It appears you can now redeem Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles to travel on Qatar Airways. There are some interesting things to consider on this new opportunity, so let’s take a look at the details. What are the mileage redemption rates with Qatar Airways?At the end of 2020 it was announced that Alaska Airlines and Qatar Airways will enter into a partnership. This coincided with the announcement that Qatar Airways was launching a route between Doha and Seattle before Alaska Airlines joined the oneworld alliance in March 2021. While the two airlines were quick to introduce reciprocal mileage accrual, they didn’t immediately introduce reciprocal mileage redemption. Most recently, we heard that the Alaska Mileage Plan should introduce redemptions with Qatar Airways starting August 2021. There is good news at the front – this is happening a little earlier than planned. This will make many people with Mileage Plan miles happy given the incredible Qatar Airways Business Class experience. Alaska Airlines’ website now shows the availability of awards with Qatar Airways, although award tables have not yet been published (I will update this post as soon as they are). To name just a few examples: A one-way award between New York and Male (via Doha) starts at 42,500 miles in Economy or 85,000 miles in Business Class. An award between New York and Delhi (via Doha) also starts at 42,500 miles in Economy or 85,000 miles in Business Class. Meanwhile, an award between Dallas and Johannesburg (via Doha) starts at 50,000 miles in Economy or 120,000 miles in Business Class. Stopovers in Doha are allowed with no additional miles required, even with one-way awards. I’m still in the process of figuring out the routing restrictions here (can you route from the United States to Australia, Europe, etc) and will report back soon when I know more. As for the pricing, I’d say it’s fair, if not particularly attractive. When it comes to redeeming Qatar Airways, the American AAdvantage program is the most valuable as you can easily fly in Business Class from the USA to the Middle East / India for 70,000 miles or to Africa for 75,000 miles. The prices are a bit steeper here, but Mileage Plan has the advantage that it allows for stopovers. I think I will continue to redeem Qatar Airways Awards through AAdvantage, although personally I didn’t expect the Mileage Plan to undercut AAdvantage in pricing either. One-Way Business Class Awards for 280,000 Miles?!?When looking for awards, you will see some business class awards between 200,000 and 280,000 miles each way. This causes some people to panic and think that this is the time to redeem Alaska Miles before all awards are devalued to this level. Do not be alarmed. If saver-level rewards are available (to which all other programs have access), the price will be calculated at the lower, constant cost. The higher award prices apply in situations where there are no awards available, where Alaska is essentially buying the ticket for you or something. It’s rare to see this kind of dynamic pricing on partner airlines, but it’s something that Alaska Mileage Plan did when it introduced redemptions at Aer Lingus. I wouldn’t read that negatively. What does this mean for future Oneworld redemptions?Although Alaska Airlines joined the oneworld alliance this spring, the airline has yet to introduce alliance-wide awards, at least beyond the airlines it has worked with (including British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Japan Airlines, Qantas, etc.) .). Rather, it is expected that these awards will be introduced “later in 2021”. We knew that Qatar Airways redemptions through the Mileage Plan would likely go live before other oneworld redemptions. Personally, I don’t think there’s anything to be said here:
So personally, I don’t think that says much to us when it comes to what to expect from Oneworld proceeds. It is hard to imagine what the mileage plan will look like later this year – will we see a uniform award table for all airlines or will each airline have a separate award table? Only time can tell … Bottom lineAlaska Mileage Plan awards are now live on Qatar Airways. I’m sure we’ll have an official award table soon, but in the meantime, it’s cool to see Qatar Airways flights show up in the award search. The premium rates are a little higher than I (optimistically) hoped for, but there’s nothing surprising here. Personally, I wouldn’t be concerned about the dynamic award pricing for situations where there are no awards available – we’ve seen the same thing with the Aer Lingus partnership, and ultimately it just gives members more flexibility. What do you think of Alaska’s Qatar Airways redemption rates? (Tip of the hat closed @saianel)
Via https://globalconnekt.com/you-can-now-redeem-alaska-miles-with-qatar-airways/
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