Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan has introduced a new frequent flyer relationship with El Al.
Earning Alaska Airlines miles for travel on El Al starts July 1. It will presumably be possible to redeem Alaska Airlines miles for travel on El Al at some time in the future. Often it takes longer to get the IT in place for redemptions than for mileage-earning.
A U.S. frequent flyer partnership makes a ton of sense for El Al since they’ve been on a U.S. expansion tear. Service includes Boston, Chicago O’Hare (March 2020), Las Vegas (June 2019), Los Angeles, Miami, Newark, New York JFK, Orlando (July 2019) and San Francisco (May 2019). Alaska offers a significant presence in San Francisco and a meaningful presence in Los Angeles, though less help from other cities.
You can currently search for El Al award space on the Qantas Frequent Flyer website or at Expertflyer. El Al uses the ‘X’ fare bucket for business class award space, ‘P’ for premium economy awards, and ‘E’ for economy awards.
If you do fly El Al remember to book an inflight marriage kit in advance or birthday celebration!
If the wait to redeem AS miles on Aer Lingus is any indication, it will be years before redemptions on El Al will be possible. “Some time in the future”, indeed!
Yeah, redemptions begining in…2024! Another semi-useless int’l partner…
I am glad to see this partnership, it makes it more likely for me to book EL Al in the future. I live in Miami and EL AL flies non-stop so the most efficient and convenient flights but because they didn’t have partners that I had miles with or wanted miles to credit to, I have not considered flying them.