Uh Oh: Alaska Mileage Plan Partner Award Changes

The Mileage Plan award chart page has been updated. I don't think this is going to be great news.

Alaska Airlines making partner award changes

The full update can be found on Alaska Airlines' website.

Good news for 2022!  Cathay Pacific awards will be available to book on alaskaair.com in October and LATAM awards will be available before the end of 2022.

Starting late December, the way you view award charts online is changing. We’ll have a simplified award chart to show you where award levels start based on which regions you’re traveling from and to. With this change, similar to awards on Alaska, partner award levels may vary depending on multiple factors including route, distance, or demand. You’ll continue to be able to enjoy great value for your miles. As always, the best way to view pricing and availability for the routes you’re interested in flying is to search for your specific travel dates and destinations. 

The recap is to recap.

• Before the end of the year it’ll be possible to book Cathay Pacific and LATAM awards on Alaska Airlines’ website
• As of late December 2022, Alaska will have a simplified award chart where starting award levels are displayed based on which region you’re traveling from and to
• Similar to how Mileage Plan has dynamic award pricing on Alaska, there will also be more factors that impact partner award levels, including route, distance, and demand

My take on this ominous Alaska Mileage Plan announcement

This development won't be good news despite the announcement starting with "good news." The good news is that the awards will be on Alaska's website.

It is not clear how bad these changes will be. There will be asimplified award chart and dynamic award pricing. There are a few thoughts on that point.

• In the past, Alaska Airlines has promised to try to provide 90 days advance notice of any award chart devaluations, and these changes are happening in late December, which is… 90 days from now
• Alaska Airlines sure has a funny way of communicating changes in advance; yes, the airline provides notice, but we’re not actually told what exactly is changing
• Since Alaska Airlines joined oneworld, the airline has been promising a new unified partner award chart, though we’ve been made to believe that this would be in addition to individual partner award charts sticking around; it’s anyone’s guess if that’s still the plan, or if there will just be a single award chart
• While Alaska Airlines suggests that award pricing will be more dynamic, in reality that’s already kind of the case, in the sense that nowadays Alaska has “standard” awards on many partners, for situations where there’s not saver level award availability (for example, transatlantic Aer Lingus business class awards can cost 60,000 to 280,000 miles one-way)

What are my expectations of the changes?

• I suspect these changes will be negative, but I don’t think they’ll be catastrophically bad
• The important thing to keep in mind is that with partner award reimbursement rates being what they are, Alaska doesn’t have much of an incentive to greatly increase partner award costs, especially if it keeps members engaged in the program
• Personally I expect the “dynamic” aspect of award pricing to come more in the form of different pricing for different distance awards within the same region; for example, maybe a New York to London award will be priced differently than a Los Angeles to London award

I don't know what to think of the changes. We know they are coming, but we don't know a lot more.

Bottom line

Changes to partner award will be made by late 2022. We have been given three months notice, but we don't know what we've been given.

The good news is that the LATAM awards will be bookable online in the future. There will be a simplified award chart and more variability in partner award costs. It's not clear how that plays out.

What do you think about the changes to the Mileage Plan?