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Update: See the comments for reports that fuel surcharges are being collected by JAL on Emirates flights.
Yesterday I panned the Emirates frequent flyer program for its exorbitant miles prices and fuel surcharges to enjoy Emirates Business and First Class.
But flying Emirates First Class on an A380 is awesome–there’s an onboard shower and bar–so I want to give everyone the cheapest ways to use miles to put a truly luxury experience within reach.
There are two programs that offer Emirates First Class and Business Class redemptions at reasonable rates:
- Japan Airlines Mileage Bank
- Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
Each program offers a better rate in certain situations, but both offer sweet spots that get you into Emirates First Class and Business Class at reasonable miles prices with no fuel surcharges. And you can quickly get the miles needed in each program even if you don’t currently have an account with either airline and never plan to fly to Japan or Alaska.
What are the redemption prices for Emirates First and Business Class with Japan Airlines and Alaska Airlines miles? When do you use one program, and when do you use the other. How can you get Japan Airlines and Alaska Airlines miles?
Redemptions of Alaska Airlines Miles for Emirates Flights
Alaska Airlines allows one way and roundtrip redemptions of its miles for Emirates flights in economy, business, or first class. The redemptions must begin in North America and can go to Asia, Africa, or the Middle East.
The major Emirates awards you might want to book with Alaska miles that you can’t book are the US to Europe on Emirates’ JFK to Milan route and the US to Australia/New Zealand via Dubai on two long haul Emirates flights.
But other than for those missing routes, Alaska miles are a great option to fly Emirates First Class and Business Class. The award charts are a bit steep, but otherwise very customer-friendly.
Here is the chart from the US to the Middle East, India, or Africa. Each way in First Class is 90,000 Alaska miles to the Middle East or India and 100,000 miles to Africa.
Here’s the chart to the rest of Asia. It’s 75k miles one way for two longhaul Business Class flights–US to Dubai, Dubai to East Asia–or 100k miles for two longhaul First Class flights with a shower.
The best four things about redeeming Alaska miles for Emirates flights:
1. Emirates award space is searchable at alaskaair.com (or via the Alaska Airlines mobile app.) By the way, this is the best place to search whether you’re using Alaska miles or Japan Airlines miles.
2. Alaska doesn’t add fuel surcharges to Emirates flights. You only pay government taxes, which are very low out of Dubai. For instance, New York to Dubai costs about $68 per roundtrip.
3. You can book one ways for half the price of roundtrips. I’ll show below that you cannot do this with Japan Airlines miles. Since the awards are so expensive, it’s nice to be able to treat yourself to Emirates First Class one way and return home with any other type of miles that allows one way awards.
One way booking also means you can mix-and-match cabins. See above for a screen shot of one way in First Class and one way in Business Class for 162,500 miles.
4. You can book stopovers on one way awards! Dubai–Emirates’ hub–seems like a place I would enjoy for a few days, but not much longer, and it’s zero extra miles to add a stop in Dubai for a few days on the way somewhere else.
Simply search for a multi-city award from your city to Dubai and from Dubai to the final destination. In this case I’m searching New York to Dubai to Beijing.
The results will show the normal price, including a free stopover in Dubai. Note that this itinerary is listed as 111 hours and 5 minutes because of the nearly four day stopover in Dubai. Click the Details link for more info like dates and operating aircrafts.
The three drawbacks of booking with Alaska miles:
1. The miles prices are a little steep, though cheaper than using United miles on partner flights to the same regions starting February 1, 2014.
2. You can’t combine partners in a single direction. To book Emirates flights, your award either needs to be all Emirates flights or all Emirates and Alaska flights. You can, of course, fly Emirates one way and British Airways on the return with Alaska miles because you can book one way awards.
3. Your awards have to begin in North America. I often advocate getting into incredible products cheaply on faraway flights like Etihad First from Europe to Abu Dhabi or Qantas First from Abu Dhabi to London. You cannot fly Auckland to Sydney–or something similarly short and cheap–in Emirates First with Alaska miles.
Redemptions of Japan Airlines (JAL) Miles for Emirates Flights
Luckily JAL has a very different redemption system than Alaska. I say “luckily” because the more different our options are, the more relative sweetspots each one will have.
JAL allows only roundtrip redemptions of its miles for Emirates flights in economy, business, or first class. The redemptions can be on any Emirates flights. The cost is determined by the total length of all flown segments and ground segments (open jaws.)
On a distance-based chart, the sweet spots are at the top end of each distance band. On this one, I also think that 8,001 – 20,000 mile trips are a much better deal than shorter or longer trips.
Let me give a few examples of roundtrip flight distances, so you can see how many Japan Airlines miles you’d need for the trip.
Economy/Business/First Class Roundtrip Prices in Thousands of JAL Miles
21/42/65 Auckland to Sydney (2,690 miles)
39/63/100 New York to Milan (7,990 miles)
55/85/135 New York to Dubai (13,698 miles)
60/100/155 LAX to Dubai (16,678 miles)
60/100/155 New York to Dubai to Bangkok (19,798 miles)
What strikes me is that all the prices are really cheap! Sixty-three thousand miles to Europe roundtrip in Business Class or only 155k to Southeast Asia in First Class, when Alaska wanted 200k.
The best four things about redeeming Alaska miles for Emirates flights:
1. JAL doesn’t add fuel surcharges to Emirates flights. You only pay government taxes, which are very low out of Dubai as discussed above.
2. The price of roundtrip awards is far lower than with Alaska miles and far lower than the new United chart for example. This is especially true in economy and business class, but I’m sure most of us are looking at Emirates First Class.
3. You can take two stopovers on an award. For instance, you could fly New York to Milan (stop) to Dubai (stop) to Asia or Africa (destination) and return home.
4. Your awards can begin anywhere, not just in North America. I’m a traveler, so sometimes I’m in Buenos Aires, Melbourne, Auckland, or somewhere else outside the US. It’s nice to have the flexibility to begin awards outside the US.
The five drawbacks of booking Emirates flights with JAL miles:
1. You can’t book one way awards. Alaska and JAL miles are attainable, but they aren’t as easy to get in quantity as, say United or Delta miles, so it would be nice to have a one-way, half-price option.
2. You only get six segments on your entire award.
3. Your origin city and the last city on your return must be in the same country.
4. An open jaw counts as one of your stopovers and the distance between the open jaw cities counts as distance traveled on the chart.
5. You can’t book online. Find award space at alaskaair.com and book by calling JAL at 800-JAL-FONE from 9 AM – 9 PM ET Monday through Friday and 10 AM – 6 PM ET on weekends and holidays.
Getting Alaska and JAL Miles
Alaska Airlines miles are easier to get than JAL miles because Bank of America releases an Alaska Airlines personal and business card:
- Alaska Airlines Visa Signature Card with 30k miles after first purchase
- Alaska Airlines Business Card with 25k miles after first purchase
Both Alaska and JAL miles are partners of the Starwood Preferred Guest program, so Starpoints transfer 1:1 to each program with a 5k mile bonus for every 20k points transferred. There are personal and business versions of the SPG card.
- Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express with 25,000 bonus Starpoints after spending $5k in the first six months
- Starwood Preferred Guest Business Card with 25,000 bonus Starpoints after spending $5k in the first six months
There are also currently options to buy Alaska miles and Starpoints a little cheaper than usual.
You can buy up to 54,000 Alaska miles for $1,182.50 or 2.19 cents per mile until December 20, 2013.
Getting both the Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express and its business version and meeting their minimum spending requirements would be 60k Starpoints. Buying 20k more would get you to 80k Starpoints, which could transfer to 100k JAL miles, enough for a roundtrip to Milan in First Class or a roundtrip much farther away in business class.
Or you could transfer those 80k Starpoints to 100k Alaska miles and add on by purchasing up to 54k more Alaska miles and getting both Alaska cards for 55k more Alaska miles, putting your total at 209k Alaska miles, enough for a roundtrip in First Class–and four longhaul segments on a shower-equipped A380–to Asia or Africa.
It would be tough to quickly regenerate your depleted balances in either case, but there’s no reason an American can’t get one roundtrip in Emirates First Class for just the taxes.
Recap
The best way for Americans to fly Emirates First–and take their onboard shower–or Business Class–and relax at the onboard bar–is with Alaska miles or JAL miles. Neither imposes fuel surcharges on Emirates flights.
Alaska awards can be booked one way with a stopover but cost more miles for a roundtrip and must originate in the US.
JAL miles can be used for really cheap redemptions, especially in economy and business class. But you have to book a roundtrip award and JAL miles are harder to get.
Both types of miles are transfer partners of Starwood Preferred Guest. Getting both the Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express and its business version and meeting their minimum spending requirements would be 60k Starpoints. Thost 60k Starpoints would freely transfer to 75k miles in either program.
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What if you don’t live in a major hub (say OKC or STL) and are trying to use miles? I cant find any flights that would let me fly on a partner airline to a major hub like JFK or DFW without having to book it separately and increasing the amount of miles needed?
You will need to book flights to a gateway city with cash or as a separate award.
Thanks scott
Def confirmed what I found out but Ur bonus said 3 ways.. Maybe korean air W/fuel surcharges?
The third way was with Emirates miles. Don’t do it! You can also use Korean miles, but because of fuel surcharges, don’t do it!
Very interesting post , Scott
Hope to take advantage
I would say “See you in the shower!” but that doesn’t sound right.
[…] Best Program to Redeem Miles for Emirates First Class […]
Great post! First class on Emirates would be a dream trip for me. Plus, I’ve been wondering what I could ever use my 25k Alaska Air miles for. Time to start racking up some more.
I’m also trying to figure out which way to get more Alaska miles and when/where I want to fly EK First.
Can you mix partners on a JAL award?
I don’t see anything prohibiting it, but I’ve never tried.
Can we apply for personal and business Alaska airlines cards at the same time?
You definitely can, I did that about a month ago. One to know is that the annual fee of $75 is not waived. However I found an app link which gives a 100 dollar rebate after 1000 spend in 3 months on the personal card. The sign up bonus is 25k instead of 30k, but I thought the $100 was better than 5000 extra miles.
Would you mind sharing that link? Do you still have that link?
25k miles + $100 statement credit after spending $1k/3months –> https://www.applyonlinenow.com/USCCapp/Ctl/entry?sc=VABROP&mboxSession=1366303361899-89743#b
I had applied for 2 personal Alaska airlines on the same day and got approved this week. Both the credit hits merged into one.
Were u approved instantly, or had to call recon?
Anyway to get to mle using Alaska miles? I couldn’t get it to work online but wasn’t sure if I just wasn’t choosing good dates.
Emirates flies there, and I think Maldives would either be in Africa, India, or Middle East region, so you can use Alaska miles there. Search for availability on emirates.com segment-by-segment and call Alaska if necessary.
I think JFK-MXP is operated by 777 with no shower. A380 only for shower?
Also, with JAL, if dept is in first and return is economy, does first class mileage apply?
Scott…I believe you can also dump Membership Reward points into Emirates now…..along with a nice bonus (for a limited time).
JFK-MXP is a showerless 777, correct. With JAL awards, whatever the fanciest cabin you fly for a single segment is, you pay that cabin’s award price for the roundtrip. In your example, first class award price would apply.
@ Ramkumar,
Were u instantly approved, or had to call reconsideration?
I think you forgot one partner and thats Korean Air which allows oneway award.
Fuel surcharges on those awards. No thanks!
@ Ramkumar
I think that is a very important question. Were u instantly approved, or had to call reconsideration? and if you did not call then how long you had to wait?
For Caveman and Dino, I applied for both one right after another and I was instantly approved for the personal card and I had to call for the business, but its only because that was my first business card and I don’t have a EIN for my business and not very much revenue.
Oh NM, I see he got 2 personal cards, that’s pretty impressive.
Would you say that this is the best way to go USA to India in business with miles?
On Emirates? With JAL miles. In general, it depends on where you live and where you want to go, but United or AA miles are good for space.
Awesome post Scott! How times change. This was a dream of mine back in 2008 when EK first unveiled their new A380. Back then, the only way I knew to get on that plane is to flat out pay for it (BKK-HKG costing $600) or to rack up skywards miles by flying EK metal and transferring SPG points. Back then EK didn’t charge surcharges on their awards so using skywards was a good way. I’ll admit I was surprised people can use AS miles to book on EK First given AS doesn’t have a First class product in a 3-cabin plane. Then again, deals come and go but I hope this one lasts a long time since I surely want to go back and shower in the air again! 😉
Hi Scott,
Just wanted to ask questions about stopovers in EK one-way award through Alaskan. You wrote that it is possible to stop over in Dubai. Would it be possible to stopover in BKK on route to HKG instead? So JFK-DXB-BKK / BKK-HKG?
I don’t know. I haven’t tried.
Great blog post Scott, keep up the good work…………very good information here, and you continue to deliver the goods, congrats
” Your awards have to begin in North America” is not accurate. AS miles allow one way ek redemptions originating outside North America and terminating in NA. I used as miles to book india-dxb-jfk one way in F with dxb-jfk in a380.
Thanks for letting us know.
Excellent information Scott. For JAL can I transfer in AA miles, Membership Rewards , or any other program miles; or is Starwood the only way?
Thanks for your daily emails!
You can never transfer one airline’s miles to another. See –> https://milevalu.wpengine.com/two-foundational-questions-in-miles-collecting/
Only SPG to JAL
Using JAL miles can I start my overseas award at PHX and end in LAX without it counting as an open jaw? If they count that surface sector it would put my award into the next band.
They do count the surface sector.
Scott,
I searched for Emirates Award space in Business class from HYD–>DFW on Emirates.com, and there’s avaiability. With about $500 surcharge, of course.
Now, searching for the same itin on Alaska Air site doesn’t show any results for Emirates. In fact, I couldn’t get Emirates show up in the results for pretty much any date?
Am I doing something wrong here?
Thanks
HK
The space in Emirates has to be at the lowest Saver level for you to be able to access it with partner miles.
Great post Scott. I just booked Emirates First Class LAX-DXB-JFK on JAL for 155,000 miles. I got hit with a $1,290 fuel surcharge in addition to $77 of fees. JAL reservations was very surprised with the high charge and found they started charging fuel surcharges on Emirates awards beginning November 1. May make Alaska a better deal now.
Just priced out JFK-DXB r/t in business and was told 85k JAL miles + $78. The agent may have made a mistake. Did you hang up and call back?
Called back and after a long hold for the agent to talk with the pricing desk was told Emirates started charging fuel surcharges on JAL tickets last week.
Very interesting. Thanks!
Emirates first class space seems pretty hard to find, any suggestions on routes to look? I am based in los angeles and was hoping to get to south africa with a stopover in dubai. Thank you
[…] is the Best Program to Redeem Miles for Emirates First Class. It also has a ton of other unique partners, fair award chart prices, one way awards, and stopovers […]
[…] since November 10, 2013, this is incorrect (https://milevalu.wpengine.com/best-program-re…#comment-60076). And with that I will continue any further discussion in the JAL forum. __________________ […]
I went ahead and transferred 160K Starpoints to JAL to book a RT Biz ticket from US to India on EK. At the final step, JAL agent tells me that EK started charging fuel surcharges from Nov 10th, which came up to $17xx per person! I feel like a fool for not checking on this earlier. I am kind of stuck now and don’t know what to do with the 200K JAL miles…
Same thing happened to me on a booking to Africa.
I think there’s a typo in the post. There’re two occurrences of the sectional title
“The best four things about redeeming Alaska miles for Emirates flights”
I think the 2nd one should be “JAL” (instead of “Alaska”)
I am experiencing a bad situation with Alaska miles booking Emirates flights. I can find availability and progress an award booking on alaskaair.com all the way till the last page, when I have to pay. After I enter the credit card info, the system responds with an error message saying “1640″. I then call Alaska’s rep and they would go through exactly what I went through (they would tell me the seats are available initially, only to eventually get “1640″). And even they don’t know what’s available (except trying to pay for it and see if it fails or not). The only advise they gave me was to try a different date or try again later, which is not helpful at all.
In my case, I’m trying to go SFO to DXB on 8/9/14, stopover, then DXB to HKG on 8/13/14 on business/first.
I also posted the above question in flyertalk and was then pointed to a consolidated thread. After reading for hours, my conclusion is (miserably) that there’s no easy way around this problem, other than repeatedly begging the AS rep to do “long sell” (if they’re willing to TRY).
Here’s the consolidated thread that I was pointed to (I only read the later pages, from page 51 or so to the end):
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/alaska-airlines-mileage-plan/1381554-consolidated-emirates-ek-awards-availability-booking-routing-thread.html
I’m at the verge of giving up on Emirates because of this (i.e., I plan to use my AS miles on other airlines). Comment/help?
Thanks
I live in SFO area so it looks like Alaska is almost just as good as I have to get to NYC to get those JAL cheap rates or am I missing something? And Alaska gives you the flexibility of one ways………
Yes, Alaska is the best for you.
Thanks…..this was a great post!
[…] Avoiding AA and BA flights through LHR and the expensive surcharges – this leaves three possible flights with business space available from ORD to JNB. Qatar, Emirates, and Cathay. My first choice would be Emirates, although they are not officially part of oneworld or any alliance. I’m not sure why it is shown here, since AA and US points can’t be used; some partner ones can and they have cool stuff but I’m not going to get into that – although for people who want to experience the crazy luxury of Emirates (first class on the A380 has showers!) here are some tips. […]
you say “find a space on Alaska.com and then call JAL to book”, but you can not see the majority of routes on Alaska’s site. you can not see the Sydney to Auckland trip, for example. I want to try suites without going to Dubai. Most of the routes only take you to Dubai though….
You can also search by calling JAL.
[…] through the comments on this One Mile at a Time post and this Milevalue post, it appears that they at one point DID charge fuel surcharges but currently do […]