Updated: Now with Award Charts
Alaska Airlines has finally launched the ability to redeem Alaska MileagePlan miles on Qatar Airways. Award charts confirm that there are multiple award levels. I absolutely hate seeing partner awards with variable pricing – even if not fully dynamic.
In this case, I’m seeing USA-Doha and USA-Male pricing the same, so at least there’s still zones.
But as you can see, a coach seat can be 42,500 miles or 85,000 miles one way.
Business Class (including QSuites) prices at 85,000, 170,000 or 200,000 one way.
You can see some sample pricing below.
Hey, at least there are no surcharges! (Cathay Pacific and BA charge massive surcharges on Qatar awards.)
If you can find the low level space, it’s a “passable” deal, but not nearly as good as using 70,000 American Airlines miles.
South Africa, which requires just 75,000 AA miles (just 5k more than the Middle East), seems to be pricing even crazier, starting at 50,000 miles in economy and 280,000 in Business. Actually, I can’t find any days with different pricing, so it’s possible that US to South Africa is fixed at 50k/280k which is, well, awful.
Truly, I’m very disappointed in this pricing. To have the lowest possible level be less than your partner, American Airlines, and then go up and up from there isn’t great – especially when it’s so much harder to earn Alaska miles.
Meanwhile, you can grab a one way in Business using Qatar with AA miles by just grabbing a Citi Premier…
Update: Award charts are now live
| Qatar Airways | Each way* |
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| Continental US, Alaska and Canada to Middle East | ||||
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| Qatar Airways | Each way* |
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| Continental US, Alaska and Canada to Africa | ||||
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yes, i’m shocked at this pricing. lax to doha to male 70K AA points by 200K AS points? that’s absurd. really disappointed in AS.