This past Thursday I wrote about the massive devaluation Alaska made to Emirates first class redemptions, where we saw award costs increase by anywhere from 67% to 100% without any advance notice. For example, the cost of a first class award between the US and Africa increased from 200,000 miles roundtrip to 400,000 miles roundtrip.
Making a change without notice was completely within Alaska’s rights, as the terms of the Mileage Plan program say they can make whatever changes they want whenever they want. But there’s a difference between what they can do and what they should do, especially since they’re a loyalty program. A lot of Mileage Plan members lost trust in the airline with this change, and that goes against everything a loyalty program should stand for.
Given the volume of feedback Alaska received, they addressed the situation in a blog post the same afternoon, and blamed the need for the immediate change on “travel hackers.” They said the following:
Alaska’s premium Emirates awards have long been known as an exceptionally good deal. With the rise of “travel-hacking,” intended to exploit Mileage Plan’s award routing rules, coupled with below-market award levels, our previous award levels were unsustainable. The new award levels enable Alaska to continue to offer Emirates Business Class and First Class as a redemption option.
They seemed to define “travel hacking” as “intending to exploit Mileage Plan’s award routing rules,” which seems a bit odd. If that’s the problem, surely they could just modify which routings their computers allow? Or are they saying that being able to route from the US to Europe via Dubai in general is “exploiting award routing rules?” Because I was under the impression that was the intent…
A lot of people sent emails to Mileage Plan sharing their feedback on the change, and I’ve now had several readers forward me the responses they received, all of which are exactly the same. So it’s clear that this isn’t just one misinformed agent, but rather this is the new “company line.”
Alaska is still claiming that they made the change due to “travel hacking,” but now they’re defining that as “the selling of award tickets for profit by individuals and brokers in direct violation of our policy and Emirates policy.” Here’s the full email:
“I am truly sorry that more notice was not given with regards to the changes made to Emirates award travel, but this was the direct result of fraudulent activity that has been happening with our award level on Emirates. Both Alaska Airlines and Emirates have been dealing with issues of “travel hacking” or the selling of award tickets for a profit by individuals and brokers in direct violation of our policy and Emirates policy. The decision was made that in order to continue to offer award travel on Emirates changes had to be made to curb this fraudulent activity. Normally when we make changes to our Mileage Plan we give 30 days notice but in this instance with the rise of fraudulent activity we needed to make a drastic change to fend off the rise of “travel hacking.” If you have any further questions or why like to discuss this further please contact Customer Care at 800-654-5669 and we would be happy to answer any questions or discuss the changes that were made.”
I think it’s time Alaska Airlines picks a story and sticks to it, because this is getting ridiculous. Or at a minimum maybe they should stop using provocative terms for which they haven’t yet decided a definition…
What do you make of Alaska’s latest excuse for their Emirates award devaluation?
All of this is killing me...the ones who are crying that Alaska and Emirates lost any patronage or the chance to make some revenue off them! You were totally stiffing them on FREE travel and you know it!! These airlines were never going to make money off of you. You wanted the chance to travel in style for nothing. Trust me, they aren't crying over losing you as a "customer". The only thing that qualified...
All of this is killing me...the ones who are crying that Alaska and Emirates lost any patronage or the chance to make some revenue off them! You were totally stiffing them on FREE travel and you know it!! These airlines were never going to make money off of you. You wanted the chance to travel in style for nothing. Trust me, they aren't crying over losing you as a "customer". The only thing that qualified you as such was your butt in one of their seats, not through actual purchase purchase.
Yes this change "stinks" but is anyone REALLY all that shocked? When travel blogs such as this constantly expose loopholes to get stuff for free and maximize the "freeness" of everything, what do you expect? Airlines are tired of giving their products away, especially opulent ones like Emirates. Mileage programs are bleeders for them that need to be capped off and that's exactly what they are now doing. Don't like it, then stop playing the game. That's exactly what they want you to do. But stop whining that you are being taken advantage of and screwed over...wasn't it you who was kind of exploiting the programs to get free travel in the first place?
Bloggers who make all of this their livelihood need to watch out. Soon they aren't going to have anything left to blog about as this all is going to be for the elite and not the common person. You are your own poison by constantly reporting on ways to work the system. You've been warned...
"Kyle says:
You guys need to quit complaining. You agreed to Alaskas terms when you enrolled which lets them change rates without notice. If you didn’t want this to happen, you should never have accepted them. Quit being crybabys and grow a pair"
Couldn't agree more. The author of this website is just a 5 year old moro n moaning about everything possible. Soon he will complain EK's toilet paper isn't square enough or something.
While everyone else was worried about their EK awards, I cashed in while there was still available for a bunch of other "high demand" routes, like PPT, SJD, DPS, LTO, HNL, OGG, EZE, SCL and AYQ. In fact, those trips zero me out completely, so in the end, I get to use my miles for more trips, instead of 1 trip.
I actually think there needs to be a lawsuit that will settle these issues. Can one member of a party really change ANYTHING in a program at will even if it was in the terms of an agreement? Once airlines are SELLING miles then this is a product and needs to conform to regulations that other products need to follow. Right now the airline mileage programs are in a legal vacuum. This needs to change.
@Robin. You're the reason they made the change. Only in it for the credit card sign up bonuses with no intention of being an AS customer. Can't blame them.
I see a lot of rhetoric here directed at people who aren't actually flyers of AS. Fair enough, we can agree to disagree.
For AS loyalists like my family, who earn most of their miles on AS by flying, I think there is a legitimate beef to be had at the way this was handled. I've replied back to my form letter response asking AS what they plan to do to show loyal flyers (especially...
I see a lot of rhetoric here directed at people who aren't actually flyers of AS. Fair enough, we can agree to disagree.
For AS loyalists like my family, who earn most of their miles on AS by flying, I think there is a legitimate beef to be had at the way this was handled. I've replied back to my form letter response asking AS what they plan to do to show loyal flyers (especially elites) that this action wasn't directed at them. I encourage other "real" AS flyers to do the same.
Let it go, let it go! Ben, you spruik internationally the ways go fly in the pointy end....... Space is limited, you unleashed the beast, more pax equals less seats. Economics 101, supply and demand, more demand for seats in the pointy end, more points in the market surely you can do the math. Couldn't you see it coming? Watch the others follow suit
All airlines are douche bags. But most airlines don't pretend otherwise. Alaska pretended it was not so it could reap the rewards of betrayal. Thus AS is the biggest douchebag of them all
I wasn't going to react, but there is one major point that is not really taken into account.
The airlines sell their points to the banks etc, and maybe the amount per point is not that great, the totals are massive. Lucky can chime in here. Furthermore, most points in everyday accounts disappear in two years and the account holder is none the wiser. This is pure profit for the airline.
Qantas was...
I wasn't going to react, but there is one major point that is not really taken into account.
The airlines sell their points to the banks etc, and maybe the amount per point is not that great, the totals are massive. Lucky can chime in here. Furthermore, most points in everyday accounts disappear in two years and the account holder is none the wiser. This is pure profit for the airline.
Qantas was a few years ago "talking" about either selling or moving their frequent flyer points business into a separate entity. Their frequent flyer department was at some stage the only department making a profit.
Just my 2 points.
Hank
"is this click bait, a place to facilitate venting, or beating a dead horse?"
All of them.
Time to let it go. The gig is up.
You guys need to quit complaining. You agreed to Alaskas terms when you enrolled which lets them change rates without notice. If you didn't want this to happen, you should never have accepted them. Quit being crybabys and grow a pair
Has anyone thought that the change is somewhat good, especially for the higher volume AS flyers like us MVP75K's? We get such obscene mileage redemption bonuses that I feel like these changes won't hurt us as much. Plus now there will be more F seats open, and not just anyone with a credit card can go and get an EK award seat. At first when I heard the news I was pissed, but then I...
Has anyone thought that the change is somewhat good, especially for the higher volume AS flyers like us MVP75K's? We get such obscene mileage redemption bonuses that I feel like these changes won't hurt us as much. Plus now there will be more F seats open, and not just anyone with a credit card can go and get an EK award seat. At first when I heard the news I was pissed, but then I thought about how much redeemable miles AS 75K's get and thought, okay that's not terrible. Heck, we get 50,000 just for re-qualifying for 75K. So I'm starting to warm up to the change, especially if I start to see more EK award availability in F.
IF I earned the miles, and the number of miles required from for travel are set by the airlines, Why are these airlines concerned as to how the miles are used? Sold, Traded or whatever?
Alaska could have gotten away with much less whining if they put 'not available' in the Award chart for Emirates First. They could have listed a footnote that as of 3/31, they are unavailable due to partner and program changes, and they are unsure when/if they will be back, or at what redemption level.
Then they could have waited several or many months and 'brought them back' due to successful renegotiations--at the new higher levels.
They did what they had to do. They could either tell their coding staff to implement the functionality, it take weeks/months to get the rqmnts, implement the code, test the code, deploy the code etc etc etc...all the time, that info leaks out from the coders/biz analysts/etc and they not only have the costs of coding that implementation, but the MONTHS of time where ever more redemptions are made and they lose even more money...
They did what they had to do. They could either tell their coding staff to implement the functionality, it take weeks/months to get the rqmnts, implement the code, test the code, deploy the code etc etc etc...all the time, that info leaks out from the coders/biz analysts/etc and they not only have the costs of coding that implementation, but the MONTHS of time where ever more redemptions are made and they lose even more money b/c of ppl piling on making Emirates Award ticket purchases...or straw purchases as it were. AND ... if there were issues, all you would bitch and use the issues to book ever more tickets...either fraudulently or for straw purchases....but....that abusers get what they wanted...sheesh.
In short, they could pi** away lots of money on a solution which "might" work and "might" make ppl angry and would definitely cost them a lot of money OOOORRRRR they could do what they did, save money on coding/testing/etc, save money on the flurry of out-sized redemptions, etc etc etc...Hmmm, as a business about to go thru a merger that needs money for other things...what would you do???
So how does simply raising the number of miles/points it takes to get an Emirates ticket combat fraud by those nasty travel hackers?
Alaska's no notice Emirates devaluation reminds one of the importance of "earn and burn." So I just burned my AS miles on premium seats to New Zealand next February. Not on Emirates, of course, but another Alaska Partner that has not yet been devalued. And I won't be collecting AS miles anymore. In particular, when I fly to Hawaii on cash tickets (which I do a couple of time a year) I will no longer consider AS as my go to airline.
Dear Mr .....
I am truly sorry that more notice was not given with regards to the changes
made to Emirates award travel, but this was the direct result of fraudulent
activity that has been happening with our award level on Emirates. Both Alaska
Airlines and Emirates have been dealing with issues of "travel hacking" or the
selling of award tickets for a profit by individuals and brokers in direct
Dear Mr .....
I am truly sorry that more notice was not given with regards to the changes
made to Emirates award travel, but this was the direct result of fraudulent
activity that has been happening with our award level on Emirates. Both Alaska
Airlines and Emirates have been dealing with issues of "travel hacking" or the
selling of award tickets for a profit by individuals and brokers in direct
violation of our policy and Emirates policy. The decision was made that in
order to continue to offer award travel on Emirates changes had to be made to
curb this fraudulent activity. Normally when we make changes to our Mileage
Plan we give 30 days notice but in this instance with the rise of fraudulent
activity we needed to make a drastic change to fend off the rise of "travel
hacking." If you have any further questions or why like to discuss this further
please contact Customer Care at 800-654-5669 and we would be happy to answer
any questions or discuss the changes that were made.
Joe
Customer Care
Alaska Air
Feel free to insert Real Housewvies GIFs
This was no 2 am epiphany !!!
This is getting rather ridiculous. There are more effective way of limiting ticket brokers than this. Alask wants to have their cake (sell unlimited miles) and eat it too (discourage EK redemptions).
I'm surprised AS management is so disorganized with their messaging. They're getting too many EK redemptions in F. "Damn the "travel hackers" (i.e. bloggers), it's their fault." Two days later: "Oh wait, we're making tons of money selling miles and signing up credit cards, thanks to the bloggers. We can't blame the bloggers. What we really meant when we said "travel hackers" was old-style ticket brokers. Yeah. That's right. Just like 1998. People will buy...
I'm surprised AS management is so disorganized with their messaging. They're getting too many EK redemptions in F. "Damn the "travel hackers" (i.e. bloggers), it's their fault." Two days later: "Oh wait, we're making tons of money selling miles and signing up credit cards, thanks to the bloggers. We can't blame the bloggers. What we really meant when we said "travel hackers" was old-style ticket brokers. Yeah. That's right. Just like 1998. People will buy that." I wouldn't want to be the President of Alaska when he got the call from Bank of America.
@noah, the flaw in your logic is that you are (wrongly, I think) assuming AS makes more money by flying people than they do by selling miles to us and to BoA. Their behavior would indicate you are mistaken.
@Keith, I think you totally misunderstand what "loyalty" means and how a "loyalty program " should work. They most certainly DO owe us a lot, and I don't care how we got our miles. One...
@noah, the flaw in your logic is that you are (wrongly, I think) assuming AS makes more money by flying people than they do by selling miles to us and to BoA. Their behavior would indicate you are mistaken.
@Keith, I think you totally misunderstand what "loyalty" means and how a "loyalty program " should work. They most certainly DO owe us a lot, and I don't care how we got our miles. One way or anothet, AS has made a fortune selling miles. Don't tell me they've been taking a loss on those.
Let's see - is this click bait, a place to facilitate venting, or beating a dead horse?
Lucky, have you ever "sold" miles or otherwise used flight vouchers in an inappropriate manner?
Everything good dies. This is how the world works.
I don't know about a few whiners here and there who complain about only the fact that prices went up, but most of the bloggers/commenters/FT and Ben included, mainly took issue with the swiftness and lack of warning. That's the part that erodes the trust. I personally couldn't care less about flying Emirates ever again, did it once....nothing special. I'll save miles for Cathay, but who's to say Alaska won't devalue those next, out of...
I don't know about a few whiners here and there who complain about only the fact that prices went up, but most of the bloggers/commenters/FT and Ben included, mainly took issue with the swiftness and lack of warning. That's the part that erodes the trust. I personally couldn't care less about flying Emirates ever again, did it once....nothing special. I'll save miles for Cathay, but who's to say Alaska won't devalue those next, out of nowhere...while my SPG transfer is pending.
I was told by an Alaska flight attendant during a flight a month ago that big changes were coming. Amongst those were taking out a row of first class seats, not allowing children under 5 in first class and the end of upgrades for mileage plan members. These new changes allegedly are coming in September. This does not surprise me. Sadly, I think Alaska is being pressured by Delta in Seattle to be all about...
I was told by an Alaska flight attendant during a flight a month ago that big changes were coming. Amongst those were taking out a row of first class seats, not allowing children under 5 in first class and the end of upgrades for mileage plan members. These new changes allegedly are coming in September. This does not surprise me. Sadly, I think Alaska is being pressured by Delta in Seattle to be all about profit and less about customer service. The way the other major carriers are. I switched loyalty plans from Delta to Alaska last year because I thought Alaska would be different. This does not appear to be the case. Now, with devaluing mileage benefits without notice (except to employees), Alaska appears to be more focused on what is good for the company and less on their customers. It is shameful in this day, when oil prices are low, profits are soaring and airlines are doing nothing but taking away benefits.
But they're not blaming "bloggers" like so many people complaining about the complaining have been doing. Now they're blaming a much more sophisticated and organized thing. Frankly I can't believe that this is a very large amount of the EK awards booked using AS miles. As noted, they could easily have corrected this issue by simply creating rules about booking awards for yourself and immediate family only or something along those lines. That would seem...
But they're not blaming "bloggers" like so many people complaining about the complaining have been doing. Now they're blaming a much more sophisticated and organized thing. Frankly I can't believe that this is a very large amount of the EK awards booked using AS miles. As noted, they could easily have corrected this issue by simply creating rules about booking awards for yourself and immediate family only or something along those lines. That would seem to solve the "problem". But that's not what they did.
@atxtravel
"The hate is for the no-notice devaluation, not for raising of the prices itself." That's just not true. Go back and read through the comments ... it's a bunch of people whining that they will never get to fly Emirates F again ... talk about a first world problem.
joooju:
Yes, you hit the hammer right on the head. This is exactly what they still need to do and revert the award levels back the way they were (or if they want to increase them, do them incrementally and with proper notice.)
They can stop most of this broker BS in about 2 seconds by simply restricting awards to those people that are on their AS accounts, at least temporarily. If need be,...
joooju:
Yes, you hit the hammer right on the head. This is exactly what they still need to do and revert the award levels back the way they were (or if they want to increase them, do them incrementally and with proper notice.)
They can stop most of this broker BS in about 2 seconds by simply restricting awards to those people that are on their AS accounts, at least temporarily. If need be, each person that is added to a MileagePlan account can be confirmed via sending in a copy of an ID, etc. That will immediately stop brokers from having people with miles in their accounts book awards for people they don't even know for money.
Lucky, I know you know some people in high places within these airlines, so it would be nice for you to present this as at least a temporary solution instead of screwing everyone over for the misdeeds of some brokers.
AS needs to apologize, revert the award chart, fix the issue by implementing the above solution, and move on.
Thanks
LOL, so many bitter haters of miles out here. Probably aren't smart enough to earn enough to redeem themselves.
The hate is for the no-notice devaluation, not for raising of the prices itself. Miles do take effort to earn, or take money to buy, or if you transfer SPG points, it's opportunity cost. If I got 100k miles completely free wit zero effort I wouldn't complain. The right thing to do was give at least...
LOL, so many bitter haters of miles out here. Probably aren't smart enough to earn enough to redeem themselves.
The hate is for the no-notice devaluation, not for raising of the prices itself. Miles do take effort to earn, or take money to buy, or if you transfer SPG points, it's opportunity cost. If I got 100k miles completely free wit zero effort I wouldn't complain. The right thing to do was give at least 30 days notice, and if brokers are a problem, stop allowing redemption for unrelated parties immediately. Alaska is just full of shit.
We should all agree next time we're about to transfer SPG points or buy miles, call their reps and send tweets inquiring if a devaluation is about to happen. This will waste their resources and teach them a lesson.
@Kevin: Wow, that does suck. I feel for you.
Having been a ticket broker until 1998, this just isn't even close to the level of being a problem for airlines as it was back then. The airlines sued the large and small brokers. If you got a cease and desist letter, you stopped, or you were sure to lose a lawsuit . The legal theory of tortious interference with the contract between the airline and...
@Kevin: Wow, that does suck. I feel for you.
Having been a ticket broker until 1998, this just isn't even close to the level of being a problem for airlines as it was back then. The airlines sued the large and small brokers. If you got a cease and desist letter, you stopped, or you were sure to lose a lawsuit . The legal theory of tortious interference with the contract between the airline and the frequent flyer was well-settled law by that time.
I do see several companies located outside the US advertising tickets rather openly. Perhaps their jurisdictions allow it.
The answer to the problem isn't to devalue the program's best award by 100%.
Bout time to ditch the Alaska credit card though....
The dog ate my homework. Honest
Sincerely
Alaska Airlines.
So let's see if I've got this..."a few people may be ripping us off, so we're going to screw all the members who were saving up for aspirational trips by doubling the redemption rates."
Their legal right? Absolutely. A good business move? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe they needed to save cash to help with the cost of buying Virgin America?
Dude, let it go..... don't see what is so ridiculous.
@Robin -- I suspect AS may be more able to turn off the faucet of selling miles than some of the other airlines can. Right now, selling miles is a massive business. It's billions every year -- whether by selling them directly to the customer, by selling them to the credit card banks, or getting reimbursement from the programs (like SPG and Ultimate Rewards) that give their customers transfer ability. Most of the airlines have...
@Robin -- I suspect AS may be more able to turn off the faucet of selling miles than some of the other airlines can. Right now, selling miles is a massive business. It's billions every year -- whether by selling them directly to the customer, by selling them to the credit card banks, or getting reimbursement from the programs (like SPG and Ultimate Rewards) that give their customers transfer ability. Most of the airlines have to be pretty sophisticated about it. AA would love to devalue and make the miles that they've sold for billions of dollars be worthless, but they are too addicted the cash to permit it. They need to be measured, manipulate redemptions, devalue reasonably, because they simply cannnot let the faucet turn off.
All of the airlines would love to sell high and buy low -- that is, sell the miles for millions and then only allow redemptions that cost them relatively little or on their own airline where they can closely tailor award availability to empty seats so that the cost is managed. But the problem that all the airlines face is an increasingly sophisticated public, who are learning how to use their miles. Gone are the days where AA could sell 100,000 miles for $2,000 and then count on large numbers of people redeeming them for domestic first class seats on their own airline that weren't going to sell anyway and at best were going to be free upgrades for elites. So, they are all dealing with this problem one way or another.
AS, though, seems to have only dipped a foot into the mileage selling business, instead of the whole leg. They only have one credit card, their direct sales gave them a nice bump over the last year, but they haven't previously gone whole hog, and they aren't taking in massive amounts of money from Chase or Citi -- they are getting money from SPG, but until the Emirates proliferation, this probably was fairly modest. In short, while Ben reported a $34 million increase due to mileage sales, fuel prices are pretty low, AS is working on a significant merger, and they are still small enough that my guess is they aren't so addicted that they can't take a short term hit. I think that's why they can be so heavy handed, and offer baloney excuses like mileage brokering as a reason for their conduct. We will see.
Did you not expect this? As an average European I had never heard of Alaska Airlines. But then, It seemed so simple. Glad I did not follow the tips from travel writers.
It's honestly a bit comical to see everyone so upset over this. Alaskan and every other loyalty program owes nothing to anyone - in fact, if every loyalty program decided to upend the system and stop the ability to accrue and use miles, the industry would probably make a lot more money.
Ok, you saved 200,000 miles for an award (most of which was probably accrued via CCs and/or purchasing miles) and now you...
It's honestly a bit comical to see everyone so upset over this. Alaskan and every other loyalty program owes nothing to anyone - in fact, if every loyalty program decided to upend the system and stop the ability to accrue and use miles, the industry would probably make a lot more money.
Ok, you saved 200,000 miles for an award (most of which was probably accrued via CCs and/or purchasing miles) and now you can't use that award - how exactly is that Alaskan's problem? You weren't giving them your money in the first place (at least you definitely didn't fly 200,000 miles with them), so why should they give you something in return?
I don't fully understand why you, Ben, and so many of your commenters are complaining, but then I remember that the system you guys have been exploiting is slowly starting to actually make more sense for the airlines, and you guys are up in arms about it. I love flying up front just as much as anyone, but I completely understand why airlines are doing this, and quite frankly, don't have much of a problem with it.
It is true that there are a bunch of providers that somehow sell Emirates F tickets for ~3k r/t from NA to Asia. They might well be buying AS miles and selling tickets to third parties for a profit. Still, the excuse doesn't hold, because they could just have punished those hackers instead of the wider public.
This just gets better and better. Nothing puts a smile on my face like people here raging about an airline changing redemption rates. Just by looking at comments here I can tell whether an airline made a good or bad move, and the temperature in here tells my Alaska made a fantastic move.
Canceling my Bank of America cards and will use the remaining Alaskan miles (...320K - was hoping for some major dream trips on Emirates after experiencing them once) to go anywhere Emirates doesn't. Both Emirates and Alaskan lost any "bling" for me and my future patronage. BOA might want to query Alaskan to, if they see revenues dropping, which I suspect (and hope) they will.
Yeah, this and the FT thread about the crap "fraud" make it pretty clear what is going on here. AS wants to sell miles but to have them used for AS flights, which is traditionally a crap redemption. And they seem perfectly willing to invent supposed mileage booking as an excuse to justify moving the goalposts whenever they like. This is not going to be a one-off. This is not a trustworthy program and their...
Yeah, this and the FT thread about the crap "fraud" make it pretty clear what is going on here. AS wants to sell miles but to have them used for AS flights, which is traditionally a crap redemption. And they seem perfectly willing to invent supposed mileage booking as an excuse to justify moving the goalposts whenever they like. This is not going to be a one-off. This is not a trustworthy program and their excuses are simple dishonesty. If you are hoping for premium partner rewards, don't get tricked -- earn and burn immediately and keep your fingers crossed you don't get accused of "fraud".
The biggest revolution in travel hacking in the last couple of years s widespread understanding that miles with program X could be used to redeem on airline Y. This used to be a bit of a secret, but now t's common knowledge. To some extent all programs are coming to terms with it in various ways, but AS seems to have decided to be most aggressive and most willing to lie instead of taking reasoned measures. From today forward anyone who accumulates miles on AS or transfers their SPG as though it were an honest program is raking a risk. It isn't.
I am just as upset/devastated/(insert word here) as everyone else, but I can definitely see where the problem is. Earning 100k Alaska Miles isn't "that hard", and if you're able to redeem it for a $20k+ flight, you could easily make thousands of dollars off brokering that award.
I don't know exact figures and I personally earn and redeem my own miles, but I do know of people that buy and sell miles and...
I am just as upset/devastated/(insert word here) as everyone else, but I can definitely see where the problem is. Earning 100k Alaska Miles isn't "that hard", and if you're able to redeem it for a $20k+ flight, you could easily make thousands of dollars off brokering that award.
I don't know exact figures and I personally earn and redeem my own miles, but I do know of people that buy and sell miles and they make enough money that they can afford when a mileage program cancels one and they have to buy another one for the client.
Just like a lot of manufactured spending techniques being blamed to fraudulent gift cards/purchases, I wouldn't be surprised if there isn't some truth behind brokers making a ton of money off selling Emirates first class. Again, without being an expert on the subject, there's exponentially money in brokering off Emirates first class than a Delta/American/United transcontinental first class ticket.
Again, I just want to reiterate that I also wish there was some advance notice and am discouraged that it's unlikely I'll get to fly Emirates first class again, because unless some miracle earning opportunity happens, I'm not shelling out 200k for a one-way.
Sorry I dont blame AS. The blogs have been for the longest time screaming at everyone to get these credit cards and bingo in no time you have a EK 1st tkt anywhere on the very cheap.
The Brokers seem to be the ones bashing AS the most.
The only folks I feel bad for are those who actually flew AS and earned their RDMs and were saving them for an EK tkt. Everyone...
Sorry I dont blame AS. The blogs have been for the longest time screaming at everyone to get these credit cards and bingo in no time you have a EK 1st tkt anywhere on the very cheap.
The Brokers seem to be the ones bashing AS the most.
The only folks I feel bad for are those who actually flew AS and earned their RDMs and were saving them for an EK tkt. Everyone else SOL. Maybe that is what AS should have done and said OK we will track 2 types of miles (sort of what other carriers have done in the past) RDMs earned by flying AS or its partners and miles from every other source, and said OK those within say 15% of cashing out for a EK and having those RDMs from actual flying can reserve a tkt at the old rate.2X that for 2 people on the same PNR
That would have left me out in the cold personally but at least it would have supported those who actually flew and credited to AS.The above assumes that the member actually had pd rev tkts flown on AS and not simply flying only non-AS carriers and crediting to AS
These types of amateur responses speak volumes about a company. Alaska should have put a field general in charge of minimizing the damage, instead of trainees unfamiliar with the value of customer trust and loyalty. Alaska, your customers deserve better.
This makes no sense. To stop brokers from selling tickets, they decide to increase prices? That won't solve the problem at all. Sounds like BS to me.
Why don't they instead force the member to be one of the passengers or relatives like credit cards and some other airlines do?
Their excuse is just that....a lame excuse. However, you have to admit that the press and notoriety that travel bloggers (like yourself) have gained have in large part caused this. From a business sense, there is no way they can sustain or justify releasing a seat that costs more than $10000 going to someone who obtained it by a couple of credit card signups. I predict that the "golden eggs" of easy award space gained...
Their excuse is just that....a lame excuse. However, you have to admit that the press and notoriety that travel bloggers (like yourself) have gained have in large part caused this. From a business sense, there is no way they can sustain or justify releasing a seat that costs more than $10000 going to someone who obtained it by a couple of credit card signups. I predict that the "golden eggs" of easy award space gained from credit card signups will, in the near future, disappear. The airlines will likely continue to devalue their miles and make award space increasingly sparse (or nonexistent). Then, your blogs will likely only be relevant for people who can spend thousands of dollars on premium seats or travelers who earn their status by flying >100,000 miles a year. That crowd is quite small.
I spoke with a customer service supervisor at Alaska and she said (paraphrase), "The Mileage Plan program was not designed for people to take advantage of the opportunity to purchase miles to procure award seats on our Partner Airlines." I did an internal "WTF" when I heard that. I replied (paraphrase), "Well you were sure happy to sell me those miles a couple of months ago with no warning or disclaimer. What changed." After that...
I spoke with a customer service supervisor at Alaska and she said (paraphrase), "The Mileage Plan program was not designed for people to take advantage of the opportunity to purchase miles to procure award seats on our Partner Airlines." I did an internal "WTF" when I heard that. I replied (paraphrase), "Well you were sure happy to sell me those miles a couple of months ago with no warning or disclaimer. What changed." After that it was mostly crickets.
FWIW - I did get one great FC trip in on Emirates, so it's not a total shutout. But once I clear the slate with the 200K miles I have in that account, I'll think thrice before I deposit any more points with them until 30 seconds before I book a ticket.
These guys have lost all credibility.
If the issue is brokers then just say that going forward you can only redeem AS miles for EK travel for immediate family, just as Korean does.
@jeff. LMFAO
Emirates have the right to defend there first class product by allowing only sophisticated and wealthy people into first class rather than penny pincjing lower class/ middle class red necks for Chattanooga and the likes who grovel all their life to string points together so they can go first. The these usually smell and look out of place and awkard in first with their cheap spinner luggage from wal mart.
Is this a possible reason, they are not part of an alliance and the actually have to pay for tickets?
Thus, they did not like to have to pay lots of dollars to purchase Emirates tickets never or hardly ever fly Alaska?
You would think that airline execs would be sophisticated enough to realize that a major change like this without notice is going to spark outrage -- and at least have thought up some explanationpermuta in advance, rather than winging it afterward. Ya know, like Delta does... where every change is an "enhancement."
Agree that this latest permutation of an excuse is lame. I'd give them more credit if they just acknowledged what we all know...
You would think that airline execs would be sophisticated enough to realize that a major change like this without notice is going to spark outrage -- and at least have thought up some explanationpermuta in advance, rather than winging it afterward. Ya know, like Delta does... where every change is an "enhancement."
Agree that this latest permutation of an excuse is lame. I'd give them more credit if they just acknowledged what we all know is the truth: they decided to make the change, and they didn't want anybody to be able to take advantage of the lower price during any notice period.
Wow, I don't know what you say to this...
I received the same response from Alaska.
I'm getting a de ja vu here because this is exactly the reason they cited when customers' accounts were shutdown last summer over activity such as booking award reservations in another person's name shortly after buying miles.
In this case, the punishment doesn't seem to fit the crime. Certainly, if selling award tickets were the only issue, there would be more appropriate measures for them to take to curb the problem?
I had exactly 199,985 miles in that account, ready to book two tix for my parents in Emirates F LAX-DXB-ZRH... just needed my last credit card points to post. By not giving 30 days notice, Alaska really screwed me over badly.
I don't know anyone who is going to sign up for credit cards to get bonuses, spend money and then use the reward points to sell tickets. Maybe people were getting tickets for friends or family members as many readers of your blog noted they were saving for.
Another total BS response from Alaska. they should just come out and say there were too many points redemption for first class Emirates flights being redeemed under their system, with their rules.
Honestly, they don't owe an explanation to anybody. It's their program and they can do what they want.
The new rationale makes no sense. I thought airlines have gotten pretty sophisticated with sniffing out brokers of award tickets, and it's perfectly within their rights to cancel brokered tickets at any time.
I was somehow "okay" with their original response.
This new response is ... lameeeeee