Alaska Airlines was not an airline that I focused a ton on in the early days of my travel hacking, since I live in what I call the “dead zone” of their route map
Still, they have a number of great mileage partners, which I wrote about a few months ago
(SEE: Alaska Airlines Mileage Partners – maximizing your miles)
One of the best redemptions for Alaska Airlines miles is on Emirates First Class. The luxury on Emirates First Class is pretty wild
Including a lounge and a shower (!) on board. Even better, Alaska does not collect fuel surcharges on Emirates flights, which means that a one-way First Class booking from North America to the Middle East is only 90,000 miles!
Checking Alaska Airlines Emirates First Class availability
You can check Emirates First Class availability on Alaska on the main Alaska Airlines website. Here’s an example of Houston to Dubai in early January 2015.
You can also continue on to Asia for only another 10,000 miles. The $19.50 does include a $12.50 partner award booking fee, which is mandatory and assessed on all partner award bookings. Still, when you compare that to the hundreds if not thousands of dollars that British Airways charges, it’s quite the bargain!
But, that availability is no longer there after March 31. Here’s an example of a search for May
Those 80,000 miles + $569 options are for travel on British Airways (boo! fuel surcharges!). The calendar looks like this from March onwards. I first heard about this shortly after posting about Alaska’s mileage partners – in a post by One Mile at a Time.
Reaching out on Twitter
I thought I’d reach out to Alaska and/or Emirates on Twitter to see if anyone knew what was going on.
(SEE ALSO: List of Airline and Hotel Twitter contacts)
@PointsWithACrew I apologize but I’m not sure. -Jordan
— Alaska Airlines (@AlaskaAir) December 30, 2014
@PointsWithACrew It appears to be an availability issue. We may get more as time draws closer. -Jordan
— Alaska Airlines (@AlaskaAir) December 31, 2014
@PointsWithACrew Depending on availability, Emirates may allow more seats to be sold – but that’s something that is decided a few… 1/2
— Alaska Airlines (@AlaskaAir) December 31, 2014
@PointsWithACrew …weeks out. -Jordan 2/2
— Alaska Airlines (@AlaskaAir) December 31, 2014
So there you have it. It’s currently not showing up, and it may or may not come back. Alaska and Emirates may be negotiating over rates or availability, or it may be a matter where they change things to only show availability closer to the date of travel (similar to Lufthansa only releasing first class availability to other Star Alliance partners within I believe 14 days of travel)
This site is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as thepointsguy.com. This may impact how and where links appear on this site. Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers and that compensation may impact on how and where card products appear on the site. Any opinions expressed in this post are my own, and have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by my advertising partners and I do not include all card companies, or all available card offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers and other offers and benefits listed on this page. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more. Other links on this page may also pay me a commission - as always, thanks for your support if you use them
User Generated Content Disclosure: Points With a Crew encourages constructive discussions, comments, and questions. Responses are not provided by or commissioned by any bank advertisers. These responses have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the responsibility of the bank advertiser to respond to comments.
Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
As someone who searches for Emirates F on Alaska fairly frequently I can tell you this is no anomaly. Emirates first class does not usually show up on Alaska until 3 months prior departure. I don’t expect May to show until Feb.
Really? I was not aware of that – it seemed to me that I was seeing availability further out before, but I defer to your judgment