Major adjustments are coming to Alaska Mileage Plan award redemptions in early 2024, as just about everything is changing. Let me just say upfront that Alaska isn’t pulling a Delta SkyMiles here, in terms of trying to destroy the value of its program. While the current sweet spots are largely being eliminated, the program will become much more widely useful. I actually think changes along these lines were long overdue.
In this post:
Alaska Mileage Plan overhauling award redemptions
Alaska Mileage Plan is introducing new award pricing as of March 2024 (this is based on when you book your ticket, and not based on when you travel), which is intended to be significantly more transparent than the current pricing system. Not only that, but Mileage Plan will be rolling out award redemptions on partner airlines globally, and is even working toward allowing multiple partners to be booked on a single award. Let’s go over all of the changes.
New zone & distance-based award charts
As of March 2024, Alaska Mileage Plan will have three simple award charts that will be a combination of zone and distance based. The airline claims that with this new distance-based structure, 60% of partner nonstop routes in economy start at a lower price point, while 64% of partner nonstop routes in business class start at a lower price point.
There will be the Americas award chart, which will cover any travel from the United States to anywhere in the Americas, including North America and South America.
Then there’s the Asia-Pacific award chart, which includes travel from the United States to Asia-Pacific, within Asia-Pacific, and between Asia-Pacific and Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
Then there’s the Europe, Middle East, and Africa award chart, which includes travel from the United States to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, and travel within Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
The most significant thing to understand here is that the “starting at” prices are actually what you’re going to pay if there’s saver level award availability. All partners will have the same award pricing assuming there’s saver award availability. That’s a big improvement over the current situation, where different partners have different pricing.
There are a few other important things to understand:
- Award pricing is based on the cumulative distance of one-way travel
- As you can see above, there’s a hierarchy of award charts, so the Americas chart only applies if you’re traveling within the Americas, while the Asia-Pacific chart applies if traveling from the United States to Asia, and the Europe, the Middle East, and Africa chart applies if traveling from the United States to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa
- Award routing rules will remain the same as they currently are, though of course the more distance you travel, the more you’ll pay
Award redemptions are being opened up globally
Under the current Mileage Plan system, you can only redeem Mileage Plan miles for travel within and between select regions. That will be changing as of March 2024, as Mileage Plan will be opening up redemptions on partners globally. This is an exciting and long overdue change, as there will no longer be geographic restrictions on redemptions.
More redemption options on more partners
Not only is Alaska Mileage Plan opening up redemptions globally, but the program is also rolling out more kinds of awards:
- Mileage Plan is introducing premium economy redemptions on American Airlines and Japan Airlines
- Mileage Plan is rolling out more non-saver award options on partners than before
- This is very specific, but for travel in Icelandair Saga Class (business class), pricing will start to be based on premium economy rather than business class, given the type of product that Icelandair offers
Multi-airline awards coming in late 2024
Currently Alaska Mileage Plan doesn’t let you mix partners on a single one-way award ticket. You can fly Alaska Airlines to a gateway, and then a partner airline for the rest of your journey. As of later in 2024, Mileage Plan intends to allow members to mix two partners on a single one-way award ticket, which is an exciting development.
For those wondering why it has taken so long, it’s my understanding that this has been a technology limitation up until now, though the airline is working on resolving that.
Partner award sales will become a regular thing
Starting in 2024, Mileage Plan intends to offer regular global partner award sales. The intent is that there will be quarterly, limited-time promotions featuring special pricing of up to 50% off, on specific partners or routes, or to specific destinations. That sounds great, though let’s see what the execution is like.
Stopovers are here to stay
With these Mileage Plan changes, Alaska isn’t making any changes to its stopover policy, which will continue to be extremely generous. As before, you’ll be able to make a stopover on most redemptions at partner hubs, so nothing is changing there.
My take on these Alaska Mileage Plan changes
Here’s the thing — if it were still 2016, I’d say that these Mileage Plan changes are a massive devaluation. For those of us who are savvy with redeeming miles, the Mileage Plan program has historically been so useful because of a few sweet spot awards, particularly for transpacific travel. For example, being able to redeem 70,000 Mileage Plan miles for a Cathay Pacific one-way first class award to Asia or beyond was an incredible value.
But times have also changed, and that’s not Alaska’s fault, frankly. The sweet spot awards that we used to love Mileage Plan for are basically theoretical at this point, as there’s no availability. When the last time we saw a transpacific Cathay Pacific first class award bookable through Mileage Plan? I don’t remember the last time I saw one…
The way I view it, with these changes, Mileage Plan redemptions are switching from being theoretically aspirational, to being much more practical. With that in mind, a few thoughts about these changes:
- I’m thrilled to see Mileage Plan finally introduce redemptions globally, rather than only in select regions
- It’s great that Alaska is bringing back a transparent and simple award chart, where we’ll know exactly how much we’ll pay for saver awards
- The new redemption rates are extremely lucrative for shorter distance travel, and this chart is useful given Alaska’s unique airline partners beyond oneworld, ranging from Condor, to Icelandair, to Singapore Airlines
- I’m also happy that Alaska is planning on introducing multi-partner awards in the coming year
- These changes definitely devalue some sweet spots considerably, but I’d say they do a good job of distributing value across redemptions more equally; that’s useful right now, given that the sweet spots were largely theoretical
- Call me naive, but I think these changes are actually intended to make the program more broadly useful, rather than intended as a devaluation; there are a few loyalty programs run by avgeeks who are genuine with their intentions, and Alaska Mileage Plan is one of those programs
Crunching numbers on Alaska Mileage Plan award changes
Let’s use some real life examples of how award pricing is changing. First, here are a few situations where the increase in award pricing is awful:
- A Qantas first class award from Los Angeles to Sydney would go from costing 70,000 miles to costing 130,000 miles
- A Qantas business class award from Los Angeles to Sydney would go from costing 50,000 miles to costing 85,000 miles
- A Cathay Pacific first class award from Los Angeles to Hong Kong would go from costing 70,000 miles to costing 130,000 miles
- A Cathay Pacific business class award from Los Angeles to Hong Kong would go from costing 50,000 miles to costing 85,000 miles
Of course as mentioned above, the issue is that there’s almost never any availability with these redemptions, so that’s largely a moot point.
There’s also so much more broad usefulness with the new program, though. Let me just give examples of a few redemptions that stand out to me:
- The new program offers huge value for short haul awards within the Americas, as you’ll be able to redeem 4,500 miles for an itinerary of up to 700 miles, and 7,500 miles for an itinerary of up to 1,400 miles
- An Icelandair business class award from the United States to Europe via Iceland (with a stopover) will cost just 35,000 miles (due to this pricing being updated to premium economy)
- Flying from the Northeast of the United States to Ireland or England will cost 45,000 miles in business class, or 67,500 miles in first class
- A Qatar Airways business class award from Doha to Mumbai is decreasing in price from 40,000 miles to 15,000 miles
- A Japan Airlines business class award from Tokyo to Shanghai is decreasing in price from 35,000 miles to 15,000 miles
- A Malaysia Airlines business class award from Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok is decreasing in price from 65,000 miles to 15,000 miles
Bottom line
Major changes are coming to Alaska Mileage Plan as of March 2024. We’re seeing the introduction of three new zone and distance based award charts, which will determine award pricing.
Obviously these changes are a mixed bag. The sweet spot redemptions that previously existed with the program are largely being devalued. However, those sweet spots were largely theoretical, given the lack of availability we’ve seen on carriers like Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, and Qantas.
Instead, Mileage Plan is switching to a program that’s much more practical, with particularly good value for short haul redemptions across the globe. Mileage Plan is finally going to allow redemptions without geographic restrictions, and later in 2024 we’ll even see multi-carrier redemptions introduced.
What do you make of these Alaska Mileage Plan changes?
And now with announcement of AS/HA merger, I wonder if this was an early "hint" to the merger.
New Zealand based commenter here.
Large devaluations for me on the J routes (sweet spots!) I fly with AS.
AKL-HKG, was 30k, now 75k (150% devaluation),
AKL-NAN-LAX-JFK was 55k, now 85k (54% devaluation),
AKL-SIN was 65k, now 75k (15% devalution).
I guess I’ve had a good run with them but certainly won’t be buying their miles speculatively now, hoping the proposed ‘award sales’ are going to be any good. In fact...
New Zealand based commenter here.
Large devaluations for me on the J routes (sweet spots!) I fly with AS.
AKL-HKG, was 30k, now 75k (150% devaluation),
AKL-NAN-LAX-JFK was 55k, now 85k (54% devaluation),
AKL-SIN was 65k, now 75k (15% devalution).
I guess I’ve had a good run with them but certainly won’t be buying their miles speculatively now, hoping the proposed ‘award sales’ are going to be any good. In fact last night I used the last of my AS miles to go AKL-NAN-LAX-SFO in J on FJ in Sept. Seats.aero has been a game changer in using my AS miles, to find unicorns on FJ.
The only good thing I can see coming out of it is that their ridiculously priced Malaysia Airlines NZ-Asia J awards will come down from 120k to 75k. And they always seem to be available. Conversely SQ seems to have stopped releasing award space to AS.
It seems to be that it would be better now for me to fly to SYD to go to Asia as it’s 3907 miles for SYD-SIN which is inside one of the bands whereas AKL-SIN takes it up to the next band. But that's a pain in the a** if I have to get two tickets.
Wonder if these changes will just be a lesser, worse executed version of Aeroplan. Will be interested to see how this goes in practice. No point in having options with mixed partner awards if they are all too expensive, as we often see with aeroplan.
Definitely a huge devaluation in my book. My sweet spots are SFO-HKG on CX J which is going from 50K to 75K and that's a 50% increase. SFO-HKG-AKL-HKG (stopover)-SFO in CX J is going from 120K to 220K, that's an 83% increase. Sitting on 160K miles, I must get rid of them before the new chart takes place.
Sorry for a second post. Will the new mileage plan still offer the companion tickets? In the same class? Or is/was this an exclusively Bank of American deal with having their credit card?
Again thank you.
Is the special, companion fly’s free being being scrapped? Well almost free that is or is this a Bank of America credit card only deal? Lots of changes by all airlines.
I kind of confused about this new mileage plan, is it going to be my current Alaska Miles of 962956 be added or merged with my American Air miles of 157000? Giving me a total of 1,119,956 miles for booking flights on any...
Is the special, companion fly’s free being being scrapped? Well almost free that is or is this a Bank of America credit card only deal? Lots of changes by all airlines.
I kind of confused about this new mileage plan, is it going to be my current Alaska Miles of 962956 be added or merged with my American Air miles of 157000? Giving me a total of 1,119,956 miles for booking flights on any airlines within the OneWorld group?
Thank you. Sorry if this has already been asked.
What about the destruction of value of domestic awards in other countries?
e.g. Transcontinental Australian awards go from 20k to 50k in business class.
A 150% increase on the current award is pretty significant.
> Mileage Plan is introducing premium economy redemptions on American Airlines and Japan Airlines
Mileage Plan already had been making premium economy redemptions available on JAL. It was harder to tell in the old UI, but with the refresh premium economy awards would regularly show up in results with rates same as what’s shown in these charts (e.g., 50,000 from the US West Coast).
> the issue is that there’s almost never any availability...
> Mileage Plan is introducing premium economy redemptions on American Airlines and Japan Airlines
Mileage Plan already had been making premium economy redemptions available on JAL. It was harder to tell in the old UI, but with the refresh premium economy awards would regularly show up in results with rates same as what’s shown in these charts (e.g., 50,000 from the US West Coast).
> the issue is that there’s almost never any availability with these redemptions, so that’s largely a moot point.
Well, how about JAL first class US West Coast to Japan going from 70,000 to 110,000? That’s been regularly available even after reopening so long as you were comfortable booking close-in (or more realistically booking an C award earlier and then waiting for A availability). Only reason it hasn’t been available in the past few weeks is because of a combination of the A350 launch delay and a 777 being taken out of service for maintenance, so a 787 is serving ex-SFO.
I got a F ticket Del -> HND-> SFO for 70k AS miles before things started to get crazy!
Burnt abt 220k AS points in late 2022, snagged a HND to DEL in J for 25k points too.
Have 70k points left. Was waiting for CX J or F redemption, guess that aint happening anymore.
So round trip first class to Europe goes from 120,000 to 260,000? Hmmm
Strange choice of image to illustrate Alaska's stopover policy... they have disallowed stopovers in Hong Kong for some years now, presumably because Cathay didn't like that (CX banned stopovers in HK around the same time).
I booked a biz award flight last January from YVR to Taipei with a stopover in Hong Kong on CX. In fact, I'm sitting in Hong Kong right now on that exact CX redemption so this statement is simply incorrect. Harder to come by perhaps, but not entirely gone.
"A Cathay Pacific first class award from Los Angeles to Hong Kong would go from costing 70,000 miles to costing 130,000 miles"
If I have to pay 130k instead 70k I preffer NOT to have award space on Catahy and take profit of the same route with any other airline at the old cost
There will be also a LATAM devaluation from SCL, EZE, GRU to EEUU.
This si SO bad news.
Hi. I try to travel Alaska airlines always. I am a single traveler and never use my buddy pass. Is there an alternate choice for me? Perhaps I could exchange it for a boardroom pass. And why are award seats mostly middle seats? I have not had a problem with them that was not taken care of immediately. I love them!! And 99% of the agents and staff are “A-+”.
Best news for me is increase in availability for international flights.
"A Qantas first class award from Los Angeles to Sydney would go from costing 70,000 miles to costing 130,000 miles"
why wouldn't I just book with AA @ 110k? and not have to pay a partner award booking fee? More reason to stay away from their program
Alaska now officially sucks sorry Alaska defenders lovers
Did I say they have many inexperienced agents that don't know how to book Int awards? (sigh)
I'm curious as a Canadian. The award charts for EMEA and Asia Pac both say "Includes travel from US to..." Does this mean we'll have to add on an Americas connection to the US point of departure? Does this also mean we won't be able to depart from Canada on a direct flight to the appropriate region (i.e. KE from YYZ to ICN) anymore?
Even if you're just a domestic AS flyer, I think you're going to see this generally as a devaluation. I routinely find cross-country trips (e.g., SEA-IAD, SEA-EWR) for 12,500 miles. Those will be no more.
You win some and you lose some, mostly losses in the last ten year due to how well the economy is, but the cycle will come full circle again. Like others, if this opens up bit more availability then I think it’s okay… especially shorter distances… I had my fair share of unicorn redemptions in AS over the years, like 100k one way from SFO to DXB stopover then down to MRU in EK first....
You win some and you lose some, mostly losses in the last ten year due to how well the economy is, but the cycle will come full circle again. Like others, if this opens up bit more availability then I think it’s okay… especially shorter distances… I had my fair share of unicorn redemptions in AS over the years, like 100k one way from SFO to DXB stopover then down to MRU in EK first. 60k business from SFO to HKG (stop over) then on to JNB on CX J. Fiji as well to Australia, Air Tahiti J, and most recently Starlux J (when it was first launched) Now days we have good amounts of convertible points from banks, which opens up more options than before. We are seeing more discounts on mile purchases and larger credit card sign ups.
AS still remains a cheap options to achieve OW emerald, especially if you are able to fly BA J and F class of service. I do suspect they will patch this as well sooner or later.
I mean heck, you can get up to 100k miles per year every year just for making 100k status. People with 100k status that flies on BA metal with some frequency can earn like 300k+ miles every year. So increased in miles with availability increase is good… but we will need to see.
As someone who lives in Southeast Alaska where we are literally held hostage by Alaska Aitlines if we want to travel, I think it will be interesting to see if it effects us because we never get any “deals” on air travel to anywhere. I’m betting these new awards do not apply to our region.
You guys get a free checked bag with needing status or have a credit card!
If this improves availabiity, I'd be 100% fine with these increases. Right now it's insane, borderline useless when trying to get asian biz redemptions.
they won't improve much on availability....just a minor change.
Instead devaluation will be a huge change
I have to agree with Sonny. I think we imagine the demand/supply curve changing when things get more expensive. Some of this comes down to partner availability, and frankly if I can't find it on AA tomorrow, I'm not going to find it on AS either.
End of an era. Not sure why you're putting positive spin on it. Was inevitable eventually.
Does this mean we will be able to book on JAL from Tokyo to Seoul for example?
Or on Qatar from Doha to Barcelona one way?
Did Alaska pay to write this article?
The 42,500 redemptions on Qatar economy to Asia will increase to 60,000
The 85,000 redemptions on Qatar Business to Asia will increase to 130,000
This is a devaluation and nothing else.
Looking at award availability in C for Sep '24 from LAX to TYO: 235k is shocking. 75k in Y from HNL to TYO equally disappointing. An end of an era indeed.
I live in HNL and just booked HNL to NRT last night using Chase points transferred to Virgin with a 30% bonus (expires tonight), Found 3 Y tickets on ANA and paid 17,333 points each for a trip in July. Stoked about that. United was charging 47.5k for the same flight and Hawaiian was charging like 50k. Glad to see ANA had availability, but know that J and F are pretty nonexistent.
I agree that these changes were probably inevitable and they aren't as bad as some other devaluations with other airlines recently, but it's still disappointing. I really liked being able to get from the US west coast to Europe, Fiji, Australia and New Zealand in business class for 50k-60k points and Africa and the Maldives for 80-90k points. Most of those redemptions will require almost 40% more points after this change. It also sounds like...
I agree that these changes were probably inevitable and they aren't as bad as some other devaluations with other airlines recently, but it's still disappointing. I really liked being able to get from the US west coast to Europe, Fiji, Australia and New Zealand in business class for 50k-60k points and Africa and the Maldives for 80-90k points. Most of those redemptions will require almost 40% more points after this change. It also sounds like the biggest upside of this (multi-partner redemptions) will take months longer to arrive too. It would have been nice if they could have at least applied the positive and negative changes simultaneously.
It's even worse flying to OZ from the east coast, as Qantas J increases from 55,000 to 130,000 on many one-stop itineraries. For F, it will increase from 70,000 to 195,000.
While we're on the subject of practical improvements, how about finally figuring out how to collect taxes for lap infants so they don't need their own redemption?
Will we be able to finally book SQ without having to phone them for availability?
This program has been useless for a while now. It just became even more useless.
Its getting to a point where its more rewarding to just search for the lowest fare on the dates you want to travel. The sweet spots have all but disappeared.
Mostly negative for West coast flyers (most of Alaska), who use their miles for biz/first for Asia and Europe travel. I've never had issues finding JAL, BA, Condor, Finnair, or AA availability for routes I like to take, e.g. SFO - NRT, SFO - LHR, LAX - LHR. I usually use Delta or BA miles for domestic, so this is a loss for AS elites.
Definitely agree that more expensive but bookable redemptions are an improvement over amazing deals that only exist in theory.
I use my AS CC because of the long haul Southeast Asia trips. It looks like this being devalued. Guess it's time for me to look for another credit card. And airline.
I'm curious if Alaska will continue to have access to Singapore Airlines as a partner with this new chart, which is vastly superior from the user perspective than their current individual chart for Singapore Airlines. My suspicion is that they will not.
I'm thankful that I was able to use our AS miles for r/trip business class to Fiji Airways for Spring Break next year. 55k each way was a sweet deal. Presumably starting March 24, the miles needed for biz on this route will almost double?
And...my normal Alaska route clocks in a 2143 miles.
So this is a 50% deval.
Beyond the aspirational sweet spot redemption, this is largely positive for the program. The points will be much more useful overall.
Remains to be seen whether AS will get more access to say, CX award space with the new charts. Forget First Class, it's even pretty much impossible to find premium economy on Cathay to/from US. It's not all bad; I'm look forward to some lower redemption costs on JAL, for example, compared to now.
@ Trey -- I wouldn't expect much change in Cathay Pacific saver award availability. Unfortunately Cathay Pacific is just releasing fewer award seats to partners than ever before, and that's not something partners have control over. Same issue with American AAdvantage...
Lack of saver award availability on Cathay Pacific is primarily due to the current demand for flights to/from China. If and when that abnormality goes away, I'd expect CX to release significantly more saver awards. Unfortunately, AS miles wouldn't be the top choice for award redemption when that happens.
Hmmm.. My normal Alaskan redemption is DFW to HND for 60k in business (decent award availability). It's going to 75k which is a bummer. We all knew this was going to happen, but maybe the increased functionality won't make this the worst devalue ever.
Huge thumbs up to Alaska for giving us a couple of months notice before the changes take place. A stark contrast from the most recent United devaluation, where they did it overnight with no heads up whatsoever.
This change is great for the general public, but for us nerds who look for the best value, this is the fall of the last bastion, an end of an era.
AS is never meant to be a global program, as it is not a global carrier. Very few who qualified 75k by flying 12 segments on AS wish they could redeem miles for CPT-LVI on BA or MLE-FRA on DE. Instead, some, like...
This change is great for the general public, but for us nerds who look for the best value, this is the fall of the last bastion, an end of an era.
AS is never meant to be a global program, as it is not a global carrier. Very few who qualified 75k by flying 12 segments on AS wish they could redeem miles for CPT-LVI on BA or MLE-FRA on DE. Instead, some, like me, switch from others to AS on some once-in-a-lifetime redemption that we can brag every thanksgiving dinner. Maybe I am naive to assume that, but globalization of the chart eliminates the only thing standing out for AS MileagePlan: carrier specific charts with restricted use but great value. You plan your trips around great sweet spots, instead of checking redemptions for your needs.
And yes, CX is mostly gone, but recently, many QF redemptions have popped up for even first class redemptions. I have seen a handful of LAX-MEL and multiple 55k redemptions in business class. And not to mention, nuked along with QF is FJ, all routes they fly to North America have been devalued from 55k to 70k, and if you add on the stopover priviledges, it is even worse, to 85k.
Also, this chart largely eliminates the advantage of a free stopover, as adding a separate leg is virtually identical to having a stopover as many itinerary. In some cases, it is actually cheaper to book 2 awards instead of 1 award with stopvoer, for example, adding a 700 mile leg onto a 1400 mile leg in the Americas.
Overall, a positive change for many, but a death blow to the enthusiasts who love AS for the quirky usages that may benefit a few times a year.
My feelings exactly. AS was great for aspirational trips but I never flew them regularly enough to actually care about them. I flew just enough that I had a couple thousand miles available so they wouldn't think I was just using their program to get award flights (which I totally was). I would, however, scour award availability, purchase miles when there was a sale, then - as you mentioned - plan a trip around a...
My feelings exactly. AS was great for aspirational trips but I never flew them regularly enough to actually care about them. I flew just enough that I had a couple thousand miles available so they wouldn't think I was just using their program to get award flights (which I totally was). I would, however, scour award availability, purchase miles when there was a sale, then - as you mentioned - plan a trip around a sweet spot. I hit the two sweet spots I cared to - Sydney on QF and HK and beyond on CX, both in F - a few times to satiate me. But it was never about flying AS or being loyal to them. But we (points and miles folk) are a group of people that don't represent the masses in any real way. It's great being a DINK and working remote and finding an LH F award 4 days out and being able to turn to your spouse/partner and say, "Should we go to Germany on LH than hop a tag flight to Greece and work remote for 10 days in, I dunno, Crete?" because an award popped up and there's a hotel you saw on Instagram that looks nice. But I think all of us have kind of killed that (for now) plus Covid and the current economy and a host of other things has caused airlines to reevaluate, for lack of a better term. I'll miss trips to HK "just because", but I think this was pretty inevitable. And who am I to stand in the way of the the greater flying public having more accessibility. I had my fun, but the needs of the many...
The game is always changing. Some changes will be good for some awards and bad for other awards. Skilled players will adapt. Unskilled players will whine. Those not in the game won't know and won't care.
And some skilled players will whine and then adapt ( me ).