Emirates, Alaska Air Celebrate Partnership, Customers

A new codeshare and lounge agreement between Alaska Airlines and Emirates was a fitting occasion to welcome top customers, special guests and suppliers to a celebration event in Seattle last week.

Press Today’s Ted Davis was on hand when the two carriers co-hosted the gathering, which was held at the Chihuly Glass House glass art gallery, in the exhibition complex at Seattle’s Space Needle.

With the codeshare agreement in place, Emirates will start marketing up to 300 daily Alaska Airlines flights, giving travellers the ability to purchase connecting flights on both airlines using one reservation. This will give them seamless ticketing, check-in, boarding and baggage check-in for the entire journey. The agreement also features benefits like reciprocal lounge access and priority boarding/check-in for elite fliers.

Emirates had extra reason to celebrate, given its recently announced record earnings of US$2.2 billion for the Emirates Group. This is the 28th consecutive year of profit for the Group.

Alaska Air had its own special reasons for raising a glass at the event. That is, the airline has just announced the acquisition of Virgin America Inc. for an aggregate transaction value of about US$4 billion. It promises to provide more choices for customers and attractive returns to investors.

Pictured, co-hosting the recent Emirates/Alaska Airlines Partnership event in Seattle were (l-r) Joseph Sprague, senior VP of communications and external relations for Alaska Air; Rob Gurney, senior VP in North America for Emirates; and Andrew Harrison, executive VP and chief commercial officer of Alaska Airlines.