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Alaska MileagePlan miles have historically been among the
most valuable and versatile miles programs. One of their best redemption for
Alaska airlines has been for first class seats on board the Emirates A380.
Unfortunately, Alaska Airlines overnight increased the
amount of miles needed for an Emirates First Class seat quite drastically to
say the least.
The following is a chart of the new amount of miles needed:
As you can see these are significant increases across the
board, with first class seats being hit the hardest. For first class tickets to
Africa, the amount of miles needed has doubled from 100,000 to 200,000 one way!
Usually when airlines announce a major increase in the miles
needed for an award, they add a grace period of a couple months, so members can
redeem their miles.
American airlines gave its members a few months to redeem
their miles at the old rate, before their recent devaluation.
Unfortunately, Alaska
Airlines has increased the amount of miles effective immediately.
This is obviously not good news, and tremendously devalues
the value of Alaska miles. For those who are holding Alaskan miles, you can
still redeem your miles for Cathay Pacific or Qantas first class awards, which
are still quite the bargain compared to the new American Airlines award chart.
There is an
alternative way to use your points for Emirates First Class and that is through
Japan Airlines, which is a transfer partner of Starwood points.
Japan airlines uses a distance based formula, which means
the more you fly, the more miles you will have to use.
However there are some sweet spots. For example a round trip
flight between New York and Dubai would cost you only 135,000 JAL miles round
trip, which is LESS than a one way ticket on Alaska Airlines’ new award chart.
Stay tuned for a more detailed guide.
