Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan

[Danger]

Does this help?

Fly with peace of mind: Alaska Airlines eliminates change fees permanently

 

[zoom&boom]

Does this help?

Fly with peace of mind: Alaska Airlines eliminates change fees permanently

Thanks Danger. I’ve seen this and playing Devil’s Advocate it doesn’t specifically mention award booking. In my case using AS points to fly on QF. Happy to be wrong....

 

[zoom&boom]

Ok straight from the horse’s mouth....well Chris at Alaska. All bookings including award bookings made up to and including 31DEC20 will incure no fees for changes/cancellation. The rules will change after then but the agent was not sure whether it would go back to what it was or remain the same.

Perhaps time to use those spare AS miles.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I seem to recall that a while ago I read in a US blog probably that AS were abolishing change and cancellation fees For award flights. For the life of me I now can’t find and references to this.

Does anybody know for sure what the current policy is for changes/cancellations?

Using miles FAQ | Alaska Airlines ... under the heading 'fees associated with award ticket' There's a USD125 charge for all changes or cancellations after 24 hours of booking.

Covid may have special arrangements for a limited time.

 

[JackMiles]

There's a bit of confusion around, even amongst Alaska Air reps, since, at the moment (up til 31 Dec) there are no change fees - including for award bookings - under a WAIVER. After 31 Dec, there will still be no change fees, but then it will be so under the new permanent policy. (So, yeah, the waiver ends, which makes it seem like fees will apply again, but for the new policy kicking in to eliminate them once again.)
I say this having made and changed several Milage Plan bookings, on QF, this year and spoken to Alaska reps about the policies etc.
Now, as for cancellation fees, I am not quite as confident. But I figure if you can change date and destination for no fee, you could just keep making changes until you eventually got a flight you could take.

 

[Gold Member]

TLDR: Use 200 miles to redeem magazines to extend miles another 24 months.

I have quite a few Alaska miles expiring end of month and I was looking for the cheapest way to extend for another 24 months and wanted to share my findings.

The obvious solution is to simply buy 1000 miles for ~$40 AUD. Another play, which I now use is to redeem miles for a magazine subscription. The cheapest redemption offered is 200 miles (or 100 miles +$3). Considering Alaskan miles are worth 1.8 USD cpp (2.5 AUD cpp), that works out very cheap. The activity appears immediately in your account and extends your miles for another 24 months.

After the redemption I was a little cautious because ‘milesformags’ claimed that once they had validated my account information, they would process the redemption. But since you can only redeem for physical delivery of the magazines to an address in the States, I figured there would be a mismatch of my MP account address and the street address I gave to Milesformags. But after clarifying with a MP agent, they do not have access to your account address so the ‘validation’ is irrelevant. And even if they didn’t honour your redemption for whatever reason, whether they returned the 200 miles to you or not is also irrelevant from an ‘activity’ perspective according to the MP Agent.

If you don’t have a legitimate address or friend to send the mags to in the States, buy some karma and send them to an organisation in need or somewhere they would be useful and most welcomed.

 

[nightelves]

TLDR: Use 200 miles to redeem magazines to extend miles another 24 months.

I have quite a few Alaska miles expiring end of month and I was looking for the cheapest way to extend for another 24 months and wanted to share my findings.

The obvious solution is to simply buy 1000 miles for ~$40 AUD. Another play, which I now use is to redeem miles for a magazine subscription. The cheapest redemption offered is 200 miles (or 100 miles +$3). Considering Alaskan miles are worth 1.8 USD cpp (2.5 AUD cpp), that works out very cheap. The activity appears immediately in your account and extends your miles for another 24 months.

After the redemption I was a little cautious because ‘milesformags’ claimed that once they had validated my account information, they would process the redemption. But since you can only redeem for physical delivery of the magazines to an address in the States, I figured there would be a mismatch of my MP account address and the street address I gave to Milesformags. But after clarifying with a MP agent, they do not have access to your account address so the ‘validation’ is irrelevant. And even if they didn’t honour your redemption for whatever reason, whether they returned the 200 miles to you or not is also irrelevant from an ‘activity’ perspective according to the MP Agent.

If you don’t have a legitimate address or friend to send the mags to in the States, buy some karma and send them to an organisation in need or somewhere they would be useful and most welcomed.

FYI you can just call up the Alaska Airline customer service and they'll add 1 point to your account to extend the expiry. That's what I did.

 

[andye]

GM

Your post prompted a panic as realised hadn't had recent activity (probably not since 2018)

Didn't help that unable to access account

Live Chat said account inactive and suggested Facebook Messenger

Account and 220k miles reinstated with a credit of 1 mile by service agent

Phew!

 

[burmans]

GM

Your post prompted a panic as realised hadn't had recent activity (probably not since 2018)

Didn't help that unable to access account

Live Chat said account inactive and suggested Facebook Messenger

Account and 220k miles reinstated with a credit of 1 mile by service agent

Phew!

Great advice to use Messenger, about 4 minutes and 1 point added.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

For anyone looking there lots of availability in business class on BNE-SFO (QF A330) and SYD-YVR (QF B787) for Mar/Apr/May (YVR tends to be later, SFO earlier). "free' connecting flights out of YVR and SFO to anywhere AS flies, in F. 55K plus change for taxes.

 

[nuthq]

Hey all. I have 44k Alaska miles due to expire mid-December. Anyone suggest the best way to do something with them? TIA

 

[nightelves]

Hey all. I have 44k Alaska miles due to expire mid-December. Anyone suggest the best way to do something with them? TIA

Call up Alaska closer to the date and they can extend it for you by adding 1 point to the account.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Hey all. I have 44k Alaska miles due to expire mid-December. Anyone suggest the best way to do something with them? TIA

Return business class anywhere in Australia on Qantas!

 

[burmans]

Call up Alaska closer to the date and they can extend it for you by adding 1 point to the account.

I did this via email or webchat- no need for a phone call!

 

[nuthq]

Return business class anywhere in Australia on Qantas!

Thanks MEL_Traveller. Do I have to ring Alaska to do that? Doesn’t appear you can book online?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Thanks MEL_Traveller. Do I have to ring Alaska to do that? Doesn’t appear you can book online?

You can book online! On the homepage make sure you check the 'use miles' box. I just tried a sample date MEL-PER for 24 March and nine non-stops were showing available for 20K each plus a bunch more flights via SYD, ADL or CBR. Also 20K each. (plus $28 tax, and I think they also add another fee for a partner booking, but it's small. It gets billed to your CC separately.)

 

[glasszon]

I reached out via chat about extending the Alaska miles validity and he is adamant it is not possible to add 1 point to my account, do I just need to try another agent or they changed the rules?

Edit: Tried another agent and managed to get my account validity extended, the good old HUACA worked.

 

[Jacques Vert]

I reached out via chat about extending the Alaska miles validity and he is adamant it is not possible to add 1 point to my account, do I just need to try another agent or they changed the rules?

Could you not book a car or a "participating" hotel, or transfer some Marriott points, etc.?

 

[aaa99]

Hello, is it not possible to book Europe to Australia under one CX ticket using Alaska miles? Sorry if this has been asked before. Seeing some availability from LHR to HKG and HKG to SYD in March/April. Will the call centre be able to book and link these together?

Also how confident are people booking CX at the moment for next year. I suppose transiting HKG should be fine, but today's schedules are largely reduced compared to next year.

 

[Mattg]

Hello, is it not possible to book Europe to Australia under one CX ticket using Alaska miles? Sorry if this has been asked before. Seeing some availability from LHR to HKG and HKG to SYD in March/April. Will the call centre be able to book and link these together?

Also how confident are people booking CX at the moment for next year. I suppose transiting HKG should be fine, but today's schedules are largely reduced compared to next year.

Currently, no it is not possible. You would have to book two separate Alaska awards. (This could change if Alaska makes changes to its award charts at some point, but that is the current rule.)

Given you currently can only transit via HKG if both flights are on the same ticket, I would be reluctant to book what you're suggesting.