Revealed: Qatar Airways award rates using Alaska miles

In December 2020 Qatar Airways forged a partnership with Alaska Airlines, giving Alaska’s Mileage Plan members the option to credit paid flights on the Middle East carrier to the popular programme, ahead of Qatar’s non-stop Doha-Seattle route and Alaska’s entry into the oneworld alliance.

Good news is that you have been able to credit all oneworld flights to Alaska since 31st March 2021, when the airline officially joined the oneworld alliance, but the Qatar pact came slightly ahead of that.

What we’ve been anticipating more than earning, however, are the award rates payable to redeem on Qatar Airways flights using Mileage Plan miles.

These were first promised from 31st March 2021, to coincide with Alaska’s oneworld entry, but it seems like Qatar Airways wanted Middle East rival Emirates out of the equation before reciprocal award booking was launched.

With the nine-year Alaska-Emirates partnership ending on 31st July, we were expecting to have Qatar awards come online on or after 1st August.

Well Alaska hasn’t yet published its Qatar Airways award chart, but we noticed today that is has started loading Qatar Airways awards to Mileage Plan members through its website.

Redeeming Alaska miles on Qatar Airways

Based on our searches, Qatar Airways has not opened its full network to Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan members at this stage.

That should follow later this year when Alaska rolls out all oneworld redemptions to its members. For now, it’s only possible to redeem flights between the following regions:

• Middle East to/from Asia, Canada / USA, Europe, India / S. Asia, Middle East, South Pacific
• Canada / USA to/from Africa, India / S. Asia, Middle East

Notable exceptions for our readers, based on searches, include Asia to/from Europe and the USA, so it looks as though we have no published rates yet for routings like Singapore – London or Singapore – New York.

Here’s how the award rates compare on the sole zone apparently available from Singapore, to the Middle East (e.g. Doha, Amman, Dubai)