Lifestyle

You can now redeem Alaska miles on El Al, business class awards starting at 85,000 miles


If you’ve been dreaming of traveling to the Middle East or prefer to use your miles to fly on airlines you’ve never experienced before, we have good news for you. Now can change Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles for flights over El AlIsrael’s national airline.

Not like many alaska airline‘ partner, El Al is not part of one world alliance – as well as any other alliance. With a growing list of international flights, you can now use Alaska miles to fly with El Al to many destinations.

Related: The sweetest spots with Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan

Let’s take a closer look at this new partner redemption option to see if redeeming your Alaska miles for flights on El Al is a good use of your miles.

Exchange Alaska miles for El Al flights

While Alaska Announces Unique Award Rankings for each of its airline partners (which you can see here), the award rankings for El Al have yet to be announced, as first noticed by Prize wallet. Until the official rewards chart is available, you will need to look up reward availability to see what rates are in effect on the date you want to fly.

Business class seats on El Al’s Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner. ZACH GRIFF/THE POINT

That being said, there are trends we can note:

  • Bonus rates at the beginning of 2023 are cheaper than at the end of 2023 when flying from the US to Tel Aviv, Israel‘S Ben Gurion Airport (TLV), with mileage claims increasing from 17% to 25% on average. Those price spikes start as early as July on some routes but not until September or October 2023 on others. This means you will get a better value of miles if you fly in the first half of 2023 using your Alaska miles to fly to Israeli with El Al.
  • Business class rewards start at 85,000 miles from the US to Israel but have a similar upward trend as outlined above.
  • Redeem Qantas points for El Al . flights may be a better option, depending on your itinerary type and route. Redemption rate is not always better, but cumulative Qantas points much easier.
  • Redemption for connecting flights may not be active yet, as we were unable to find any redemption points from the US via Tel Aviv and on to other destinations such as Roman, dubai or Vien. More, Alaska’s website says can only be redeemed Middle East and Europeexclude destinations in Asia and Africa.

Related: Inside El Al’s gorgeous 787 Dreamliner with an overhauled cabin

Rate of redemption at the beginning of 2023

El Al flies from its base in Tel Aviv to US destinations such as Boston, Los Angeles, miamiNewark and New York. Depending on your route, you can expect the following price ranges on non-stop flights between TLV and United States:

  • Economy: 40,000 to 45,000 miles per person, each way.
  • Leading Economy: 60,000 to 70,000 miles per person, each way.
  • Business class: 85,000 miles per person, each way.
Conversion rate for using Alaska miles to fly to Tel Aviv on El Al. ALASKAAIR.COM

Acquisition rate for after 2023

However, the reward redemption rate will increase to 25% by the end of 2023. This change in the middle of next year echoes other negatives we have seen with Redeem Alaska Airlines rewards recently, such as dynamic pricing on its own flights and some very bad partner award rankings.

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Here’s what you might expect to pay when you exchange Alaska miles for El Al flights between Israel and the US in the second half of 2023:

  • Economy: 45,000 to 50,000 miles per person, each way.
  • Leading Economy: 80,000 miles per person, each way.
  • Business class: 100,000 miles per person, each way.
Redemption for October 2023 if Alaska miles are used on El Al to Israel flights from the US ALASKAAIR.COM

Other redemption options for El Al . flights

Before October 2020, you can transfer American Express Members Rewards Points to El Al and redeem it that way. However, the transfer rates and redemption options are pretty bad. The best option to redeem points and miles for El Al flights is to use the Qantas Frequent Flyer program and you may want to continue using this redemption instead of the new Alaska miles option.

Depending on the routing, you may need more or less points. However, the rates are not significantly different from those offered by Alaska Airlines on El Al flights. Qantas offers the following prices on the same flight from LAX to TLV previously shown:

  • Economy: 50,300 points.
  • Leading Economy: 93,500 points.
  • Business class: 119,200 points.
Qantas points conversion rate for El Al flights from LAX to TLV. QANTAS.COM

Related: Sweet Spot Sunday: Book El Al flights to Israel with Qantas . points

The advantage is that you can transfer points from American Express Membership Rewards, Brex Rewards, capital one, Citi Thank You Bonus and Marriott Bonvoy to your Qantas Frequent Flyer account. For comparison, the only transfer partner for Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan is from the Marriott Bonvoy, in addition to personal and business credit cardsboth are issued by Bank of America in the United States. This makes earning Qantas points much easier.

bottom line

If you want to fly on El Al, you can now redeem your Alaska miles for airline flights.

This happened after two airlines established a partnership in early 2019, which allows you to earn miles with one airline for paid flights on the other. After a long wait, you can finally redeem Alaska miles for award flights on El Al, although the rates aren’t terribly appealing—especially after they appear to be increasing in late 2023. That is to say, there are more options for how your points are used, and miles are an active network.

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