The last 10 months haven’t been too great in the Frequent Flyer and Frequent Guest world as programs from Aeroplan to United and many in between have announced changes to their award/reward charts. A few weeks ago when we discussed the negative changes to the United MileagePlus program we had crossed our fingers that Alaska Airlines wouldn’t follow suit. Unfortunately they have. Last week they announced some changes to their award tickets that will take effect on January 14, 2014. This changes really only affect Mileage Plan members in British Columbia and Alberta. Why? The increases are only for flights on Alaska Airlines metal and they only serve cities in B.C. and Alberta. Of course those of you in the East can be affected if you fly with them within the U.S. however most Mileage Plan members outside of Alberta/B.C. I would imagine are redeeming for Mileage Plan partner flights and those awards were not affected as they only account for 16% of their total flight redemptions. With all the being said, the actual changes to the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan award ticket chart are minor in comparison to what we saw from Aeroplan, Delta and United.
Here are the three Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan award charts that will see the changes in January. Remember these are for flights on Alaska Airlines only, not their partners.
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| Award tickets for travel within the U.S. and Canada |
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| Award tickets for travel between the U.S./Canada & Hawaii |
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| Award tickets for travel between the U.S./Canada & Mexico |
Essentially the best award flights (essentially saver tickets at the lowest level) for travel between Canada and the U.S./Alaska/Hawaii/Mexico or or within the U.S. have not changed for coach class. Only the refundable awards in all those areas and better availability coach awards to Hawaii will see slight increases of 2,500 miles each way and we even see a part of the award chart get better, First Class award tickets that come with restrictions to Mexico drops by 2,500 miles each way!
All in all this is what award devaluations should look like. Very minor and acceptable in our minds and we believe that most Mileage Plan members would feel the same.