anything unless you can actually book a flight on Finnair. I have all but given up on using AA miles to book Finnair flights. The space isn't available and when it is, it turns out to be phantom space. Helsinki to Asia is much better, but that doesn't interest me at this time.

Hopefully Alaska doesn’t impose big fuel surcharges on these redemptions" It will be depend on the time of redeem the reward.

Has anybody seen Aer Lingus Business Class sale from the west coast to continental Europe? If so, were they good?

EI has a pretty nice business class. It's arranged in a staggered 1-2-2 and 1-2-1 layout. 3k and 5k are the seats to get if you're by yourself.