Interesting to find this LYN Flyertalk thread here!

To those willing the pay, you can now buy Alaskan Miles with a 40% discount.

Thats 2.11 US cents, so a CX F award is a bargain at $1477 one way

I think the only major issue i can think of with Alaskan, is that they require that the award tickets to either arrive/depart from a US location. I had a problem initially when trying to ticket an award fare from KUL-HKG-LAX as the agent was unsure about the routing rules (she thought all flights must originate from a US location).

I havent really gone through the rules of Alaskan, i might be wrong here.

For a US airline, they're good. Decent legroom and power sockets in economy. Too bad their network is limited.

Plus after the AA devaluation, they're the only one left with a legacy program.

Need some guidance.

I was searching for F award availability on Emirates for DXB-KUL and vice versa.

Qantas seems to show availability but when checking on Alaskaair site, F wasnt available but only J (itin shows up as a mixed cabin award, for eg, LAX-DXB in F is available but only J from DXB-KUL).

That's what I was doing, searching on Alaska for LAX-DXB-KUL and vice versa. All i'm seeing so far are mixed classes, no issues getting F on the LAX-DXB leg but the DXB-KUL leg usually ends up J or Y. From there i started searching Qantas and was able to see F awards for the DXB-KUL route but Alaska's system cant find them.

Not sure where you're based, Alaska only makes sense if you're US based due to their award terminating/origin rules. Even though there's the devaluation coming up, AA still gets my vote.

1 issue that you might need to consider is that you'll probably need a visa to transit in the US since your final destination is Canada.

CX awards are extremely tight right now since all the AA members are trying to burn through their stockpile of miles before the devaluation. Unless you're willing to wait till sub 2 weeks to book the award, might be safer to go with JL. I highly doubt CX will release anymore award space until its much closer to the flight.

i was actually referring to @raist86 in regards to CX awards since his/her target is for sept/oct this year.

You're right about May'17, AA can only book awards 335 days ahead. It was actually just nice for a CNY trip prior to devaluation (last day to fly with old rates i think is 2/23/2017) but due to a change in plans, that went out the window and i'm now sitting on a pile of AA miles thats soon to be devaluated

I did more research in regards to trying to book an award via Alaska for Emirates.

My original problem was that i was able to see F award availability from LAX-DXB but limited supply for DXB-KUL (vice versa). Searching on Qantas i do see availability for DXB-KUL.

So it seems that Emirates gives Qantas better availability for award seats compared to other partners. So using Qantas to search for awards might not work when using Alaska miles. Using Expert Flyer for Z inventory might not also work because Alaska might not have inventory to those awards.

Even searching for Jan-30-2017, i cant find F availability from DXB-KUL. I think Emirates is blocking/limiting the KUL route.

RM525 for 100k SF miles, go for it!

Even their 777 flights don't show availability.

I was browsing, yesterday for T+331 days flights, even J inventories are empty on alot of the CX and JAL flights.

JAL upgrading their seats on the 777-200er.

http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/201...business-class/

Sad news today, there goes EK F awards. Alaska is drastically increasing the rates for EK.

https://blog.alaskaair.com/emirates-redemptions/

They just released the emirates redemption chart on MH Enrich

http://www.malaysiaairlines.com/my/en/camp...EK06042016.html

I havent heard of such a status match.

Try again as it gets closer, that's when CX will tend to open up availability.

Everything from now till Feb 2017 will be slim pickings due to the AA devaluation rush. Only hope on CX especially is for them to release last minute inventory.

This post has been edited by miuk: Apr 30 2016, 02:01 AM

There's First available on a random search i did

But normally i wouldnt take F on the HKG-LAX since that sector time is at 12hrs vs the other way around which is about 15hrs.



This post has been edited by miuk: Apr 30 2016, 06:09 AM

I agree with Tishaban. No point flying to Vegas. Connecting domestically involves clearing immigration then re-checkin again.

The last time my friends visited me, they flew in from SFO-LAX and i met them at the car rental at LAX. From there drive to Vegas with them trailing behind my car. Takes about 4hrs (~280 miles one way). At least with driving to Vegas, there's a few outlet centers you can stop at in between the journey (Tangers, Primm, Las Vegas South/North).

Well Citi Prestige which i signed up at 50k TYP which i then converted into Krisflyer miles costs $450 annual fee.