No more EK F on Alaska points - Will this affect QF too?

[Guvner]

Apologies if this has been posted somewhere before, I did a search to no avail.

Will this affect Qantas Frequent Flyer First Class bookings on Emirates?

Fly Emirates - Airline partners - Mileage Plan | Alaska Airlines

You can earn and redeem Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles on flights with Emirates.

www.alaskaair.com

" Book your First Class award travel with Emirates by March 31, 2021. Beginning April 1, 2021, Emirates will no longer allow partner access to First Class award bookings. Mileage Plan members can continue to redeem on the Emirates’ award-winning Economy Class and Business Class. "

 

[TheInsider]

EK F on A380 is great, but on QFF?? Not the greatest value by any stretch... Last time I bothered to check, fuel surcharge for a 1-way trip to Europe was more than the cost of return ticket to Europe in economy!

Still significantly less than a first class cash ticket, which is what you should actually be comparing it to.............................

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Hopefully this change is limited to JMB and doesn't foreshadow similar changes coming to QF...

I understand the arrangements between EK and QF will see F awards continue to be available!

 

[hossein_au]

Still significantly less than a first class cash ticket, which is what you should actually be comparing it to.............................

Not really; you should actually compare it to other avenues of getting EK F "award" tickets; like through JMB

 

[mviy]

Not really; you should actually compare it to other avenues of getting EK F "award" tickets; like through JMB

Only if those other programs make sense for you. Can you get JMB points as your sign up bonus for a new credit card with $0 annual fee for the first year in Australia?

 

[Matt_01]

Does JMB pass on YQ on reward tickets? How do their redemption rate compare to others?

I do not know the answer I am a JMB member for the purposes of being able to search OW rewards. EK has implemented this policy for some of their other partner airlines. I have considered considered sending points to JMB but have not as I do not completely understand earn rates and miles required for status levels etc. Looking at the redemption rates and taxes it appears to be a good program, as an example MEL-DOH-JFK in J JL would charge 130000 miles +AUD150 in taxes. With QF you would need 159000 points and about AUD640 in taxes. JL also seems to have greater availability to OW redemption seats than QF.

 

[hossein_au]

Only if those other programs make sense for you. Can you get JMB points as your sign up bonus for a new credit card with $0 annual fee for the first year in Australia?

Agree 100%, but I think QFF should be the default fallback solution if all else fail

 

[hb13]

I hope this is not a sign of things to come - does anyone have any detail on whether EK is considering cutting off for QF FF members?

 

[kpc]

This may actually be good news for Qf point holders if other partners can't book EK F...of course if it extends to Qf point holders, that is not so good news.

 

[hb13]

This may actually be good news for Qf point holders if other partners can't book EK F...of course if it extends to Qf point holders, that is not so good news.

That's a good point. I think the QF/EK agreement runs till 2023?..Hopefully this means nothing changes till at least then - I hope much longer though, this is my favourite QF redemption.

 

[mviy]

I think certainly if Project Sunrise isn’t well and truly up and running QF will want to extend it, and perhaps even if it is.

With Project Sunrise a lot depends on how successful initial routes to LHR and JFK will be. If they are very successful then QF could end up flying direct non-stop to a range of different places that would have seemed inconceivable not long ago and would be less reliant on a partnership with EK.

 

[TheRealTMA]

EK F on A380 is great, but on QFF?? Not the greatest value by any stretch... Last time I bothered to check, fuel surcharge for a 1-way trip to Europe was more than the cost of return ticket to Europe in economy!

Agreel QFF is just semi-premium J. Food, wines, service are actually very mediocre. No comparison with EK F. Covid bugged our plans to try the new EK 777F class.

 

[mviy]

I think what hossein_au was meaning is that he considered using QF points to fly EK F wasn't the best value. However as others of us pointed out if you can easily earn QF points and note that it's a lot cheaper than booking a revenue seat it can still be a great value way to book EK F.

 

[SYD]

EK F on A380 is great, but on QFF?? Not the greatest value by any stretch... Last time I bothered to check, fuel surcharge for a 1-way trip to Europe was more than the cost of return ticket to Europe in economy!

Putting aside the hefty QF redemption taxes as a whole topic on its own, a one way redemption is a bad comparison. Unfortunately, you can pay the same surcharge on one way as for a return international redemptions.

I fell for that years ago booking seperate (out/back) redemptions for a J return trip. It was something like $800 each way but would have been much the same (+5000 pts) if I’d rang up and added the return flight to the existing booking....

 

[hb13]

I think what hossein_au was meaning is that he considered using QF points to fly EK F wasn't the best value. However as others of us pointed out if you can easily earn QF points and note that it's a lot cheaper than booking a revenue seat it can still be a great value way to book EK F.

For those of those who think EK F is not good value using QFF points, spare a thought for those living in the UK and Europe.

In the UK, there is one Amex - platinum business that offer 100k points. Everything else below this maxes out at about 30k points. There is hardly any VISA/Mastercard options for points apart from Virgin Atlantic with 15k bonus points. BA, the flag carrier here, doesn't have any VISA/Mastercard options.

And just for reference, BA/Virgin Atlantic points are give or take roughly the same as QFF points in terms of value.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

For those of those who think EK F is not good value using QFF points, spare a thought for those living in the UK and Europe.

In the UK, there is one Amex - platinum business that offer 100k points. Everything else below this maxes out at about 30k points. There is hardly any VISA/Mastercard options for points apart from Virgin Atlantic with 15k bonus points. BA, the flag carrier here, doesn't have any VISA/Mastercard options.

And just for reference, BA/Virgin Atlantic points are give or take roughly the same as QFF points in terms of value.

Agree. But for me the major consideration is the fares ex UK/EU which can be half what they are in Australia... makes flying revenue much more attractive for the flights you want, when you want, and earning points and SCs.

It was not uncommon for SQ and QR to have business class fares ex Europe to Australia for around AUD3500. Approaching half what we would pay here. Air China business class during their twice yearly sale was just AUD2340 return.

Prices ex Australia mean award seats become more important as a cost exercise.

 

[SYD]

Prices ex Australia mean award seats become more important as a cost exercise.

Especially if you can nest multiple return bookings!

 

[hb13]

Agree. But for me the major consideration is the fares ex UK/EU which can be half what they are in Australia... makes flying revenue much more attractive for the flights you want, when you want, and earning points and SCs.

It was not uncommon for SQ and QR to have business class fares ex Europe to Australia for around AUD3500. Approaching half what we would pay here. Air China business class during their twice yearly sale was just AUD2340 return.

Prices ex Australia mean award seats become more important as a cost exercise.

Actually this is a good point - fares ex EU to Aus are very cheap in comparison to Aus to EU and this definitely changes perspective.

Where before I solely considered points if I wanted to fly premium cabins, I actually tend to look more for revenue now - although, there isn't really a point because travel to Aus is off the cards for a long time yet.

 

[andyandy2005]

That's a good point. I think the QF/EK agreement runs till 2023?..Hopefully this means nothing changes till at least then - I hope much longer though, this is my favourite QF redemption.

Yes the agreement ends in 2023, I hope they extend the partnership especially when regular flying will be return. Recently American Airlines and Qantas renewed their partnership which could mean hope in the future for Emirates as well but as said by mviy it depends on Project Sunrise.

https://investor.qantas.com/DownloadFile.axd?file=/Report/ComNews/20210325/02357254.pdf

 

[TheRealTMA]

Actually this is a good point - fares ex EU to Aus are very cheap in comparison to Aus to EU and this definitely changes perspective.

That’s the Australian government Qantas tax. Been there for 20+ years. We use FF points for one way to Europe then buy returns in F Eu-Au with returns dated months in advance, or we used to PreCV. F return is often lower than J from australia return.

 

[hb13]

Yes the agreement ends in 2023, I hope they extend the partnership especially when regular flying will be return. Recently American Airlines and Qantas renewed their partnership which could mean hope in the future for Emirates as well but as said by mviy it depends on Project Sunrise.

https://investor.qantas.com/DownloadFile.axd?file=/Report/ComNews/20210325/02357254.pdf

Well if the agreement is not extended past 2023, then the QF points for redeeming EK out of Australia is effectively useless. It's likely to be 2024/25 before the borders open up again, so let's hope that the deal gets extended.