Overnight and without notice, Alaska has massively devalued first class award cost on Emirates.
This is unbelievable for an airline that has a such a good reputation.
The award charts are not even fully updated yet (Emirates to Europe still shows the old level) but what is clear that first class prices are up as much as 100% and business class prices are up too.
Here is one-way travel costs in first class on Emirates using Alaska miles:
- North America to Middle East/India — 90,000 miles (OLD) / 150,000 miles (NEW)
- North America to Africa — 100,000 miles (OLD) / 200,000 miles (NEW)
- North America to Asia — 100,000 miles (OLD) / 180,000 miles (NEW)
- North America to Europe — 100,000 miles (OLD) / 180,000 miles (NEW)
Europe chart is not updated yet…
Devaluations are fair game. Devaluations without notice are never fair game.
Alaska should be ashamed of itself for this backhanded move and I call on all of you who care about the integrity of the airline loyalty industry to voice your protest to Alaska over this terrible change. I have already tweeted @Alaskaair.
The changes in chart now more closely align Alaska with what Emirates charges its own members. Emirates charges a bit less, but Alaska passes on no fuel surcharges. No matter — Alaska may not have a legal duty, but has an ethical duty to provide advance notice prior to this customer-unfriendly move.
I have credited recent premium class flights on British Airways to Alaska and had my whole family sign up for Starwood cards under the now-expired 35K offer because I intended to use those points for Emirates first class travel via Alaska.
Let’s see if we can get Alaska to backtrack on this terrible move. Please contact them now if you agree that devaluations without notice undercut the very foundation of a loyalty program.
(tip of the hat to One Mile at a Time)
Man, I’m such an Alaska fanboy and this really feels like a slap to the face. Do you think Emirates is behind all this? Seems like Dubai is just struggling for money due to the continued low oil prices. First the airport departure tax and now this. AS didn’t gut their entire award chart (as they do during a self-imposed devaluation), just with EK. Makes me think it was all EK’s doing and AS just went with it?
Agree with Dozer. While this is a highly unfortunate move, given that only EK redemptions have been affected, I suspect this was something pushed on AS by EK, rather than something entirely of AS’s own doing. Either that, or there’s another gigantic shoe about to drop on us like a ton of bricks…