Last week we learned about Alaska’s Mileage Plan program adjusting mileage earnings rates for travel on British Airways.
The changes were drastic on both ends, and very much mirrored the trend we’re seeing in the industry — airlines are awarding more miles for people traveling on full fare/premium cabin tickets, and fewer miles for people traveling on discounted economy tickets. On the low end, we saw mileage for discounted economy tickets drop from 100% to 25%, while on the high end we saw mileage for first class tickets increase from 150% to 300%.
Well, it seems like that’s not the only partner earnings rate adjustment we should expect from Mileage Plan.
As of a couple of days ago, Alaska’s Mileage Plan has adjusted mileage earnings rates for travel on Air France & KLM.
Here’s the new earnings chart for travel on Air France:
Meanwhile here’s the old earnings chart for travel on Air France:
Here’s the new earnings chart for travel on KLM:
And here’s the old earnings chart for travel on KLM:
As you can see:
- Mileage earnings for the cheapest economy fares (T, E, N, V, R, G) are dropping — from 100% to 25%
- Mileage earnings for discounted economy fares (H, L, Q) are dropping — from 100% to 50%
- Mileage earnings for slightly more expensive economy fares (U, K) are dropping — from 100% to 75%
- Mileage earnings for full fare economy fares (Y, B, M) are staying the same — 100%
- Mileage earnings for business class (J, C, D, I, Z) are staying the same — 125%
- Mileage earnings for first class (P, F) are staying the same — 150%
These changes are really rough. While the British Airways earnings rate changes at least had some upside for premium cabin flyers, this is almost just a devaluation in earnings across the board. The one slight improvement is that some deeply discounted fares previously didn’t earn any miles, and now earn 25% miles.
It’s interesting that this comes so closely after the British Airways earnings rates changing, which I assume were tied to British Airways’ devaluation to their own Executive Club earnings rates.
To some degree I can’t help but wonder whether Delta played a part in this at all, given their joint venture with Air France/KLM and their rivalry with Alaska.
Bottom line
Alaska Mileage Plan has long been a great program for crediting miles from a variety of airlines across the alliances, and even some non-aligned airlines.
Historically Mileage Plan has had especially lucrative earnings rates, though I guess we shouldn’t be surprised with this general trend. For the most part this probably isn’t even Alaska’s doing, but rather the request of the “native” airline.
Membership is free and takes no more information than commenting as a guest. Earn status points for good contributions, and see fewer ads as your status grows.