In early November of last year I had written about how Alaska is ending the ability to book Emirates First Class awards using Alaska Miles after they advised all their members via email and also posted the following on their website. This note still appears on the awards charts page as follows:
So, unless you have US issued credit cards that will allow you to transfer points to the Emirates Skywards program from Amex US Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Citi ThankYou Points or want to go the route of transferring Marriott Bonvoy points, you should look at locking in a booking soon.
Note that you will still be able to book flights in Business and Economy on Emirates beyond April 1, 2021 at the rate of 42,500 Alaska Miles for Economy and 82,500 Alaska Miles in Business.
Additionally, you also have access to other partners like Cathay Pacific where you can book an award in First Class for only 70,000 Alaska Miles or 80,000 Alaska Miles on British Airways compared to 150,000 Alaska Miles for Emirates. However this would involve a stop-over compared to a direct flight if your intent was to fly to Dubai.
You can check out the features of Emirates First class here.
With the loss of this ability to book Emirates First Class, this kinda reduces the attractiveness of the Alaska Mileage Plan. Having said that, as it still offers the ability to book Economy and Business on Emirates – note that Emirates offers a great product and service in their Economy cabin and also their Business class. Plus, we see that the A380 has also returned to Toronto.
Also, a quick reminder of the ways to rack up your Alaska Miles balances is by applying for the Alaska Mastercards and getting the welcome bonuses of either 20,000 or 30,000 with the Alaska Airlines Platinum Plus or Alaska Airlines World Elite respectively.
Another quick tip since neither offer a First Year Free, is to apply through GreatCanadianRebates.ca and get a cash back rebate of $50 on either cards thereby reducing your first year annual fee from $75 to $25 on the Alaska Airlines Platinum Plus and from $99 to $49 on the Alaska Airlines World Elite.
If you do plan to apply for one these cards, you can refer to the step-by-step guide on my earlier post here and simultaneously support my blog by using my referral link of GreatCanadianRebates.ca. Note that by using the link, I may get a commission.
So, happy flying when its safe to do so and hope to bump into you at the bar on the A380.
Written by Dominic Fernandes aka CanadaPointsGuy.
Image photo by emirates.com