Here’s some news that a lot of loyalty program enthusiasts will be sad to hear…
Continue reading: MAJOR: Alaska & Emirates Ending Partnership
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Wow! End of an era for sure was a great time while it lasted and some of the best redemptions of AS miles back in the day. All good things come to an end.
Hey Ben maybe now maybe a good time for an updated post on the best use of AS miles, a program that in my opinion used to be the most lucrative FFP for a while?
Yikes. I have four J class round trips on EK using Alaska miles for September. I fear I’m SOL as Emirates is frequently changing its flights based on schedule changes. Any word on when Qatar redemption will begin?
Can you book a redemption before July 31 for travel after July 31? If you cancel, miles re-deposited but have to book an another partner airline?
What about if I already have MP award tickets issued on Emirates? Will Emirates honor them?
Thanks for the info. Agreed, a few years back, it would have been a huge change...right now...not so much.
When AS has issued award reservations for previous partnerships that ended, the operating airline honored the booking. Where it gets tricky is if there are flight reschedules or delays. Technically, EK should still honor them but I think its less likely they will go out of their way to help.
This is a huge win for ONEWORLD. When they had Air Berlin all AB would do is cooperate with Etihad and do nothing for the alliance. AB would sell status and then those customers could access ONEWORLD lounges. Now ONEWORLD has Alaska cooperating with them rather than Emirates.
This also helps AA with their SEA base building. Good news for AA and QR.
Disappointing as Emirates probably had the best EQM earning deals in economy. On their flex fare you'd earn 75% of miles traveled as MP EQMs, and those fares were on par with main cabin fares in other airlines.
My oneworld options from getting from USA to Bangalore are now down to BA, QR, JL, and CX whenever they reinstate HKG-BLR. All those airlines only earn 50% EQM on economy main cabin fares.
In theory I wouldn't mind paying the extra for World Traveller Plus on BA, but their timing is clearly the worst of all airlines flying to BLR - landing at 5am vs 11pm-2am that the other carriers do.
Yes, the Alaska website says any bookings already completed will be fine. However, if you want to make changes to the booking after July 31st, you'll have to change to another Alaska partner.
AA currently also has a flight to Bangalore, which may still continue. It's probably the most convenient option from the US right now from a Oneworld perspective.
From an EQM perspective, booking an AA flight via Amex Travel seems to sometimes yield a better fare class, but at a cheaper or equivalent price. Not sure if that's by chance, or consistent, but maybe worth checking out.
Hardly unexpected, this wasn't a partnership. It was just another way for Alaskan Miles Plan members to use points 🙂
I doubt anyone would have even bothered using their EK SkyMiles on AS flights.
Kind of a naive comment. At one point I remember reading that upward of 50% of passengers on EK’s flights out of Seattle connected from Alaska flights. I’m sure there was some as well out of SFO and LAX.
This should have been expected as soon as Alaska said it was joining OneWorld. The next question is whether or not Emirates will join an alliance or enter into a jv with one of the other two U.S. carriers.
Unfortunately, over this past weekend, we booked with Emirates for next February and wanted to earn Alaska miles. Bummer.
No surprise here. Alaska has always been a fair weather partner, though the One World membership would have required this.
First, I'm wondering if Emirates will continue serving Seattle
Second, I'm sure Sea-Tac is glad they never built the A380 compatible gates Emirates wanted.
I don't think Emirates needs that since they cooperate closely with Jetblue (who does their East Coast connections, while also having a hub at LAX). They could maybe codeshare with Delta or United for specific flights from the West Coast though.
Hopefully they will have good redemption rates for Oneworld airlines. I'll take QSuites over Emirates business class every time
I don't think the connecting traffic will come to a stop overnight.
It seems like they're simply ending the codeshare flights and frequent flyer agreement at this stage. Emirates sells flights on Hawaiian airlines (search HNL-DXB on EK's site), Air Canada but that doesn't mean they have to be partners.
From my perspective, no loss at all since the massive no-notice devaluation. Who was responsible for this; Emirates or Alaska MP? Don't recall it ever being decided.
AA's SEA-BLR flight only commences on November 1. I'm from Boston and go to college in the Bay Area, so a layover in SEA is extremely inconvenient if I'm flying out of BOS.
Will check out the Amex Travel thing, though. Thanks for the suggestion
With JetBlue being in bed with AA and the strength of OW, I can see JetBlue changing their game plan given the breath OW offers through AA and AS stateside.
I agree the biggest issue will be what to do with miles earned from EK if you don't fly them often.
AS used to be the simplest. Now I'm divided between B6 and JL.
JL have some good redemptions but its quite hard to earn enough in 3 years.
B6 is B6, not much usage unless you fly B6.
I hope someone sees that who can help. I have been trying to “register” as a user on your new site since it came out. I get an error message every time. I have tried two different user names that I would find it odd that they would already be taken......BobRobert and RobertBob. What am I doing wrong.
And just to add, I can’t find any “contact us” information on the site, otherwise I would reach out directly to someone at OMAAT for help. You should have a way for people to contact you who are having issues with the new site.
@ Robert D -- You pre-registered for an account, and so have an account already under "Robert D".
Try logging in above, and then hitting "forgot password?" and that should send a token to your email to get everything finalized.
If you run into issues, shoot us an email at websupport@onemileatatime.com
Nah thanks ! I am not flying Qatar Airways to support their Qatari absolute monarchy royal family abusing human rights and kidnapping black workers
Alaska just informed me my BKK-DXB-LAX points tickets canceled leaving Japan Airlines as the only option. They suck, this sucks. Any ideas?
Glad to see Emirates gone. I want nothing to do with people who make other people they don’t agree with disappear & in such a hideous way. Life is NOT just about the money…