Fantastic Alaska Airline miles deal on again

[Aussie_flyer]

But surely points.com clients can specify whose cards are accepted for transactions on their goods and services? When I called AS, they specifically said that AS had brought the curtain down.

Yes but you mentioned they don't want to bear the cost of additional security/IT for dealing with foreign cards. Well clearly points.com has all of these facilities, they manage to do transactions for airlines across the globe and have been doing so for many years

 

[Limewood]

AS consultant advised me on phone yesterday after speaking with his supervisor and contacting points.com its a policy change not the card.

I'm awaiting a reply from points.com on my complaint that there as no notification of this policy change anywhere and until there is AS miles purchased by foreigners should not be declined.

 

[SandyS]

No, its not "US citizens only". Please at least read the thread

They are limiting it to US, Canadian and (probably) Mexican issued credit (and I think debit) cards. This is quite common in North America - they can't be bothered (don't want to bear the additional cost) with the additional security / IT required for accepting cards from countries outside Nth America.

Doesn't mean I agree with it - I too am planning to use AS this year, as One World down the west coast is pretty hopeless.

Tomorrow (Monday my time) I'll know if I have succeeded in getting a Canadian debit card (I'm visiting Canada), with local addresses. And then I'll see if it works!

My apologies about US citizens only statement.

Last week, when I called AS to check on award availability, (before it became apparent on this forum that there had been any changes) I mentioned that my Aussie card has been declined and she couldn't understand this because she processes foreign credit cards all the time when booking flights. She even gave me some tips on leaving out my postcode etc so the card could go through and advised me to make the most of their offer on bonus miles before 15th March. So its not just us that were in the dark on this policy change.

 

[mlob]

Gee I wander how its going to work when and if I get the points through my American friend and I have to give them some money to process the award flight. There is a small fee associated with partner airline awards etc. I hope I dont get pulled up at that stage!!!

 

[Longrass]

Gee I wander how its going to work when and if I get the points through my American friend and I have to give them some money to process the award flight. There is a small fee associated with partner airline awards etc. I hope I dont get pulled up at that stage!!!

Any updates on the CC situation?


Was thinking of doing a purchase, however in saying that, I cant find ANY availability, DRW,MEL or SYD to HKG... Im looking 6 months in advance too! Or am I doing something wrong?

Furthermore, is there a limit to the points purchase in one hit? Is there an annual limit like AA? Couldn't find anything online.

 

[mlob]

From my reading on here. No annual limits but there does seem to be limits to the number of transactions you can do on one card. People were using multiple cards for big purchases.

 

[RooFlyer]

<snip>

Furthermore, is there a limit to the points purchase in one hit? Is there an annual limit like AA? Couldn't find anything online.

Currently its 40,000 miles plus 16,000 bonus in one hit (US$1,100). But as far as I'm aware, you can then do another transaction (but limewood may be able to confirm, or not).

 

[legroom]

Currently its 40,000 miles plus 16,000 bonus in one hit (US$1,100). But as far as I'm aware, you can then do another transaction (but limewood may be able to confirm, or not).

Correct

I was able to do four transactions before this policy change.

Enough for my needs

 

[Limewood]

There is no limit, bought mine last Dec. in blocks over 3 days, but NOW unless you have both a USA Alaska Airlines milage account and a USA credit or debit card you can forget about buying AS miles, I received this today so its now official...

"We apologize for the inconvenience that this matter may have caused you. Please note that Alaska Airlines has made the decision to no longer allow any Alaska Airlines members who reside outside of the US, Canada and Mexico are not eligible to purchase Alaska Airlines miles".

 

[legroom]

The kick in the gut would be to deny award booking by aliens (non US, Canadian, Mexican).

Not saying it is here but ......

Probably illegal in that case: taking money for points which cannot be used.

 

[SandyS]

[


So, does that mean that when I'm trying to redeem a hard to come by, relatively expensive (compared to AS miles) Qantas reward flight to the US from Oz, with my hard earned Qantas points, that I'm further limited by AS members getting the seats cheap? Or am I wrong with that assumption?

 

[smit0847]

[
So, does that mean that when I'm trying to redeem a hard to come by, relatively expensive (compared to AS miles) Qantas reward flight to the US from Oz, with my hard earned Qantas points, that I'm further limited by AS members getting the seats cheap? Or am I wrong with that assumption?

QFF members get a 1 month head start over all partner airlines for all QF award seats.

 

[SandyS]

QFF members get a 1 month head start over all partner airlines for all QF award seats.

I still feel hard done by, I'm afraid

 

[smit0847]

I still feel hard done by, I'm afraid

I'm sure there's a way around this - us AFFers are extremely clever with workarounds. I saw someone mention there are US companies that will buy things for you and charge you if you need a US CC much like those Ship-It-To companies for online purchases that only ship to the US?

 

[SandyS]

I'm sure there's a way around this - us AFFers are extremely clever with workarounds. I saw someone mention there are US companies that will buy things for you and charge you if you need a US CC much like those Ship-It-To companies for online purchases that only ship to the US?

I agree that the AFFers are extremely clever. It's a fantastic site. In this instance though, it seems there's no real way around it as this and other sites are reporting that it's now dead in the water. Alaska Airlines are saying this offer is for US and Canadian residents only, so even if one bought points with say an American friend's card, I guess they could still refuse you.

 

[anat0l]

[


So, does that mean that when I'm trying to redeem a hard to come by, relatively expensive (compared to AS miles) Qantas reward flight to the US from Oz, with my hard earned Qantas points, that I'm further limited by AS members getting the seats cheap? Or am I wrong with that assumption?

QFF members get a 1 month head start over all partner airlines for all QF award seats.

QF elite members also have the ability to request seats, potentially opening up availability when the system reports none.

But that's all an aside. QF is in agreement with many airlines; they too have access to our seats, and AS is not the only partner which is "lucrative" in this regard. On top of that, there are unconfirmed reports that state that AS may only have access to a subset of the stated availability; whilst this has seemed to only relate to CX, there's no reason why (notwithstanding unconfirmed) it couldn't also apply to QF.

 

[Limewood]

In relation to QFF members loosing seats to AS just try and get a Q seat on AS in J SYD/LAX/SYD at anytime.

The number of award J seats AS has at anytime internationally from the associate airlines is very very thin. Even award seats found on CX Marco Polo I found most not available via AS.

Are there other airlines that prohibit FF points/miles purchases to residents not of USA, Canada & Mexico?.

 

[dalereardon]

See this blog post for some investigation into the issue. Story doesn't hold up in my opinion though - if international credit card usage was such a small percentage then they should have been able to manage the fraud. points.com has no problems with other airline programs with international cards.

Perhaps someone with the ear of Alaska Airlines could suggest in the meantime that they allow international wire transfers to buy miles by Australians.

Alaska Airlines freezes out Aussie frequent flyers in credit card fraud crackdown - Flights | hotels | frequent flyer | business class - Australian Business Traveller



Dale.

 

[anat0l]

In relation to QFF members loosing seats to AS just try and get a Q seat on AS in J SYD/LAX/SYD at anytime.

Good luck, any programme, full stop! I guess not completely impossible but obviously a popular route, so it's still difficult even for QFF members without some luck and tricks.

Are there other airlines that prohibit FF points/miles purchases to residents not of USA, Canada & Mexico?.

Not that I'm aware of, although US Airways ran a promotion previous to the current one they have where you could qualify for a points purchase bonus but only if you purchased it with a specific US Airways credit card. Naturally quite easy for said residents to obtain; not so for international ones.

 

[RooFlyer]

In relation to QFF members loosing seats to AS just try and get a Q seat on AS in J SYD/LAX/SYD at anytime.

The number of award J seats AS has at anytime internationally from the associate airlines is very very thin. Even award seats found on CX Marco Polo I found most not available via AS.

Are there other airlines that prohibit FF points/miles purchases to residents not of USA, Canada & Mexico?.

Didn't you mention way up thread that you found CX Award seats via AS miles fairly easily?