Alaska Will Increase Partner Award Booking Fee, Kill Off Earnings On Basic Economy Fares
Alaska Airlines has a fantastic partner airline award chart, but they charge a pesky non-refundable $12.50 partner booking fee per passenger for each direction.
Unfortunately, effective 7/1, that fee will climb to $20 each way, or $40 round-trip per passenger.
Alaska will also increase the phone booking fee from $15 to $30, though that can be waived if an award can’t be booked online.
Combined with American blocking partner award seats within 144 hours of a flight, this certainly knocks some of the luster off of Alaska miles.
Luckily, Alaska’s Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® credit card will continue to waive the booking fee, so this change makes the card even more valuable. Combined with the 100K limited time signup bonus, the card is a no-brainer for anyone using Alaska miles.
Having the card also makes partner award bookings fully refundable, along with a plethora of other perks and benefits.
In other bad but unsurprising news, effective for tickets booked as of 6/11, which are flown as of 8/1, Alaska will remove status and redeemable points earnings from basic economy (saver) fares.
If you book future travel by 6/10, you’ll still lock in the current 30% status and redeemable points of the miles flown.
That matches American and Delta’s zero earnings on basic economy tickets. United is the exception, awarding status and redeemable miles if you have a United card and/or United status.
What do you think of these changes?
HT: Lucky
