New: Redeem Alaska Miles On Royal Air Maroc

I 100% agree that these are spectacularly bad and inconsistent. I'd also note that RAM is hardly an industry leading product . . .

Just awful. Just like in country service (Morocco) that RAM provides. Sometimes.

As a long time AS flyer (MM+) this comes as no surprise. Many of us long time flyers are dismayed at the new managements race to pony up with AA/OW. AA traditionally has hosed AS flyer award redemption and those of us here in the west securing anything but main cabin is useless. One World has proved almost useless to AS flyers case in point if you want anything but back of the bus BA is still your best bet to Europe, going around the other way Qatar simply replaced EK to Africa.

Bottom line The first two posters are spot on it sucks!! AS is no longer that airline we once knew.

Mileage plan is probably worst of all the loyalty programs now.
Have you checked the redemption rates for Qatar ..150k for economy class between US and Qatar. After losing emirates,there is just no more value left in Mileage plan

I wouldn't be so quick as to 'order' a reality check on the pricing - I'd rather the award pricing remains the way they are than, say, have all business class one-ways at 80,000 miles, whether you're flying RAM to Europe or Cathay to Singapore. Or worst yet - RAM flight to Morocco prices out at 60k and Cathay prices out to 90k! I'd much prefer these niche routings for outsized value - the way United used to have on their open jaws and travel from SE Asia to Australia; now everything is priced high.

If RAM had a better route network within Africa I could see some use for the partnership. For example, 100k miles from US to Cape town with a stopover in Morroco isn't amazing, but the I could myself redeeming for that kind of unique routing, but with RAM only serving W Africa, I see no use for this partnership at the published redemption rates.

I'm not going to disagree that 75k for J on IB or AY is steep. But seats have been available at that price. I booked some.

Prior to booking, I did look at AA availability for the lower price - it wasn't available. I'll take 75k miles for J over the 86k AA miles for PE or Y.

I think a more interesting phenomenon IB brings to the table is the ability to book SEA-MIA-MAD in Y for 35k miles, when just the SEA-MIA flight in Y is 30k miles. The international connection appears to be opening saver availability.

I'm not paying 120k miles for a one way on Air Maroc.

I don't want to be rude, but why do you keep using Cathay Pacific as an example. Forget about that airline. Hong Kong will never be what it used to be in geopolitical realm, so let's move on.
It's almost impossible to fly there and it will be for a long time. I am actually glad that Alaska is adjusting some of those redemption rates, as these promos of buying miles and artificially giving a value to these miles in arbitrary ratios, that some blogs are doing, is just wrong.
I would never use AS miles with Air Maroc, but options are there

Considering how quickly my miles added up as an AS G75k when flying partners in J, I'm not so surprised by these redemption rates. Flying between BKK and the East Coast on Korean in J (or to Europe on EK or BA in J) back when I lived in Thailand amassed me over a million miles in two years. No way I'd get that many redeemable miles with DL or AA, nor would I be able to regularly redeem them, at a consistent rate, with DL or AA. For example: each time I checked DL to redeem to/from Asia and the East Coast, I was looking at nearly 400k miles in J one way! That's insane. AA isn't much better nowadays, if you can even find J availability. Not saying I love these rates on AS's new partners, but I'm not altogether ready to throw my AS status away just yet.

Europe to Africa for 35k in J isn’t bad though! What makes no sense is that it is cheaper than the 45k for an intra-Africa ticket

"Spectacularly bad" is the perfect way to put it. Having AS miles be 1:1 with AA alone would be a huge devaluation of the program yet but having the program be worse than AA is a giant red flag for any AS elite.

As a long time elite, CX redemptions have long been the thing we all point to as the redeeming quality of their program. But with CX's future uncertain and the recent devaluations of their miles (wtf is the Qatar chart), you'd be foolish to say AS miles still hold their spot as the top valued airline miles. Very sad to see this program fall so quickly.

Ridiculous award rates .....

London / Lagos is pricing at 35k in J which is pretty good, but with a $353 fee!

I am reminded of the massive pre-emptive blow which was the hike in miles for Emirates awards a few years ago. Went from hero to zero overnight. MP has not been forgiven over that.
This time with RAM they are not bothering with any foreplay.
I would be interested to hear MPs side of the story. Is it (as with Emirates) "they made us do it...", or a straight revenue grab?
Speaking with a reservations agent at the time they commented that they were no longer getting any enquiries or bookings for Emirates awards. I'm guessing same will happen with RAM awards.
Flying RAM has never been on my bucket list, as the experience does not rate highly according to reviews.

Anchorage to Europe? 22.5K miles, 57K in Business on Alaska, spectacularly good...and after 10 grueling hours with rude Lufthansa FAs, bad food, and an aging, cramped cattle car of a plane, the switch for the final leg to a sleek Alaska jet with friendly staff was life saving.

I agree that it is no longer a good program.

Planning to return from Maldives in March I managed to get a flight from Columbo via HKG on Cathay for 62,000 miles which was a good deal (however because of telephone only booking there was an extra non-refundable booking charge of $55 USD). However with HK closed that's now no longer an option. So will return from MLE on Qatar for 70,000 AA miles.

AS wanted something in the range of 150,000 miles for the same return flight.

The ONLY advantage of AS is that IF you can get a flight at a reasonable price that can be routed with a stopover then it can be a really good deal. Unfortunately they stopped doing the stopover in Asia and we flew Manila to Bali via Singapore and could not stop over.

The other redemption problem with AS is that only one carrier can be booked per trip (+ AS connection). That really limits the options for travel itineraries.