Booking Emirates First Class with Alaska Airlines Miles

After accumulating Alaska Airlines miles over the past 2 years, I finally have 100,000+ miles in my account. I earned most of these miles by using the Bank of America Alaska Airlines Debit Card (discontinued in 2014), Bank of America Alaska Airlines Credit Card (30,000 signup bonus) and the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan Shopping portal to buy AMEX gift cards. I decided recently to redeem these miles for a First Class ticket on Emirates to experience the Emirates A380 aircraft which features a shower and bar onboard. Availability can be scare but with a little bit of searching around for dates in 2016 I found a long trip to experience it to it’s fullest. I tried to get a flight on the DXB-SFO route but there was no availability so I had to try other US hubs that Emirates services with the A380. LAX, IAH, DFW, JFK were the alternatives to try. Dubai (DXB) to Dallas (DFW) showed some available so I focused my routing around DFW.

You can add on a domestic flight (ie. DFW-SFO) but they only offer that on itineraries where you only have 2 legs on Emirates and not 3. I wanted to maximize my time inflight so I decided to fly on the following route: BKK (Bangkok) – HKG (Hong Kong) – DXB (Dubai) – DFW (Dallas). This routing forced me to not include a domestic flight for no additional charge but luckily Virgin America services Dallas (DAL) so I’ll just buy a flight. The retail price for this route in First Class is $11,346.64.

How to Search: visit www.alaskaair.com and select “Use Miles” in the search. This will allow you to search for partner award tickets such as Emirates. Make sure when you select the flight that it isn’t a mixed (Economy & First) cabin flight as I ran into many flight combinations that didn’t include First Class in every segment.

Booking on alaskaair.com

Booking on alaskaair.com

Cost: 90,000 miles one-way from US to Dubai (DXB) or 100,000 miles one-way from US to Asia via Dubai. For the extra 10,000 miles it makes sense to maximize the value and to extend your trip to Asia with a stop in Dubai. Taxes and fees totaled $90.30 for my booking.

For 100,000 Alaska Airlines miles and $90.30, I can now enjoy this for 28 hours of flying:

Stay tuned for another bucket list flight booking this week…

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