While Alaska Airlines joined the oneworld alliance as of March 2021, the airline hasn’t yet rolled out award redemptions on all oneworld partners. For now the airline is maintaining separate award charts for each airline partner, and redemptions are slowly being added. In recent months we’ve seen Alaska add awards on Iberia, Qatar Airways, Royal Air Maroc, and SriLankan Airlines, and we can now add another redemption partner to the list — Royal Jordanian.
Mileage Plan redemption rates on Royal Jordanian
Alaska Mileage Plan has quietly added Royal Jordanian as an award redemption partner. For those not familiar, Royal Jordanian is Jordan’s national carrier, and has a fleet of roughly 25 aircraft, including seven Boeing 787-8s.
The airline primarily operates flights within the Middle East, and to Africa and Europe, though also operates some more long haul services. In the United States, Royal Jordanian flies to Chicago, Detroit, and New York (the Detroit service is operated via Montreal, interestingly).
Here are the Alaska Mileage Plan saver level one-way award costs for travel on Royal Jordanian in eligible regions:
- North America to Middle East costs 42,500 miles in economy, 85,000 miles in business class
- North America to Africa costs 50,000 miles in economy, 120,000 miles in business class
- North America to Europe costs 50,000 miles in economy, 120,000 miles in business class
- Middle East to Africa costs 20,000 miles in economy, 45,000 miles in business class
- Middle East to Europe costs 20,000 miles in economy, 45,000 miles in business class
- Middle East to Middle East costs 17,500 miles in economy, 35,000 miles in business class
A couple of further things to note:
- When traveling long haul between regions, stopovers in Amman are allowed
- There are no fuel surcharges on Royal Jordanian award redemptions
Alaska Mileage Plan is losing its luster
Historically Alaska Mileage Plan has had the best pricing of just about any award program. Unfortunately that’s no longer the case, as virtually all the partners added in recent months have uncompetitive award pricing.
In this case specifically, award pricing is cheaper through American AAdvantage for just about all regions. For example, you can redeem 70,000 AAdvantage miles for one-way business class between the United States and Middle East, or you could go to Africa for just 75,000 miles. That’s much lower than Alaska Mileage Plan’s pricing.
I think the only circumstance under which it makes sense to book Royal Jordanian awards through Alaska Mileage Plan is if you’re going to take full advantage of the stopover, and even then it’s questionable.
For example, it could be worth booking New York to Amman to Dubai for 85,000 miles, assuming you wanted a stopover in Amman. But aside from that, the situations where you’ll get the best value through Mileage Plan are few and far between.
It’s really disappointing to see the direction Mileage Plan is taking, especially as Mileage Plan miles aren’t even easy to come by. There are no transferable points currencies that partner with Alaska.
Bottom line
Alaska Mileage Plan has added awards on Royal Jordanian, and these flights can be booked on alaskaair.com. While it’s great to see Alaska continuing to add oneworld partner redemptions, the value proposition here isn’t great.
Mileage Plan has some incredible award pricing for its oldest airline partners, but the additions we’ve seen recently haven’t had good pricing at all. That doesn’t make me confident about the program’s future pricing.
What do you make of Alaska’s redemption rates on Royal Jordanian?
Membership is free and takes no more information than commenting as a guest. Earn status points for good contributions, and see fewer ads as your status grows.