Fantastic Alaska Airline miles deal on again

[smit0847]

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.

It has little to do with fraud.

The reason for the change in policy is that AS want to offer buying miles promotions to AS FFers who actually fly AS, not Australian customers who will never set foot on an AS plane and will use it purely to book award seats with partner airlines. They clearly do not make nearly as much money selling partner award seats as they do selling seats on their own metal. US Airways never thought of this.

 

[RooFlyer]

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.

Yeah, but if most of the fraud comes via a certain segment ("international") - if you believe what they say, then its a pretty easy thing to cauterize. May only need a couple of frauds to wipe out any profit they make on the segment.

Also, I read somewhere that points.com charge their customers an additional fee for processing "international" credit cards, and that is another cost for AS to support us, er, 'unconventional' mileage plan members.

 

[anat0l]

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

I guess that implies that the subset of seats that can be accessed by AS isn't (thankfully) ridiculously small.

It's just that CX MP members can see more, period. Same with searching with another CX partner, e.g. QF. It is reported that QF can't see all the CX award availability either.

Mind you, if I can find CX long haul J seats at least 2 or 3 days out of a week at a time, to me that's great availability.

Of course, in the mean time, perhaps one could theorise that the available CX seats have been suddenly reduced to AS members?

 

[davetonio]

It has little to do with fraud.

The reason for the change in policy is that AS want to offer buying miles promotions to AS FFers who actually fly AS, not Australian customers who will never set foot on an AS plane and will use it purely to book award seats with partner airlines. They clearly do not make nearly as much money selling partner award seats as they do selling seats on their own metal. US Airways never thought of this.

This is exactly what I understood when I spoke to a "Senior Analyst" with AS last week in the early confusion of the unannounced policy change. IMHO the fraud element is a smokescreen for the real reason behind the policy change. A shame they couldn't have waited until the end of the special bonus offer this week for those trying to plan around existing rules! My Amex still hasn't had the funds released from the failed points purchase exactly a week ago... further frustration!

 

[burmans]

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.

Yes we know what they are saying but where is this in their T&C's?

No mention here

https://buy.points.com/PointsPartne...ODE=ASBGTLandingBuyBody&c=ASBGTLandingBuyBody

nor here

Buy and Share Miles | Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan||

 

[mlob]

Before the policy change and whilst waiting for my account to clear for purchase I was able to find reasonable CX SYD-HKG-JFK availability for late October November. I was looking for 2 J seats.

 

[smit0847]

Where there's a will......

Need a US credit card? Try the post office

Get a US card from US Unlocked and OPAS

Prepaid MasterCard, A Free Prepaid Credit & Debit Card From NETELLER

 

[Aussie_flyer]

what about Aussie's or other foreigners who spend a LOT of time in the USA and fly AS a lot, plus credit all QF flights to AS etc etc. So those people are being punished?

What a stupid way of running the business. They should just put a cap on it per year and be done with it

 

[smit0847]

what about Aussie's or other foreigners who spend a LOT of time in the USA and fly AS a lot, plus credit all QF flights to AS etc etc. So those people are being punished?

What a stupid way of running the business. They should just put a cap on it per year and be done with it

Limiting it to AS operated flights for foreigners might be another solution....

 

[anat0l]

what about Aussie's or other foreigners who spend a LOT of time in the USA and fly AS a lot, plus credit all QF flights to AS etc etc. So those people are being punished?

What a stupid way of running the business. They should just put a cap on it per year and be done with it

Maybe they should make the ability to purchase miles an elite benefit, i.e. you must have some AS status. Or, if they really want to be pedantic, there must be a certain number of miles flown on AS services per year.

Of course, both of these restrictions would blow quite a few other North American accounts out of the water, since many in North America are hardly AS elites but like their overseas counterparts do accumulate AS miles to broker for cheap QF, EK and CX redemptions.

 

[Limewood]

Its all smoke and mirrors nothing to do with CC as we now know, points.com still holding my USD$ so not happy

Update: Points.com say its my CC company holding funds, will call them today.

 

[mlob]

As the 40% bonus offer is soon to end I'm curious to see if anyone has had success with the use of a friend"s UScredit card?

 

[SandyS]

Its all smoke and mirrors nothing to do with CC as we now know, points.com still holding my USD$ so not happy

Update: Points.com say its my CC company holding funds, will call them today.

After receiving the AS rejection email, I called 28 degrees who told me it had all gone through as far as they were concerned so I'd need to wait 7 days for the funds to be released and if it hadn't cleared by then, they would then lodge some sort of recall or cancellation. They stated it wasn't them who were holding up the funds.

 

[vitagen]

Failed for me, 28 degrees card. I was hoping it went through okay, but got the AS email.

 

[Limewood]

Its a dead duck, advise on success or otherwise is usually 24/48 hours.

points.com advise me its my Bank that has a hold on the CC funds not them, will call them.

 

[Kangol]

Any update to this?
Have any members been able to buy AS miles from their "US address"?
Or is that what all of you were trying and then getting knocked back?

 

[mlob]

You need a US credit card to purchase points. Members who have one or a good friend that has one were able to purchase points.

 

[RooFlyer]

Any update to this?
Have any members been able to buy AS miles from their "US address"?
Or is that what all of you were trying and then getting knocked back?

Not sure what you mean by "US address" in quotes. I have a Canadian bank account (with a Canadian address attached - not mine, and I declared that to the bank) with a debit card issued against it and that worked, as it should. I couldn't get a Canadian cc without residency even though the bank account has a Canadian address on it.

BTW I also found out that Canadian shops don't issue store debit cards - only store credit cards.

You need a US credit card to purchase points. Members who have one or a good friend that has one were able to purchase points.

Slight correction. US, Canadian or Mexican credit or Visa/MasterCard associated debit cards, which have a US, Canadian or Mexican mailing address. And if a friend purchases points for you, a trap is that there is a limit to the number of points abled to be transferred. A friend can't purchase points with their US card and your Alaska Miles number.

 

[anat0l]

And if a friend purchases points for you, a trap is that there is a limit to the number of points abled to be transferred. A friend can't purchase points with their US card and your Alaska Miles number.

Could they gift miles to you? Unless buying and gifting are different rates, and/or a promotion does not normally give a bonus for gifting miles?

 

[RooFlyer]

Could they gift miles to you? Unless buying and gifting are different rates, and/or a promotion does not normally give a bonus for gifting miles?

You are right (I didn't realize this) - you can gift miles and there is no stated limit on that process, (contrasting with with transferring), and the cost is the same as regular purchase. I can't see any bonus for gifting. This is what it says at the bottom of the page:

Miles are purchased from Points.com Inc. for a cost of $27.50 per 1,000 miles, plus a 7.5% Federal Excise Tax*, and GST/HST for Canadian residents. Miles are non-refundable and do not count toward MVP and MVP/Gold status. Offer is subject to change and all terms and conditions of the Mileage Plan Program apply.

*Points.com Inc. is collecting Federal Excise Tax on behalf of Alaska Airlines Inc. Alaska Airlines Inc. has the obligation to collect Federal Excise Tax and remit the tax to the appropriate government agency.

Compare now the 'transferring' T&Cs:

Our Transfer Miles program allows you to take miles from your Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan™ account and transfer them into the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan account of a friend or family member. You can transfer 1,000 to 30,000 miles in increments of 1,000 miles at a cost of $10.00 per 1,000 miles, plus a $25.00 processing fee per transaction.

A maximum of 100,000 miles can be transferred into any individual Mileage Plan account per calendar year and up to 100,000 miles can be deducted from your Mileage Plan account per calendar year.

To transfer miles, you'll need a My Account profile, the Mileage Plan number and name of the recipient as it appears in their Mileage Plan account, and a valid major credit card.