Fantastic Alaska Airline miles deal on again

[Cadboy]

With the current 40% extra miles promotion I am looking at purchasing some AS milage for the first time. What I want to know is is the practice of buying milage purely to redeem with a partner having never flown AS legal? I was put off by the comments below.

“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.”

I understand that Australian members can once again purchase milage but are you in mis using the program?

 

[_TheTraveller_]

With the current 40% extra miles promotion I am looking at purchasing some AS milage for the first time. What I want to know is is the practice of buying milage purely to redeem with a partner having never flown AS legal? I was put off by the comments below.

“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.”

I understand that Australian members can once again purchase milage but are you in mis using the program?

Yes, I believe they've resolved the issue. It definitely could have been that reason but I think they were supposedly block foreign cards due to fraud? If you book tickets, they're not gonna cancel them thats for sure.

 

[boomy]

With the current 40% extra miles promotion I am looking at purchasing some AS milage for the first time. What I want to know is is the practice of buying milage purely to redeem with a partner having never flown AS legal? I was put off by the comments below.

“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.”

I understand that Australian members can once again purchase milage but are you in mis using the program?

No matter what the real reason behind the policy change was, AS understood pretty quick it was a bad idea to reject easy money.
I was able to buy miles even during the previous promo with my Australian CC.

 

[winfred]

Before buying the points, I tried to do a dummy booking for a 1 way flight to Sin in Oct. Tried many days but no seat. The deal is too good to be true.

 

[knasty]

Before buying the points, I tried to do a dummy booking for a 1 way flight to Sin in Oct. Tried many days but no seat. The deal is too good to be true.

You sure? I can see business and economy award flights from Syd to Sin almost every day in Oct through AA and Alaska books into the same fare class.

 

[winfred]

You sure? I can see business and economy award flights from Syd to Sin almost every day in Oct through AA and Alaska books into the same fare class.

Not on Alaska's own website. I was trying MEL-SIN. Just tried SYD-SIN and same result.

 

[winfred]

Not on Alaska's own website. I was trying MEL-SIN. Just tried SYD-SIN and same result.

Just tried a few days in June & July 2015 and still no seats. It may be another reason rather than lack of award seats. Can someone shed some light on this?

 

[Limewood]

Just tried a few days in June & July 2015 and still no seats. It may be another reason rather than lack of award seats. Can someone shed some light on this?

Your choices are call AS toll free and be flexible or find the OW award seats on QF or BA or JL site then call, the latter 2 are free to join.

I booked Jan last for May 2014 FOR 2 x J CNS/HKG/CNS on CX normally hard to get on that return sector, paid AUD$3K normally $12K, I found seats first.

Like other airline plans they do not have full inventory like say from CX, find them elsewhere.

With the points/miles deals from US you have to put the work in to save big $.

 

[anat0l]

Just tried a few days in June & July 2015 and still no seats. It may be another reason rather than lack of award seats. Can someone shed some light on this?

Not sure, but I just used AA to check availability on MEL-SIN for June and July 2015. It certainly isn't everyday with availability; it seems the middle days of the week fare (pun intended) better for a Business class seat on MEL-SIN non-stop. If you include connection options in SYD or BNE, a few more days do pop up with Business availability (AA pundits must be careful as AA will also show days where there are connections in SYD, but some of these options include BA, which is a oneworld partner but not an AS partner).

Now I've not used AS's booking engine yet so I'm not sure whether AS sees the same availability - basic instinct would tell you there is no reason why it would not be visible, but sillier things have happened, I suppose.............

 

[Craigie]

As stated before CX awards are only available over the phone

http://www.alaskaair.com/content/mileage-plan/earn-use-miles/partner-award-travel.aspx

 

[winfred]

Not sure, but I just used AA to check availability on MEL-SIN for June and July 2015. It certainly isn't everyday with availability; it seems the middle days of the week fare (pun intended) better for a Business class seat on MEL-SIN non-stop. If you include connection options in SYD or BNE, a few more days do pop up with Business availability (AA pundits must be careful as AA will also show days where there are connections in SYD, but some of these options include BA, which is a oneworld partner but not an AS partner).

Now I've not used AS's booking engine yet so I'm not sure whether AS sees the same availability - basic instinct would tell you there is no reason why it would not be visible, but sillier things have happened, I suppose.............

I can only assume that AA availability is different to AS. The MEL/SYD-SIN flight will be on QF and not CX so booking on AS website should not be a problem.

The only other reason I can think of is that being WP there are seats available to me on QF's site but not on AS as I have no status with them.

 

[Cadboy]

I am trying to buys AS mile but am getting an error every time I try - "The Mileage Plan account you specified is not eligible to purchase miles." I understand that new accounts have a 10 day waiting period before buying miles but my account is older than 10 days. How long after 10 days until the system lets you buy?

 

[Limewood]

I can only assume that AA availability is different to AS. The MEL/SYD-SIN flight will be on QF and not CX so booking on AS website should not be a problem.

The only other reason I can think of is that being WP there are seats available to me on QF's site but not on AS as I have no status with them.

AS don't have OZ to ASIA flights on QF only CX.

 

[dalereardon]

Hi,

I've lost track of Alaskan Miles rules. I see they have a great special again:

35% Bonus On Purchase Of Alaska Mileage Plan Miles - One Mile at a Time

Did they open it up to Aussie credit cards again?

Dale.

 

[SandyS]

Yes. No problem with Aussie cards; points post pretty quickly

 

[RooFlyer]

Yes. No problem with Aussie cards; points post pretty quickly

Agreed .....

 

[hummel]

Can these be used on a MEL/SYD-AKL EK F flight? I'd assume so... could be good value?


Edit: Scrap that, don't partner with EK for flights down under.