Questions and Answers

I’ll be flying paid RT J flights NYC-DBX-RUH for work, and noticed you can’t bank Emirates flights to any of the 3 major domestic airlines. Any recs on which loyalty program to credit to assuming starting from roughly zero in all programs? Working from the list linked below I’m currently thinking JetBlue since I’m NY based, but if it would give me enough miles for a sweet spot redemption with another program I’m open.

[URL]https://www.wheretocredit.com/emirates/j[/URL]

Thanks!

Personally, I find Alaska miles to be pretty useful, even if their presence is mostly concentrated on the west coast. AS has a nice collection of partners and great redemption opportunities, not to mention allowing stopovers, even on one way awards. Furthermore, they sell miles with a bonus pretty frequently.

There are some downsides though – they dont always have access to all partner space (like on Cathay), cant mix partners (one partner and AS on a ticket is ok), and most awards have to begin or end in North America.

Hmm good to know. Maybe I’ll try to calculate how much I’ll earn in Alaska vs. JetBlue and see if it will get me enough miles for something interesting. Safe side with JetBlue is they’re good for quick trips to FL or the Caribbean, even if not the exciting premium cabin redemptions to Asia.

Much appreciated – rather research 2 programs than 10!

Kind of depends on what you want to do with your points. Alaska has much more potential for truly amazing premium cabin redemptions on long-haul flights. For you as an NYC-based traveler though, crediting to JetBlue would be convenient for quick trips anywhere they fly and is quite a bit more straightforward than trying to navigate Alaska and redeeming on their partners.

JAL Mileage Bank and Korean Air Skypass are also potentially useful partners if you know how to use their miles right but it definitely gets more convoluted if you’re crediting to a foreign program so unless you’re well-versed in alliances maybe it’s not the best option.

And especially with the foreign carriers, check their rules about miles expiring. With some programs the miles will expire after x-months, regardless of whether or not there’s activity in the account.

Thanks all – potential reasons why I’m somewhat inclined to do JetBlue. I usually do one big redemption per year w/ my SO (and have this year’s booked already), but a number of quick shots to places on JetBlue’s map. The fact that I don’t have a specific redemption in mind sort of worries me I’ll just have miles stuck in a less-flexible program (that might expire!).

Would say I’m medium versed in alliances – mostly used US programs but have done one-off redemptions with Singapore, AirFrance and LifeMiles – but have never really used any on this list.

Update: turns out you get a 225% class of service bonus with Alaksa vs.125% with JetBlue. Going with Alaska for the ~2x accrual and hoping if I can’t find a good partner redemption I can at least use the miles on a trip to the west coast! Thanks all for the input.

If I did my math correctly, you’ll earn well over 40,000 miles for the trip!

Plenty of good uses for those 🙂
[URL]https://onemileatatime.com/best-uses-of-alaska-airlines-mileage-plan-miles/[/URL]

And even though B6 miles don’t expire, you should be able to keep your AS balance active via credit cards or the shopping portal.