Qantas Overcharging for Alaska Airlines Rewards

Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 in Oneworld livery
Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 in Oneworld livery. Photo: Alaska Airlines.

As Alaska Airlines is a Qantas partner airline and a member of the Oneworld alliance, its flights are available to book using Qantas Frequent Flyer points. But when redeeming Qantas points for seats in Alaska Airlines’ premium cabin, Qantas Frequent Flyer members are being routinely overcharged.

Instead of paying “Business Class” prices, Qantas Frequent Flyer members are paying “First Class” rates for these flights – even though Qantas’ own website flags that Business service will be provided.

This is obviously frustrating for people who want to redeem their Qantas points for a one-way or return flight on Alaska Airlines, as they are paying around 50% more points than they should. But it has even more significant implications for people trying to book a Oneworld Classic Flight Reward in Business Class.

Alaska Airlines’ domestic “First Class”

This problem exists because Alaska Airlines markets its premium cabin on two-class domestic flights as “First Class”. Most other US airlines do exactly the same thing – this is standard practice for domestic flights in the United States. But in most other countries, including Australia, this cabin would be marketed as “Business Class”.

Alaska Airlines domestic First Class
Alaska Airlines domestic First Class. Photo: Alaska Airlines.

That’s because the product is really equivalent to “Business Class” by global aviation industry standards, and it’s normally priced as such.

Even Qantas considers Alaska Airlines “First Class” to be equivalent to Business Class, as it awards Qantas points & status credits for Alaska Airlines First Class flights at the “Business” rate. This has been the case ever since Alaska Airlines joined Oneworld on 31 March 2021.

For example, the following Alaska Airlines First Class flight from Seattle to Raleigh books into “I” class.

Alaska Airlines airfare from Seattle to Raleigh-Durham
Alaska Airlines airfare from Seattle to Raleigh-Durham.

Qantas considers Alaskan “I” class to be “Business” on its partner airline earn category table for Alaska Airlines.

Qantas Frequent Flyer earn categories for Alaska Airlines flights
Qantas awards Business Class points & status credits for Alaska Airlines First Class flights.

Qantas Classic Reward pricing for Alaska Airlines flights

If you try to book an Alaska Airlines “First Class” flight with Qantas points, the Qantas website automatically prices it at the “First” level which requires around 50% more points to book than a “Business” flight. This is despite the Qantas website warning you that the flight “will be in Business”.

Alaska Airlines Classic Reward on the Qantas website
Alaska Airlines Classic Reward on the Qantas website.

When quoting the itinerary, the Qantas website even lists the travel class as “Business” and warns you again that the flight will be in Business. But the number of points is still quoted at the “First” level.

Alaska Airlines Business Class awards are priced as First Class by Qantas
Alaska Airlines Business Class awards are priced as First Class by Qantas.

The above flight from Seattle to Raleigh falls under Zone 3 on the Qantas Classic Flight Reward table, so should be priced as 43,800 Qantas points for a “Business” ticket.

It’s worth noting that American Airlines, another Qantas partner and US-based Oneworld alliance member, also sells its two-cabin domestic flights as “Economy” and “First” when you buy a ticket directly from American Airlines. But the Qantas website prices domestic premium cabin awards on American Airlines correctly at the “Business” level. So, this issue is unique to Alaska Airlines.

Qantas Classic Rewards on American Airlines 2-class domestic flights are priced as Economy & Business
Qantas Classic Rewards on American Airlines two-class domestic flights are priced correctly as Economy & Business.

Alaska Airlines is predominantly a domestic airline, but it does also operate short-haul international flights to Canada, Mexico and Central America. This problem also exists on Alaska Airlines international flights. (It’s perhaps also worth noting that when we were checking this, we could not find a single Alaska Airlines Business/First Classic Reward seat to anywhere outside of the USA or Canada…)

A major problem for Oneworld Classic Flight Reward bookings

If you just want to use Qantas points to book a simple one-way or return flight on Alaska Airlines, this glitch is certainly annoying. But it has far bigger implications for anyone trying to redeem Qantas points to book a Oneworld Classic Flight Reward in Business Class.

It costs 318,000 Qantas points to book a Oneworld Classic Flight Reward in Business Class. However, if you add even just a single Alaska Airlines premium cabin flight to the itinerary, the whole booking re-prices at the First Class level of 455,000 Qantas points. That’s because the price for this award is based on the highest class of travel used on the ticket.

This basically means that when booking a Oneworld Classic Flight Reward in Business, Qantas Frequent Flyer members need to either:

  • Downgrade any Alaska Airlines flights to Economy,
  • Avoid using Alaska Airlines completely, or
  • Pay the extra 137,000 Qantas points per passenger to book the entire ticket as a First Class award

Having to downgrade any Alaska sectors to Economy also means you would need to pay extra for checked baggage on the Alaska Airlines flights. That’s really not great when you’ve paid the Qantas points for a Business Class ticket.

Alaska Airlines operates on quite a few routes that are not well covered by other Oneworld airlines, such as Honolulu-Anchorage, so this glitch is really quite inconvenient for some people.

Will this ever get fixed?

This widespread problem has existed for more than a year, and we pointed it out to Qantas as far back as October 2021. But Qantas still hasn’t fixed this pricing error that sees Qantas Frequent Flyer members paying too much when redeeming points for Alaska Airlines reward seats in a premium cabin, and there is currently no timeline for this to happen.

Australian Frequent Flyer asked Qantas last October whether the higher pricing of Classic Rewards on Alaska Airlines was intentional – or if it’s error, when it might get fixed. We still haven’t received an official response.

In the meantime, we understand that Qantas Frequent Flyer is aware of the issue but that it’s not a simple fix and requires coordination with other program partners. Given the problem has already existed for well over a year, it’s clearly also not a priority for the airline to fix this.

 

Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: QFF pricing Alaska Airlines Business flights as First Class

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include aviation, economics & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.
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Alaska awards aren't showing correctly on the QF site. In the many searches I've undertaken in the past few days, when AS availability in a premium cabin does show, it comes with "!". For example, this flight from PDX to DAL, a direct flight on AS at 1616 miles shows availability in F but 'Your flight from PDX to DAL will be in business'. It's a single flight. Why is it showing availability in the F column if there's only availability in J? What's worse, it's charging 64.5K - the F price, despite being a J seat.

Two other points. First, shouldn't the AS logo now be next to AS flights, rather than the non-partner green square? Second, aren't DFW and DAL two entirely different airports? How is it possible to fly from PDX to both DFW and DAL?

Looks like some sort of coding error mapping across US domestic First class as 'true' first rather than the (now standard) business class on two-cabin flights.

The green square may not necessarily be a non-partner airline - it could be just to indicate a partner airline in general. Looking at similar flights connecting elsewhere in the USA all AA's regional partners (Republic, Skywest, Envoy, etc) all have the green square rather than the AA logo.

AS (partners) do indeed fly from PDX to both DFW and DAL. In fact on a random date in March 2022 their flights from PDX to DAL and DFW both leave at 7am! (bet you there's a bit of confusion there sometimes!)

Again, in line with other flights showing on Qantas, the name of the city comes first and any specific airport comes next. So flights to New York show as New York (La Guardia), New York (Newark), or NEW York (JFK). Same here where Dallas Fort Worth is actually the city, not the airport, followed by the specific airport (Love Field).

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I assume you earn SC with Alaska as the page on the QANTAS website for Alaska says you do but the QANTAS Partner Earn catagory page says
"Qantas Points are earned on all eligible booking classes, except Alaska Airlines codeshare flights operated by an airline other than Qantas or a oneworld member airline."

And all other Oneworld airlines say points and SC.

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@Admin Now that AS is oneworld - any chance of giving them a dedicated forum?

I was going to ask - has anyone flown AS domestic first? Wondering how they compare with AA (ie 737 product - not talking about actual first class).

I've flown them in Y on an AA codeshare and thought they were fine - noticed their F product is sometimes cheaper than AA on some routes.

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AS F is very similiar to AA at least pre covid.We have done a few trips in their F but all AA codeshares.

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@Admin Now that AS is oneworld - any chance of giving them a dedicated forum?

I was going to ask - has anyone flown AS domestic first? Wondering how they compare with AA (ie 737 product - not talking about actual first class).

I've flown them in Y on an AA codeshare and thought they were fine - noticed their F product is sometimes cheaper than AA on some routes.

The 737 is the 737 - but in terms of first class AS has the biggest seat pitch of any of the US majors at 41 inches standard (about 4 inches more than AA)*. For those without status, AS F comes with lounge access 🙂

*ie for narrow body, non-premium aircraft (excludes AA's flagship 3-class narrow bodies, or narrow bodies fitted with international product)

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The 737 is the 737 - but in terms of first class AS has the biggest seat pitch of any of the US majors at 41 inches standard (about 4 inches more than AA)*. For those without status, AS F comes with lounge access 🙂

*ie for narrow body, non-premium aircraft (excludes AA's flagship 3-class narrow bodies, or narrow bodies fitted with international product)

I was thinking more about their soft product. I assumed the hard product would be much the same overall - noting the AA 737 product is not as good as the AA A321 product - so assume it's more to do with aircraft type rather than airline.

I actually quite like the domestic AA F service. As long as you preorder your meal it's pretty good, especially considering how reasonably priced it is.

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I was thinking more about their soft product. I assumed the hard product would be much the same overall - noting the AA 737 product is not as good as the AA A321 product - so assume it's more to do with aircraft type rather than airline.

I actually quite like the domestic AA F service. As long as you preorder your meal it's pretty good, especially considering how reasonably priced it is.

Same same pre-order on Alaska. Hard product is the relatively the same in terms of the physical seat, but the pitch is the noticeable (positive) difference.

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Same same pre-order on Alaska. Hard product is the relatively the same in terms of the physical seat, but the pitch is the noticeable (positive) difference.

Thanks for the tip - I was also concerned that the SC earn rate might be lower for AS since they are not in the JV, but seems there is no difference. So really no impediment to flying AS over AA.

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I know that for a while there the AS hard product depended whether you were on a legacy AS plane or if you were on a Virgin America plane that had become part of AS with the AS purchase of Virgin America. I am not sure if they've now standardised the fleet.

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I know that for a while there the AS hard product depended whether you were on a legacy AS plane or if you were on a Virgin America plane that had become part of AS with the AS purchase of Virgin America. I am not sure if they've now standardised the fleet.

I think I'd read they'd all gone. That product was even better!

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