On Thursday I wrote a post entitled “Are Emirates First Class Redemptions Using Alaska Miles Going Away?”
Basically Alaska Mileage Plan doesn’t seem to have access to any Emirates first class award availability for travel after March 28, 2015. Travel in Emirates first class is one of my favorite uses of Alaska Mileage Plan miles, so it would be a real shame if that opportunity went away.
I had reached out to an Alaska spokesperson earlier in the week regarding the situation. While Alaska didn’t initially seem to be aware of the availability discrepancy, they are now, and are reaching out to Emirates to try and rectify the situation, which they believe to be a glitch.
Here’s an official statement from an Alaska spokesperson regarding the situation:
First thank you for bringing this to our attention. When you first contacted me, we thought that perhaps your search return was limited because of the original query. However, in digging deeper into this issue, we learned that we were wrong and quickly launched an investigation with our vendors to identify and try to resolve what we believe is a system glitch. We have a strong partnership with Emirates and our mutual customers have been enjoying award travel on both airlines fora number of years. I assure you that Mileage Plan™ members have been able to book First Class awards on Emirates without issue and we are working to restore that functionality. We apologize for any inconvenience this is causing our customers and assure you and your readers that we are working with Emirates to resolve the technical glitch and hope to have it fixed soon.
I’ll keep you guys updated as soon as I know more, and I appreciate Alaska digging into this further. Let’s hope this is all just a glitch and not an indication of things to come!
Hi Lucky,
Is this still an issue? I'm planning an aspirational BLR-DXB-SFO award in 2016 on EK with Alaska miles. Looks like there is availability in March 2016 (on Alaska's site). But from some of your posts, this seems to be a rocky issue. Just wondering if should even bother accumulating Alaska miles at all if this seems to be going away...
Thanks,
Arun.
@ Arun -- Nope, not an issue anymore. See here:
https://onemileatatime.com/emirates-first-class-awards-using-alaska-miles-are-back/
Any updates on the situation? I've admittedly not kept up on it since your original articles.
Thanks!
@ jay -- I've followed up with them again, but haven't heard anything yet.
Any update from Alaska?
@ James Ukich -- Not yet, though let me follow up.
It all depends on the agent you get. Most of them are either unwilling to help you or don't know how to. Luckily, after a few tries, I ran into one who knew how to and was willing to help - and found me FCs. Not one, but three spread across April-August . Looks like FCs are widely available ... Multiple flights were open from west coast.
Wow, kudos to AS responding and admitting a mistake. Maybe I am jaded but I don't see UA or Dl dealing with it in that way.
I hope they Fix this. Finally the bloggers serve a real purpose other than to fatten up their own wallets with CC sign up commissions. I've been told time and time again for nearly 2 years by AS IT that the space on EF was not the same as that EK made available to them. Now a total 180
@ CDKing -- Thanks... I think? :D
Pretty resounding affirmation. Thanks for updating.
Ben, thanks for the updates!
Can you use AS miles to book a 5th Freedom flight on EK?
@ Steve -- Which route? They only publish award charts in some regions, so you can't book routings like SYD/MEL-AKL.
You'd never get an accountable response like that from Delta.
@Stephan - "Hopefully all the friggin’ hypocrites who whined in the comments section of the last couple of posts on this topic about how the world was coming to an end because their “private trick” was published by you will go away now."
They won't. They'll just find something else to whine about.
Nice job of seeking some claritifcation Lucky. Hopefully all the friggin' hypocrites who whined in the comments section of the last couple of posts on this topic about how the world was coming to an end because their "private trick" was published by you will go away now.
Thx for this Ben! I think I've read a whole lot more trip reports on EK F from AS miles than AS F on EK miles. ;) I hope AS will fix this soon!
Stall tactic on the part of AS. I'm not expecting good news but hope that I'm wrong.
Thank you
good job Ben, thank you. ;)
iirc, AS shows F inventory available if EK inventory shows two F seats available. So in theory, if I find two F seats available using EK search for dates after end of March, I should be available to call AS and book it ?
@ Mike S. -- No, they're blocking all space after March 28, 2015...
Seems that these a lot of reaching out going on lately. Whatever happened to good old fashioned contacting or talking to people?