Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan

[MEL_Traveller]

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.

Unfortunately not possible - you can only book the routes - and airlines on those routes - specified in Alaska's award charts: Mileage Plan airline miles award charts | Alaska Airlines Australia to Europe or v.v. is not an award that is offered.

Good question as to whether AS could combine two awards onto the one ticket. Dunno the answer on that!

I think a HKG transit will be fine for next year.

 

[Infrequent traveller]

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.

Great outcome.

Just for reference, I bought 1000 "miles" for A$40-ish(?) last time to extend the validity (before learning the "plain request" approach. Certainly not the best value but really minimum hassle and uncertainty should other attempts fail

 

[nuthq]

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

I must be doing something wrong. All my results return an error along the lines of the journey starts and ends in the same international country?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I must be doing something wrong. All my results return an error along the lines of the journey starts and ends in the same international country?

You need to make sure you check the box 'use miles'. (The box sits above the 'from' section, next to 'one way'.)

If you don't have that box checked it will return the error you describe.

 

[aaa99]

Unfortunately not possible - you can only book the routes - and airlines on those routes - specified in Alaska's award charts: Mileage Plan airline miles award charts | Alaska Airlines Australia to Europe or v.v. is not an award that is offered.

Good question as to whether AS could combine two awards onto the one ticket. Dunno the answer on that!

I think a HKG transit will be fine for next year.

Thank you. I rang Cathay and they confirmed that unless the 2 flights are under the same reservation the government restrictions will not let me transit HKG.

Also, it became a non-event in the end as the availability being shown on BA website seemed to not show up for Alaska when I rang them. Is BA still the most reliable way to check availability for CX? I also tried AA and QF and there is definitely availability, but maybe not released to Alaska.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Thank you. I rang Cathay and they confirmed that unless the 2 flights are under the same reservation the government restrictions will not let me transit HKG.

Also, it became a non-event in the end as the availability being shown on BA website seemed to not show up for Alaska when I rang them. Is BA still the most reliable way to check availability for CX? I also tried AA and QF and there is definitely availability, but maybe not released to Alaska.

What Alaska can do is charge you for two awards, but on the same ticket (and reservation). There's no benefit cost wise in terms of miles, but it achieves the single ticket/reservation.

While As does get less availability on CX than other OW partners, the added complexity is AS agents being unable to 'see' what CX inventory is available. This is a common issue. You need to get an experienced agent that knows how to find it in the system.

There's an extensive thread on Flyertalk: Cathay Pacific (CX) Award Redemption, Booking and Availability 2019 and Later - FlyerTalk Forums. You might want to have a look at that, starting from the end and working back.

 

[aaa99]

What Alaska can do is charge you for two awards, but on the same ticket (and reservation). There's no benefit cost wise in terms of miles, but it achieves the single ticket/reservation.

While As does get less availability on CX than other OW partners, the added complexity is AS agents being unable to 'see' what CX inventory is available. This is a common issue. You need to get an experienced agent that knows how to find it in the system.

There's an extensive thread on Flyertalk: Cathay Pacific (CX) Award Redemption, Booking and Availability 2019 and Later - FlyerTalk Forums. You might want to have a look at that, starting from the end and working back.

I tried the HUCA method mentioned in the thread and it seemed to work.
The agent I got today was wonderful and was able to find the availability quickly.

Unfortunately, as you both mentioned, they cant link the 2 bookings together and I ended up paying 72.5k miles (perhaps not the best value). It is a limitation that CX places on AS. Still went ahead considering that cancellation is possible. Here is hoping HKG relaxes transit rules by then. Might just book a cash fare or alternative closer to the date if things dont change.

 

[burmans]

Mar/April next year you should be fine! Overall trend is relaxing restrictions even in next two months.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I tried the HUCA method mentioned in the thread and it seemed to work.
The agent I got today was wonderful and was able to find the availability quickly.

Unfortunately, as you both mentioned, they cant link the 2 bookings together and I ended up paying 72.5k miles (perhaps not the best value). It is a limitation that CX places on AS. Still went ahead considering that cancellation is possible. Here is hoping HKG relaxes transit rules by then. Might just book a cash fare or alternative closer to the date if things dont change.

Rather than linking, did you ask if they can include both reservations on the one ticket? So you'd have (for example) London-Hong Kong as one award, then you *add* the HKG-SYD, so two awards, one ticket.

 

[aaa99]

Rather than linking, did you ask if they can include both reservations on the one ticket? So you'd have (for example) London-Hong Kong as one award, then you *add* the HKG-SYD, so two awards, one ticket.

Maybe I didnt use the right wording. Oops. The agent did say both sectors cant be under the same reservation but maybe same ticket but 2 PNR is possible
I will ring up again later to see if they are able to do anything. If not, I might be at the peril of transit restrictions changing by May 22

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Maybe I didnt use the right wording. Oops.
I will ring up again later to see if they are able to do anything. If not, I might be at the peril of transit restrictions changing by May 22

if the tickets have already been issued it will be too late. The only way they could do it would be to cancel the second booking and add a new seat to the existing one... assuming there is one left (you can't guarantee with CX that a cancelled seat will go back into award inventory).

It would have been interesting to know if they can do it... there have been reports of successfully adding two awards onto the one ticket, so I was interested to see if that was an exception, or something easily done.

 

[aaa99]

Mar/April next year you should be fine! Overall trend is relaxing restrictions even in next two months.

Fingers crossed.

if the tickets have already been issued it will be too late. The only way they could do it would be to cancel the second booking and add a new seat to the existing one... assuming there is one left (you can't guarantee with CX that a cancelled seat will go back into award inventory).

It would have been interesting to know if they can do it... there have been reports of successfully adding two awards onto the one ticket, so I was interested to see if that was an exception, or something easily done.

Ah, yes, it is risky and there was no additional reward seats.
If all falls through, it will atleast extend the validity of my miles by 2 years

 

[aaa99]

Hello, back to this one. I cancelled my Alaska reward on Cathay as things have gotten more stricter in HKG.

On a separate note, are JAL F rewards no longer bookable via Alaska miles? I can wide open availability on some routes (LAX-HND) using the Qantas multi-city tool but none on the Alaska website when I search for the same. Has anyone managed to nab these recently?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Hello, back to this one. I cancelled my Alaska reward on Cathay as things have gotten more stricter in HKG.

On a separate note, are JAL F rewards no longer bookable via Alaska miles? I can wide open availability on some routes (LAX-HND) using the Qantas multi-city tool but none on the Alaska website when I search for the same. Has anyone managed to nab these recently?

There have been reports elsewhere that at least some of the QF F partner availability has been phantom. Might be worth cross-checking with someone like BA to see if the flights are actually there. If yes, might need a call.

 

[aaa99]

There have been reports elsewhere that at least some of the QF F partner availability has been phantom. Might be worth cross-checking with someone like BA to see if the flights are actually there. If yes, might need a call.

Oh yes, it was phantom indeed. Thanks anyway

 

[aaa99]

Has anyone redeemed Alaska miles for Finn Air? Is it a reasonable use of 60k miles for travelling from Asia to Europe? Shows lots of wide open availability on Asian routes- SIN-HEL for April.

We initially bought our miles to book JAL first which was available for 2 ppl in some routes in 2020. 3 years has gone by and now I am finding it hard to find JAL F in pairs. So we are planning to use it for our upcoming trip instead. The Hel-CDG sector is unfortunately on Euro style business class. Not sure if I want to detour to LHR just to avoid this.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Has anyone redeemed Alaska miles for Finn Air? Is it a reasonable use of 60k miles for travelling from Asia to Europe? Shows lots of wide open availability on Asian routes- SIN-HEL for April.

We initially bought our miles to book JAL first which was available for 2 ppl in some routes in 2020. 3 years has gone by and now I am finding it hard to find JAL F in pairs. So we are planning to use it for our upcoming trip instead. The Hel-CDG sector is unfortunately on Euro style business class. Not sure if I want to detour to LHR just to avoid this.

I think it’s a reasonable redemption… not many other choices. CX is unrealisable at the moment due to their reduced capacity. JL would be good, but problems with covid restrictions. AY is not a bad alternative.

 

[serfty]

JL would be good, but problems with covid restrictions.

Moreover, JL cannot currently be used to book between Asia and Europe using Mileage Plan.

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

MileagePlan does not yet allow redemption on all oneworld/partner airlines on all routes.

 

[aaa99]

Moreover, JL cannot currently be used to book between Asia and Europe using Mileage Plan.

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

MileagePlan does not yet allow redemption on all oneworld airlines on all routes.

Ah that makes sense.
I wasn't clear, but back then we had booked from ASIA to USA on JAL.

I wonder how long it will take to integrate all oneworld redemptions, but hopefully that doesnt remove all the sweet spots. For instance, they allow Asia to Middle East and Middle east to Europe on Qatar now, but cant do Asia to Europe.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Moreover, JL cannot currently be used to book between Asia and Europe using Mileage Plan.

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

MileagePlan does not yet allow redemption on all oneworld/partner airlines on all routes.

Yes. My mistake. I thought the OP might have been able to combine two awards, via Tokyo.