Alaska Mileage Plan - New award chart from March 2024

[kamchatsky]

Sweet spots all gone. New distance based chart for Asia Pacific to rest of the world travel, but much more flexibility:

Mileage Plan airline miles award charts - Alaska Airlines

Use our award charts to see how many miles you need for travel to your destination, both for flights on Alaska Airlines and our worldwide partner airlines.

www.alaskaair.com

Article from OMAAT

Huge Alaska Mileage Plan Award Changes Coming In March 2024

As of March 2024, Alaska Mileage Plan is completely changing award redemptions, with new award pricing and more availability.

onemileatatime.com

 

[levelnine]

Utterly destroyed the Australia-USA sweet spot. At least I don't need to worry about trying to churn BoA cards now ha.

 

[Danger]

I hope I'm wrong but the way I read it, Australian domestic in J goes from 20K to 50K.

 

[Mattg]

I hope I'm wrong but the way I read it, Australian domestic in J goes from 20K to 50K.

If the route is over 1,500 miles, then yes. But under 1,500 miles (e.g. PER-ADL) drops from 20K to 15K.



Obviously I don't like this change, overall, because it kills most of the sweet spots. I also don't love the terminology "Starting at" because it means Alaska can increase the rates whenever it wants, with no consequences.

But on the plus side, this would appear to remove the restriction of only being able to redeem flights on specific routes. E.g. you'll now be able to redeem SYD-AKL for 15K miles in J, which previously wasn't possible at all.

 

[Danger]

A 2.5 times increase is extraordinary.

I was pleased, though, to find this blog article that highlighted some half-decent redemptions under the new program.

 

[kamchatsky]

I think the next sweet spot is J itinerary just under 10000 miles (85k) but from Australia to Europe. Need to start either BNE/ADL/PER via CX/QR/SQ:

A map from the Great Circle Mapper

A map from the Great Circle Mapper

www.gcmap.com

Anything over 10000 miles is 130k which is too high. You can always buy repositioning flights from SYD/Mel separately.

 

[burmans]

I think the next sweet spot is J itinerary just under 10000 miles (85k) but from Australia to Europe. Need to start either BNE/ADL/PER via CX/QR/SQ:

A map from the Great Circle Mapper

A map from the Great Circle Mapper

www.gcmap.com

Anything over 10000 miles is 130k which is too high. You can always buy repositioning flights from SYD/Mel separately.

Thanks, that is indeed very useful info.

 

[kamchatsky]

Furthermore, going to USA East Coast is another sweet spot of just under 10000 miles (85k miles) , depending on the accuracy of distance calculator. In this example, Syd-dfw-jfk on QF/AA

A map from the Great Circle Mapper

A map from the Great Circle Mapper

www.gcmap.com

 

[Gold Member]

I think the next sweet spot is J itinerary just under 10000 miles (85k) but from Australia to Europe. Need to start either BNE/ADL/PER via CX/QR/SQ:

A map from the Great Circle Mapper

A map from the Great Circle Mapper

www.gcmap.com

Anything over 10000 miles is 130k which is too high. You can always buy repositioning flights from SYD/Mel separately.

MEL-DOH/SIN-FCO comes in just under the 10K mark. Although I’d still rather fly a domestic connection to ADL/BNE than connect to an intra-EU flight.

 

[drmatte]

MEL-DOH/SIN-FCO comes in just under the 10K mark. Although I’d still rather fly a domestic connection to ADL/BNE than connect to an intra-EU flight.

but BNE is over 10000 miles. Alaska is using the path flown (ie via Dubai/ Singapore/hong kong) and either way Bne comes out as more than 10000 miles, even to Rome.

 

[Gold Member]

but BNE is over 10000 miles. Alaska is using the path flown (ie via Dubai/ Singapore/hong kong) and either way Bne comes out as more than 10000 miles, even to Rome.

That’s why I didn’t include BNE in my routing example under 10K as MEL-DOH/SIN-FCO. I called out BNE as a possible candidate from a prior domestic connection before originating somewhere onward in the EU under 10K.

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

Nice to see a few little spots that might still be value for some.

Otherwise, inevitable and, if anything, I'm surprised it took this long as far as the 55K rewards to/from North America on QF and FJ were concerned. Was nice to take advantage of them while we could, and glad I shifted away from AS once the writing was on the wall given how limited availability has been to use up what's left.

I was down to ~21,000 miles and have the last 20K booked as a SYD-PER-MEL-ADL status run in J in Feb (thanks to Points Club giving me SCs for those), and from there, well, that's the end of the road for me and Alaska.

 

[Danger]

Nice to see a few little spots that might still be value for some.

Otherwise, inevitable and, if anything, I'm surprised it took this long as far as the 55K rewards to/from North America on QF and FJ were concerned. Was nice to take advantage of them while we could, and glad I shifted away from AS once the writing was on the wall given how limited availability has been to use up what's left.

I was down to ~21,000 miles and have the last 20K booked as a SYD-PER-MEL-ADL status run in J in Feb (thanks to Points Club giving me SCs for those), and from there, well, that's the end of the road for me and Alaska.

You were able to book SYD-PER-MEL-ADL in J for only 20K? If so, did you manage this online or did you need to call?

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

You were able to book SYD-PER-MEL-ADL in J for only 20K? If so, did you manage this online or did you need to call?

You can do it online by searching as a multi-city like this:



The important caveat is that the "connecting flight" you add for the second leg must depart on the same day the last segment of the first leg arrives (though this can be after midnight on the next day as long as the inbound flight before arrives after midnight, and connecting flights can go into the next day):



You can really get creative (I've managed up to 6 segments before for 20K on some searches), but here was trying to maximise flights on the 330 and I actually need to be in Adelaide that week so went with that as the final destination rather than something more convoluted.

Also important: you can't fly through the same city twice, or it will reprice as 40K, e.g., SYD-PER-SYD-ADL, but via MEL is fine.

 

[Gold Member]

I actually need to be in Adelaide that week so went with that as the final destination rather than something more convoluted.

Criss-crossing Australia over 4 flights isn’t convoluted enough already?

Nice hack with AS miles for QF PC BTW

 

[Danger]

You can do it online by searching as a multi-city like this ...

Very interesting. That detailed info is helpful.

I was curious what was being offered for the 15K:



"Not entirely" apparently being not at all.

 

[_TheTraveller_]

For those frequently going across the ditch, the new award chart works in their favour:

 

[burmans]

Nice!!

 

[Mattg]

The first quarterly award sale is now live:

Explore Global Getaways - Alaska Airlines

Exclusive to Mileage Plan™ members, enjoy access to unbeatable worldwide award travel offers each quarter.

www.alaskaair.com

Unfortunately, the discounts only apply to travel to/from the US.

 

[Gold Member]

For those frequently going across the ditch, the new award chart works in their favour:

View attachment 377157

Better still, business awards SYD-AKL/CHC/WLG are just 15K miles. MEL-ZQN (but not elsewhere in NZ) also just fits into the 15K business award category too.