Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan is one of my favorite frequent flyer programs, thanks to the fact that they continue to award miles based on distance flown, have unique airline partners, have low award redemption rates, allow stopovers on one-way awards, and offer generous elite benefits.
Continue reading: You Can Now Redeem Alaska Miles On Aer Lingus
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
so they're essentially doing what United and American do with their Everyday/AAnytime awards
It looks like the ticket of 280000 miles each way is issued in I class, which earns more than 200% RDM with AS, so this is an award flight, that actually gives you miles back for flying... Well...
Will you still get a free checked bag on the intra-Europe awards? That is what makes most Avios redemptions a good value on infra-Europe; if you will have a checked bag the surcharges are easier to accept.
The days I have been fearing are approaching more rapidly than I thought: revenue based partner awards... ugh
Where's the credit to your friends over at Flyer Talk for your story!? You seem to H/T other blogs, but don't seem to mention that here...
I don’t think it’s intentional- since Alaska is effectively signing new contacts and agreements every time they find a partner. This is probably very unlike an alliance that an airline joins, where there are set rules already in place.
Airlines want to announce ASAP for the sake of marketing, but work out the details of the agreement later.
I just checked ~50 dates, mostly during unpleasant times of the year for SEA>DUB. Not a single seat offered at less than the 280k in J.
Oh, but it shows you can fly BA in ‘business’ via LHR... Only to discover that the business portion is only from LHR>DUB. Thanks, Alaska.
This is fine, but they need to improve their search engine. Now searching everything becomes wacky and even harder than before to find the actual saver level redemptions.
I looked all the way out to EOS and cannot find any 60K business award space. Everything prices ar 280k. Dynamic pricing is a scam and Alaska is a sham.
That also means your so called explanation of the variable pricing is just dishonest propaganda for Alaska.
Shame on you too!
@beyounged, I'm quite sure you don't earn any miles for award redemptions of any kind, regardless of fare bucket.
At 280 k for a decent but not great carrier its a complete rip off
I'm losing faith in Alaska fast especially charging elites for premium coach seats
I have words for this 280k award but don't want to get banned from your blog 😉 🙂
Will never book this award ever and think less of Alaska now
may go back to the legacy carriers AA/UA where I came from
@Thatguy
Here is the thing, it is pretty much clear that for this price, AS is taking your miles and then buy a ticket with EI with cash, since it has absolutely nothing to do with award inventory... And those tickets book into a fare class that earns miles, "I" class... I am as confused as everyone else but I am very suspicious that it will earn miles... Well, given the fact that you just paid the price of a small family to fly Cathay first to Asia you might as well get a bit back!
@ Dogtor -- Our team saw it last night when ticketing an award for a client. If there's a FlyerTalk thread, we haven't seen it yet.
It was at the top of the trending threads last night, now working it's way down the list. I don't blog and I see that list a few times a day...
I am glad that Aer Lingus redemptions are available using Alaska Air miles. I had lost faith that this would ever happen. So I redeemed my miles for domestic flights on American. I don't have any regrets about that.
I was looking to book award tix for next May and saw 280k one way on Aer Lingus every single day. This was for May 15, as soon as the dates were available.
2 connections from Europe to US west coast and 2 of them in economy, including the longest segment being in economy!
May be a work in progress?
Here's another gotcha - I noticed booking an awards redemption within the next 7 days actually costs more - 80k vs 60k in coach from LAX to DUB. I guess it's a good thing I am getting double-miles for all my cross-country travel this year since I'm going to need them!
I will hold out hope that saver availability gets better in the future. Given that, yay to finally have a non-surcharge way to Europe from SEA. I will have to be backing off LH given my declining UA miles balance and the steady devaluation of business class in LH.
We flew Aer Lingus back to SEA on our latest trip, using UA miles. It was ehh... but at least we could sit together and pick seats without extra charge. Having to fly tight seat pitch economy intra-europe in a business class ticket was not pleasant. Also not even a snack or bottled water for free... they went out of their way to get us a cup of tap water from the galley spigot... how nice...
These are horrible redemptions! Why would I spend 30,000 Alaska miles when I can spend 13,000 Avios! Also 8,000 points DUB to LHR plus $32 taxes. No Bueno!
Nothing is available from IAD to DUB for anything less than 280,000 miles and months go without even that. So in a word: worthless.
@Grant~ Alaska has heaps of fake business awards on offer throughout their program all the time. Pads it out nicely I'm sure, and traps beginners and the unwary, who check-in and find that 90% of their supposed Business award is in Y ! Yikes! How to generate bucketloads of long-lasting ill will !
When will Alaska honor the baggage agreement with AerLingus and visa versa! I just travelled from Sacramento to Seattle on Alaska and they would not check our bags through to Dublin! Same issue coming back on AerLingus , Dublin to Seattle, what a hassle checking in twice!
The business class awards for 60k are now available, but if I read between the lines, it would seem as an AS elite I can only book one seat. The problem is I need 2 seats!
I am just trying to get to my first MVP. I want to make sure my Air Lingus flight counts towards my AK mileage plan, so is there anything I "must" do to make sure that happens. I would hate to take the flight and miss out on earning mileage because I missed a step. Also... does anyone know what the contract conversion is? Does Air Lingus offer only 0.5 AK mile for every mile flown? Thanks for info everyone!