Alaska Airlines has announced new consolidated Mileage Plan award charts that will be rolled out in 2024. These ‘global award redemptions’ as labeled by the airline will see some award flights become cheaper and others become more expensive but the best news is, they provide actual details on partner mileage requirements outside of Canada and the U.S.
When the program changed their award charts last year they only published mileage requirements for travel within or from Canada/U.S. That has been fixed now as they have retained their standard award chart for travel on Alaska Airlines and will be introducing one complete chart for award travel on all their partner airlines.
New Distance Based Award structure for partner airlines
With the new charts they are moving away from region based pricing, well that’s what they had before the chart changes last year and the program still seemed to work that way, to distance based pricing. And the distance based pricing that will be introduced covers travel within, to and from all regions. According to Alaska Airlines, the distance based pricing provides significantly lower starting price points for many partner awards:
“With the new distance-based structure, 60% of partner nonstop routes in economy class and 64% of routes in business class will start at a lower price point.”
The new award charts:
The following three charts make up the new distance based partner airline award chart:
Award travel solely on Alaska Airlines remains the same as before. This is good news for those of us out west as award flights to Seattle from Alberta and B.C. will continue to start at 5,000 miles, although I can’t recall the last time I saw an award flight between Calgary and Seattle for 5,000 miles. Every time I check it seems to be at least 7,500 miles but then I again I don’t check that often nor do I check every day across the schedule. This was even the case back in 2016 when Alaska Airlines moved to the new distance based pricing for flights on their own metal. Here’s an excerpt from our coverage in 2016:
We were hard pressed however to find many flights available at the 5,000 mile range, the most luck we had was Vancouver or Victoria to Seattle where we did find quite a 5,000 mile options. From Calgary we did find quite a few 7,500 mile options while Kelowna and Edmonton we couldn’t find anything under 10,000 miles one way.
Here is the award redemption chart for Alaska Airlines flights:
Click here to see the charts on Alaska Airlines’ site.
Mix and match partners
Right now you could only redeem Mileage Plan miles for travel on one partner airline or Alaska Airlines + one partner airlines in a single direction. There is no option to mix and match multiple partner airlines for travel in a single direction and that will no longer be the case. According to Gary at View from the Wing, the airline will introduce the ability to book multiple partner airlines on a single one way award ticket.
Worldwide award travel on partner airlines
Currently you can redeem Mileage Plan miles on partner airlines for travel to and from certain regions – primarily North America to/from the other regions but with the March 2024 update that will change. When the changes do take place you’ll be able to redeem for almost any flight on any partner airline (subject to availability) in the world:
“We’re adding new awards between and within regions outside of North America, such as Madrid to London, Paris to Sydney, or Tokyo to Singapore.”
Expanded Premium Economy awards
Alaska will also be expanding access to premium economy awards with more of their partner airlines including American Airlines and Japan Airlines.
Partner airlines that have do not offer lie flat business class such as Icelandair will see redemptions for those specific business class flights priced as Premium Economy awards.
Quarterly Award sales
Alaska will be following in the footsteps of programs like Air France KLM Flying Blue, Korean Air SKYPASS, Miles & More, and Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer by offering regular award sales:
“Beginning in 2024, we’ll offer regular global partner award sales with quarterly, limited-time promotions featuring special pricing of up to 50% off specific partners, routes or destinations.”
Free stopovers remain the same
Alaska Airlines is well known for their stopover policy on award travel and that will remain in place with the new charts:
“We’ll continue to offer one of the most generous stopover policies on award tickets in the industry. Stopovers allow for a free stop in a partner’s hub on the way to a final destination, squeezing in two trips for the price of one. Many other carriers allow no stopovers at all or only one stopover on roundtrip itineraries.”
Example of awards that will cost less
For those of you in Eastern Canada, the new partner award chart will be opening up a better sweet spot for flying on American Airlines with the new starting point of only 4,500 miles for flights under 700 miles. That’s 500 miles less than before and this is what we used to see with British Airways of yesteryear when they had 4,500 Avios short haul awards in North America. Now that Alaska will offer them it further raises the value of the program for those of you out east.
Once the MBNA Rewards World Elite® Mastercard® brings its Alaska Airlines transfer option into place in 2024, this card will actually be better than the American Express Cobalt Card on some of these short routes! If we take the example from our post announcing the return of American Airlines’ Halifax to New York La Guardia route you could potentially be redeeming for a one way flight with only $818.18 in spend (at 5.5 points per dollar) on the MBNA card. The Cobalt Card – British Airways option requires $1,500 in spend (at 5 points per dollar) You can almost get a round trip award with the MBNA card for what you would get for a one way on the Cobalt Card!
That’s just one example, you have many routes on American Airlines to cities like Chicago, New York and Philadelphia out of Toronto, Montreal and Quebec City that will also start at 4,500 miles. Again, you must be aware it is a starting point since Alaska prices dynamically but if saver awards are available with the airline this is the price you’ll pay with Mileage Plan. All I can say i this is a another great development for the upcoming Alaska – MBNA combo that will, in some award flight scenarios, make it better than the Cobalt Card.
Ultimately, if there are two cards that you should have in your wallet it is these two!
Additionally some partner business class redemptions will be getting cheaper as well. Business class on British Airways out of Montreal drops to 45,000 miles one way from the previous 57,500. While Toronto and Vancouver see a slight decrease from 57,500 to 55,000 for those same British Airways awards. Also out of Montreal, business class with Royal Air Maroc to Europe will now start at 55,000 miles, down from 100,000 miles.
Recommended reading: MBNA Rewards to Alaska Airlines conversion will be open to ALL cardholders pending final agreement
Examples of awards that will cost more
There are awards that will be going up in their mileage starting price. Most notably, longer haul flights in North America on partner airlines
Longer haul flights in North America will be going up in mileage requirements. Award travel between 1,401 and 2,100 miles will go up to 12,500 miles one way from the current 10,000 while 2,101 to 4,000 miles are moving to 17,500 miles from 12,500. That’s a very significant jump in the latter distance band.
Vancouver to Fiji on Fiji Airways will be going up in price. This is one award we have discussed several times here on RWRDS Canada and even featured it as an Award Availability Alert when the airline changed the route from their older Airbus A330 to the A350. With the new distance based pricing this flight will jump up to 75,000 miles from the current 55,000 which means if you have been considering it, be sure to redeem before March 2024 to lock in 55,000 mile pricing (if there is availability of course). Economy class on the same route also jumps to 37,500 miles from 30,000.
This holds true for Asia travel in business class from Eastern Canada as those will jump up to 75,000 miles one way as well.
Wrapping it up
Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan has learned a lesson from the past, going from no advance notice, to plenty of notice with these latest changes to the program! There is both good and bad news in the upcoming award chart changes as we have some awards becoming cheaper and others more expensive. For Canadian departures it is better for short haul partner awards within North America, better for some Transatlantic routes but worse off for longer distance travel in North America, for Fiji Airways flights out of Vancouver and also business class to Asia from Eastern Canada.
Overall, I would say the award chart changes are net neutral for Canadians. Then with additional enhancements like more partner awards outside of North America, future award sales and ultimately being able to redeem on multiple partner airlines for one way awards and the eventual option to transfer points from MBNA, the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan is going to climb even higher up the ranks of the best frequent flyer programs for Canadians.
Click here to learn more about these upcoming changes from Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
Images via Alaska Airlines