New: Redeem Alaska Miles On Royal Jordanian

Feels like all this must be precursor to a wider devaluation. The odd part is there isn't a consistent pattern even with the new partners.

The AS pricing may not be competitive. But it's more available.

Over the past month, I've seen numerous times where AY and IB itineraries could be booked on AS at a saver level (in both J and Y) and are not available to book with AA miles.

But no doubt it's frustrating having to choose between 57.5k AA miles & $330 or 75k AS miles & $64 for a J seat coming home from Europe. In theory, the 75k AS itin should have been bookable with AA miles at a much lower price, but it wasn't.

Do you think they'll devalue there other options (Cathay, JAL, Qantas, etc.) to match? Is it time to purge the stash? Although all the good value options are still closed off...

Not sure you are looking at the whole value here. First, AS miles are widely considered more valuable per mile than AA miles. If you multiply the miles required by a cpp, AS compares very favorably. Secondly, AS includes FC flights to the connection with Jordanian. i.e., LAX-SFO-JFK in AS First and then JFK-AMM in Business.

I think it's coming...which sucks cause I'm sitting on nearly 300K (my wife has 80K, and my daughter has 220K) that I've been trying to work a r/t to Oz whenever it re-opens. But QA has ZERO availability in J...only Y.

Might as well think about burning them to Japan on JL once it opens up...

@ Glenn A Goddard -- I'm not sure either of this is an advantage of Alaska Mileage Plan?

With American AAdvantage you can include connecting flights on American OR Alaska, while with Alaska Mileage Plan you can only include connecting flights on Alaska. So American has the advantage there.

As far as your other point goes, I agree Alaska miles are more valuable than American miles on a per-mile basis, so that makes the value proposition of redeeming Alaska miles even worse. In other words, if the same number of American or Alaska miles were being required, you'd want to redeem American miles.

@ mdande7 -- My guess is that the reason that there's not a pattern is because the pricing is pretty proportional to the costs Mileage Plan incurs for these redemptions. Different airlines have different reimbursement rates, and I suspect this reflects that pretty closely in comparison to expected redemption patterns.

@ Thomas -- I assume you're just comparing online availability, right? American's website is notorious for not showing correct award availability, so I suspect these seats would have been available if you called.

@ Alec -- That's an excellent question. Alaska is able to buy time right now with any devaluations, given that the best redemption values are for destinations that continue to largely remain closed (Australia, Hong Kong, and Japan).

I don't necessarily think a devaluation is imminent, because from Mileage Plan's perspective it makes sense to have these "carrot" redemptions that can be dangled to keep members engaged in the program.

I do think if we see a unified award chart at some point, the pricing will be much higher.

But I don't necessarily think a devaluation has to be imminent for Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, and Qantas. I guess we'll see...

@ Ben - Yes, this was only looking on line. I did not follow on with a call.

I'm somewhat surprised by this. Do the alliances not in any way standardize the reimbursement rates?

I would go the korean air option for 125k business return and take advantage of a stop in korea on the way to aust/nz. Finding fiji or qantas in business all the way is near impossible. I see that singapore has opened economy flights finally so business might open eventually a JFK/FRA/SIN/SYD flight would be nice but expensive.

You sound like my friend that works for Alaska 🙂

I remember the high degree of excitement here and elsewhere when AS announced it was joining the OneWorld alliance.
One could have forgiven the slow takeup of O/W partners and awards that would inevitable flow if it meant that the MP management was taking their time to strike great redemption deals for their members.
Alas, this has not occurred, in fact quite the opposite, with an alarming level of negotiating incompetence on display. Even with its legacy members such as Qantas, it has meekly accepted that F awards are now well and truly history, with Business heading the same way. (Its 'Mixed Cabin' Business awards are deceitful window dressing with about 5% of the total travel being Business, with the bulk being Economy/Coach.)
Time for a management (or Board?) shakeup, unless they are happy to slide into irrelevance.

The other thing I would add is that for someone who earns through flying and not credit card spend, Alaska is far more generous in points awarded especially in premium cabins of partner airlines than any other oneworld airline and usually by a difference! So from a flying perspective I would say they are far easier to accrue particularly without status!

I agree Ben, its sad to see the demise of Alaskan miles. They were once amazing for even Emirates FC, Cathy FC and JAL FC. I flew all three more than once with good mileage redemptions. Qatar became a bust with silly redemption rates and now it seems Jordanian is following suite. I am using what miles I have left and remembering better days. With silly surge pricing on hotels (Marriott in March) and United soon kicking in I have to wonder if the mileage game overall really has seen better days...It also makes it hard to consider the sales Alaskan is having on miles... for what can you use them for?? BA and massive additional fees...no thanks..