Last January Emirates was added as an Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan partner, though only on the accrual side, with plans to allow redemptions starting late in 2012. In mid-December they announced a delay in that option. Then just a couple of weeks ago I broke the news that they'd begin allowing redemptions starting January 16,…
Continue reading: Alaska Airlines publishes Emirates award chart!
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
@ Angeleno228 -- Join the club! Only easy way to rack up Alaska miles quickly are:
a) Alaska Visa card
b) Starwood points transfers
c) 50K points bonus for reaching MVP Gold 75K
Which isn't especially helpful.
Wish AA would partner with Emirates as well. As of now it's not likely given their partner with Etihad and future partnership with Qatar, though I guess it's not totally out of the question if Qantas forces Emirates into OneWorld...
Awesome chart for the purpose of roundtrip first or business on Enirates. I'm gonna have to start stockpiling Alaska miles to try out Emirates first.
India rates (which I imagine might also get you to the Maldives) is really the best deal. That is only a 20k premium from using UA miles for F. That is assuming this doesn't stick you with a big fuel surcharges or anything though.
Better than I expected, I had the same fear as you where they will force us to break redemptions [JFK-DXB+DXB-SIN rather than JFK-SIN], but I am happy with both charts.
Rumor says AS hopes to enable one-way award bookings for EK within the next 60 days. I will believe it when I see it though.
Now, I hope AS won't fondle with the CX award chart for Africa...
@ aussie -- Yes, sorry about that, just corrected it. See the "PS" portion of the post. 😀
@ AdamH -- Agreed, quite a good value. Also think the value to Africa is very good. American charges 200,000 miles for first class to Africa and you end up paying massive fuel surcharges on BA. Meanwhile United charges 160,000 miles for first class, but outside of Lufthansa (which only opens up space 14 days out) there really are no decent first class options.
@ Golfingboy -- Hah, yes, the CX chart to Africa is still a much better value, probably one of the best in the industry.
One ways would be awesome!
Not bad! 180K to India is actually on par with AA for RT First. Helps that EK started another A380 to JFK ;). I heard rumors that Mr. Clark wants to put A380s on the LAX route, which is currently their longest flight out of DXB.
Now I just need to stay on the look out for more Alaska miles. I only have ~6,000 from my first Emirates flight.
This is great, too bad I don't have a lot of AS miles, and no easy way to get 180-200K quickly :p (or is there?) My hope is that AA partners with Emirates as well at some point that way I don't have worry about Alaska miles!
Hmm, the only way this helps is if you have tons of Alaska miles, otherwise you are still better off transferring your points through JAL, am I correct? Or are there Alaska transfer partners that Emirates/JAL don't have?
@ naseefc -- You're absolutely right, in almost all instances you're better off with Japan Airlines if you have Starpoints. So this is useful for those that actually earn Alaska miles.
Don't forget Korean Air. Even it's much higher miles (210K-round trip between NA to DXB plus fuel surcharge and no one way) required, but it's much easier to accumulate thanks to Chase Bold Ink.
Wonder what stopover/open jaw options will be?
Would be great to do a stopover in Dubai....
Looks great! I'm going to have to start planning for a trip to India using the new SEA-DXB route.
Their redemption chart is more generous/fair than the one TAP has with Emirates.
TAP Victoria charges 120,000 miles from North America to Middle East in coach, and 160,000 miles from North American to Middle East in Business. And they do not allow First Class awards.
@ Paul -- Alaska typically allows a stopover OR an open jaw, but not both.
@ Bikar -- Just by transferring from Starwood as far as I know.
@ AC -- True, though I find the opportunity cost of Ultimate Rewards points to be too high to burn them on Emirates on most cases given how high Korean Air's prices are.
@ Fabio -- Ouch!
Starwood seems to have a limit of 20,000 buy points per calendar year - i wonder if that is strictly enforced?
@ Mike S. -- It is, though keep in mind they allow household transfers for those at the same address, so that's one way to get around it.
I am a bit concerned about availability in first...When using EK's own website F Saver Fares are rarely available ex YYZ, for example. Does Alaska only make available saver fares or are EK flex fares in F also available?
Will F award tickets booked through AS qualify for EK "Chauffeur-drive" service?
@ blueline7 -- I suspect that Alaska availability will match the saver space Emirates releases to their own members. I'm seeing GREAT availability out of many cities. For example, I frequently see three first class award seats on the Airbus 380 out of New York.
Thanks for the news. Sitting on 295,000 AS miles and the wife has about half that. Of all my Alaskan friends, I am the only one who has been to Dubai so I am encouraging them all to spend their miles on an unforgetable trip there on EK.
Can you please help me: is pakistan considered middle east in the award chart? Whats the best redemption to fly emirates roundtrip los angeles to pakistan using ultimate rewards points or alaksa points?
@ Al -- I would assume that Pakistan is considered the Middle East on the award chart. Purely in terms of price United Mileage Plus (transferred from Ultimate Rewards) would have the lowest redemption rates.
Hi, does this work in reverse? Meaning, can I use my EK miles on AS flights? I took your beloved EK First suites flight last year from DXB to LHR and earned over 25k miles in the process. Now I'm wondering what (if anything) I can do with them. Thx!
@ MillValleyMom -- You will be able to starting next week. Emirates hasn't yet published their award chart for travel on Alaska, though once they do I'll be sure to write about it.
Is SPG a transfer partner from Amex membership rewards? And if I can transfer membership rewards to spg, can I transfer those again to JAL or Alaska?
@Blueline, it is because Canada refuses to allow EK to add more frequencies to YYZ, so they are stuck at 3x a week when there is plenty of demand to support a daily service. Therefore, the # of F seats available on this route in a given week is tiny, which as result makes it more difficult us to redeem awards in F on that flight.
@ Saketh -- They are transfer partners, though only at a 3:1 ratio, so it's a horrible value. If you choose to take advantage of it you can transfer to Alaska or JAL, though.
Lucky
You are the mist dedicated blogger for those who want to spend their miles on showers in the sky. No doubt about it.
🙂
If one is buying SPG; regular price is 3.5c each
you need 140k SPG min for F to India and 160k for Africa
140x3.5c= 4900$, 160x3.5 = 5600$
When SPG sells it at 2.8c during sales
140x2.8= 3920$ 160kx2.8=4480$
Add taxes and this is no cheap award.
Get well. I tripped and fell the night before my vacation to europe. Hurt my wrist but toughed it out during the 10 nght trip. When I returned i found out I had fractured a bone in my wrist and have been wearing a cast for a month now.
how simple (or difficult) is it to book awards on JAL? Does one have to call or can it be done online ?
@ Carl -- You do have to call, which is a bit of a pain, though it's not as bad as Korean Air and Asiana, for example.
Can you earn JAL Asia Miles for flying on EK? Strangely, they aren't listed as an earning partner. Does that mean you can only redeem Asia Miles, not earn them, on EK?
My father flies Emirates paid business class with some frequency, where would you say they should credit miles to get the most bang for their buck (i.e., a future F redemption)? JAL (if possible)? Emirates itself? Alaska?
@ LTL -- You can indeed earn Japan Airlines Mileage Bank miles for travel on Emirates. You can find the earnings chart here:
http://www.jal.co.jp/en/jalmile/flight/ek.html
If your father flies Emirates and wants to redeem miles for travel on Emirates, I'd say crediting to Mileage Bank is the best bet.
@ Carl -- Only one stopover is permitted, in addition to the destination.
@ Andrew -- LOL!
Glad to see this as an option for aspirational travel.
Personally don't see it as a good value for miles use considering business class from US-Asia tends to only run 120k for many programs and even less to North Asia.
Lucky, I want to commend you on your blog and "breaking news" to all of us. I have been following all the blogs for the past year and a half and your blog is consistently the most creative in content and extraordinarily timely!! Kudos to you. Keep up the great work you do. Thank you!!
I presume this means europe to middle east awards will not be possible? - a real sweetspot in the AA Advantage programme
This is awesome! The AK awards chart is a lot better than Emirates's own skywards frequent flyer awards chart. To obtain JFK-DXB saver award for skywards, you need 217,500 miles!
@ David -- Not possible as of now.
@ Mohan -- Thanks very much! 🙂
@ Doug1000 -- That's correct.
Hi Ben
Just wanted to to double check. So if I wanted to fly Emirates A380 for 2 from US to Tokyo in first class with a stopover in dubai as a 1 way award. That would be 200k Alaska miles for 2 people correct?