Update: Award availability for this flight has been loaded and is wide open for travel in March, April, and May.
You can search for award space on alaskaair.com or emirates.com
Alaska charges 95K miles in coach, 210K miles in business, or 360K miles in first class round-trip between NYC and Athens or Milan:
However you can book the trip with JAL miles for just 40K miles in coach, 65K miles in business, or 100K miles in first class round-trip.
Taxes and fees on a round-trip should be about $95 with Alaska miles or $70 with JAL miles.
You can transfer Starpoints to JAL at a 20K:25K ratio and then call JAL to book at 800-525-3663 as it can’t be booked online with JAL miles.
Originally posted on 1/23:
Related posts:
-The Ultimate Israel Mileage Award Chart
-Getting To Israel Using Starwood Starpoints, 2016 Edition
American Express is a DansDeals.com advertiser.
Emirates currently flies a daily A380 nonstop between JFK and Milan.
Effective 3/12 they will also fly a daily 777 nonstop between Newark and Athens.
Both flights offer coach, business, and first class, though the 777 has 7 across seating in business class, has no business/first class bar, and doesn’t offer first class showers like the A380 offers.
Partner award inventory hasn’t been loaded for the Athens flight, but for when it does, JAL has the best award chart for Emirates flights. They don’t charge a fuel surcharge for Emirates flights.
A round-trip on either route or an open-jaw (for example departing JFK-Milan and returning Athens-Newark) costs 40K JAL miles in coach, 65K in business, or 100K in first class, round-trip.
The Starwood Consumer AMEX and the Starwood Business AMEX have the ability to earn points that are transferable to dozens of airlines at a 20K:25K ratio, effectively 1.25 miles per dollar spent everywhere.
Thanks to the 25% bonus for transferring Starpoints to JAL it’s effectively 32K Starpoints in coach, 52K Starpoints in business class, or 80K Starpoints in first class, round-trip.
From Athens it’s a sub-2 hour flight to Israel on Star Alliance member Aegean or on El Al. In May SkyTeam member Aliatalia will also fly nonstop between Athens and Tel Aviv.
Round-trips from Athens to Tel Aviv start at just $117:
From Milan you can fly on EasyJet or El Al nonstop to Tel Aviv.
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45 Comments On "Emirates Adding a 2nd Nonstop From NYC To Europe; Another Good Use Of Starpoints To Israel"
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is emirates safe to fly for a yid ?
@shauly:
Yes.
It’s worth noting EK J on the 777 isn’t very good
How soon will they start displaying flights to Athens for booking?
How can I transfer Starpoints to JAL at 32k points to get the Emirates flight to Athens?
If I use mileage for the Athens-Newark flight and buy a TLV-athens, will I need to recheck my luggage in Athens, or can I check them in TLV to Newark?
Is their 777 anything excited? anything better than United?
Does JAL charge fuel surcharge for Emirates?
@shauly: Safe maybe — but creepy
Experts please clarify for Novice, how to actualize what Dan is saying.
say I have 60 SPG which is worth 1.25 meaning 75k points.
what is my next step
assume I want to fly emirates as mentioned above using these points.
what must I do?
do I open an account with Japan then call amex and have them transfer 75 k points into my Japan account?
if yes whats next – how do I get them to emirates?
and finally from Athens how do I get to Israel do I buy a cash ticket or is there a point usage that gets me to Israel via an entirely different award redemption.
finally having reviewed the chart seems flying blue can come out the cheapest at times- how would that work best with the above point count –
finally finally- can amex platinum points be converted to amex spg points on the mex side or is it entirely separate.
I have 200k of those points.
tyvm
How much is YQ?
Are they offering kosher meals on these flights?
@High end hobo:
Indeed.
@ron:
Give it a few days for partner awards to be added.
The effective rates I wrote are with the 25% bonus, but you need to transfer Starpoints in increments of 20K in order to get the 25% bonus.
@Anonymous:
You will likely need to recheck.
@FlyFirst:
Not better than United, but much better availability.
@Anonymous:
No fuel surcharges with JAL.
@Anonymous:
Plenty of frum people have flown Emirates with no issues.
@Nick:
You’ll need to call JAL to book awards. You can do that now for JFK-Milan, but partner award seats haven’t yet been added for JFK-Athens.
After confirming award space you can transfer the points to JAL.
From Athens you can buy a ticket or use dozens of different kinds of points.
AMEX points convert to SPG at a dreadful 3:1 ratio.
@M:
$0 with JAL.
@Avi:
Yes.
Keep in mind that SPG points can take up to a week to transfer to JAL.
@Dan: Thanks Dan
I understand that transfers need to be done in increments of 20k. But how do I get the 20k to convert to 32k JAL? Is there an extra bonus?
Also, does Emirates offer the Athens flight on points with any value? or better of checking with JAL.
I need a good price to las vegas
March 18 to 19 return at night
Whatever happened to Emirates’ planned nonstop between NY and Budapest?
@Anonymous:
20k SPG converts to 25k JAL. 32k SPG converts to 40k JAL, which is what you need for a coach ticket. However, you need to transfer 40k SPG to get 50k JAL.
Flying first class emirates. Will a child also cost 100k miles?
Who is Emirates? And Jal is Japanese airlines?
@Help:
@Dan @help
Thanks for the response. I tried checking JAL website to redeem mileage for an award ticket for the round trip Athens, but the website is confusing and doesn’t give me the option to choose Athens as a destination.
What is the best way to check availability?
@Hanan: ye. Maybe do some research. What a bad unrelated post. Keep it relevant
@Dan:
Dan, when you say it needs to be transferred in increments of 20k points to get the bonus, does that mean make multiple transfers of 20k each, in separate batches?
OR can I make transfers of 60k points to get 75k points?
Is there a post that explains how to upgrade your seat with points?
Is availability loaded yet on JL?
i dont see it on the JL website
@David:
It is loaded.
You need to call JAL.
@David:
David & Dan
I just called JAL, looking for mileage tickets to Athens in July. They told me nothing was available yet on points. They said it was 65k points one way on business, or 100k points round trip, and they were unsure of the fees at this time since Emirates is not a OneWorld partner.
Post back here if you get some other information or availability.
@Ronnie:
There’s lots of availability for travel in March-May.
I’d expect summer travel to open up as well, but it’s still early for that.
@Dan:
Thanks Dan
I already have accommodations booked for July, so hoping my specific dates open up on points.
Can you confirm that 100k points BC roundtrip is correct?
@Anonymous:
Business is 65K, first is 100K round-trip.
I’ve confirmed that with JAL.
Hi Dan how can I open JAL account?
@Joseph:
http://www.ar.jal.com/arl/en/jmb/
When do transfers from SPG-JAL post?
when is the cutoff or is it not a weekly posting to JAL?
One way is an option ?
@David:
Seems like they post on Wednesday/Thursday if you make the weekly batch cutoff.
I don’t know the exact cutoff date, probably Sunday or Monday.
@David:
Yes, but not a good value.
https://www.ar.jal.com/ar/en/jalmile/use/partner_air/p_jmb/jmb_mile_ar.html
OW from EWR-ATH or JFK-MXP would be 37K coach, 60K business, or 90K first.
Is it worth booking this with Hybrid points?
@Dan:
Still better then unitex offers for partners, isn’t it?
What about Chase UR points to Virgin then to Alaska Air to be able to book with JAL?
I flew one way emirates milan to jfk THANKS TO DAN. I didnt feel any uncomfortable atmosphere. I was in first class -so I entered the business class/first class lounge -the entry to the plane is from the lounge. In the lounge i had coffee and fruit. I asked for raw nuts and they had walnuts.and the main flight attendant gave us a tour of the plane. The mensroom has a special place for washing feet and the prayer room has korans and carpets. I did mincha there anyway. Im sure you saw pictures of the beautiful plane and showers. The kosher food was nothing to ride home about. it was a simple business class meal, served in airline meal disposable with hechsher from biale rebbe.
i am not a big drinker so the royal salute and blue label didnt talk to me. The main flight attendant (who was christian) took me on a tour and I did see arabic woman with headcoverings in economy class.
I would fly emirates again.
How many U R to JAL?
Woyjd work ord to Athens or Milan?
Same cost at JAL?
It’s so annoying. Cuz lax-dxb direct is only 82.5 in biz class. And JFK-Milan is 105k.
Anyone get any luck with availability in July to Athens?
If anyone has an abundance of points and willing to sell, let me know!
dan when do you think july availability will open up?
@dovid:
Wondering the same thing, been calling every week since this post a month ago. Looking for RT to Athens, Nothing available yet, they only offer via Dubai which doesn’t make sense.
Frustrating…
@dovid:
Read this yesterday though…
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/03/08/new-york-new-jersey-congressional-members-ask-trump-to-stop-emirates-flight.html
ReplyR
Hi Dan,
Any idea how, or from which location charge YQ? I’m trying to do JFK/BOS/IAD -> DXB -> CAI -> DXB. I keep seeing conflicting information about YQ collection and unfortunately you can’t get a straight answer from JAL unless you have the miles and are in the ticketing process.
I’d much rather find out if YQ will be added and expensive prior to transfer of SPG to JAL.