Undoubtedly one of the most aspirational flight awards that Canadian points and miles enthusiasts strove for was to redeem Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles for flights in business and first class on Emirates. By buying miles during Alaska’s frequent bonus promotions to churning the MBNA Alaska Airlines World Elite Mastercard, you name it, a lot of it was done to fly on Emirates. Well sad news emerged today that this long sought after award option will be coming to an end. As of July 31 the partnership between Alaska Airlines and Emirates will be dissolved.
If you have fights booked with Emirates that you planned to credit to Mileage Plan you’ll still earn those miles for any date of travel so long as you booked prior to June 2. If you book from today on you will only earn miles for travel until July 31, 2021.
You can also still redeem Mileage Plan miles for travel on Emirates through to July 31. If you already have existing award flights booked on Emirates after August 1st and need to change them those flights will have to be cancelled and rebooked on another Mileage Plan partner.
This is not the news the points and miles world likes to hear but it did seem somewhat inevitable with Alaska joining oneworld.Nonetheless the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan program still holds so much value for Canadians thanks to the airline being part of the oneworld alliance and having partnerships with some key aspiration airlines like Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines and Qatar Airways.