Alaska Mileage Plan Adds Strange Award Ticket Restriction

Alaska Mileage Plan has added a new restriction on award tickets, though it seems almost unenforceable. The timing of this coincides with the revamp the program is currently undergoing.

Alaska limits award ticket frequent flyer benefits

When you go to Alaska Airlines’ webpage with award charts and click on the general terms & conditions section, you’ll see the following new restriction:

When redeeming miles for an award ticket from Alaska Mileage Plan account, customer cannot enter another airline’s frequent flyer number and is thus ineligible for benefits from another program.

In other words, if you redeem Alaska Mileage Plan miles, you can’t then swap in your American AAdvantage number on a reservation, with an account that has oneworld Emerald or oneworld Sapphire status. This could be useful if you’re trying to take advantage of alliance perks, whether it’s oneworld lounge access, the ability to assign a seat at no cost, an extra baggage allowance, etc.

This new policy counters the industry norm, as I’ve never heard of another airline not letting you switch out frequent flyer numbers based on the airline through which you ticket an award (though there are some other situations where you can’t switch your frequent flyer number, as I’ll outline below).

For that matter, I don’t see how this rule is at all enforceable. Yes, it’s easy enough to enforce this if you’re actually flying with Alaska, but this rule also seems to apply when traveling on partner airlines. I can’t imagine an airline like British Airways or Qatar Airways wouldn’t let you swap your number, just because Alaska has this policy, as they probably wouldn’t even be aware of it.

I’m not sure what to make of this policy

I find this new policy from Alaska Airlines to be strange, especially as I don’t even understand the economic incentive for the airline to impose this.

It’s my understanding that if you have oneworld elite status and you access a lounge, the airline with which you have status pays for lounge access, rather than the airline with which you’re actually flying (let alone the airline that ticketed your reservation). So if you book an award through Alaska Mileage Plan but have a different carrier’s frequent flyer number on the reservation (where you have elite status), Alaska shouldn’t be on the hook for that cost.

Now, in fairness, some other programs do have restrictions regarding changing frequent flyer numbers, but in more logical ways. For example, American AAdvantage has the following restriction:

You cannot accrue partner airline miles with your partner frequent flyer number if you have already used your AAdvantage number to obtain any AAdvantage Rewards and Benefits such as First or Business Class upgrades, baggage fee waivers, priority boarding, access to Preferred seats or complimentary access to Preferred / Main Cabin Extra seats.

Now, that makes perfect sense. You can’t use your AAdvantage Executive Platinum status to score a complimentary first class upgrade, and then credit your flight to a different frequent flyer program. But that’s very different than what’s happening at Alaska Mileage Plan, which is saying that you can’t switch your frequent flyer number even if you’re not taking advantage of any Alaska elite benefits.

I’m not sure what exactly the logic is for that policy, but Alaska seems to be alone with having such restrictions, at least within the oneworld alliance. I’m not sure if the airline is confused about oneworld membership, if I’m confused, or what.

Bottom line

When redeeming Alaska Mileage Plan miles for an award ticket, you can no longer enter another carrier’s frequent flyer number on the reservation to take advantage of elite perks. That applies whether traveling on Alaska or a partner airline. At least that’s what the terms suggest, though it’s anyone’s guess whether this will be enforced.

What do you make of this new Alaska Mileage Plan redemption restriction?