Qantas Overcharging for Alaska Airlines Rewards

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”.

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.

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

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”.

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.

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.

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

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 70 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & 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.