Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan - Redeeming miles on BA

I apologize if this has been answered in the past, but a search failed to help me. I am looking at making the Alaska Airlines Mastercard (Canada) as my primary CC. My question is relating to redeeming miles. How likely is it that if I will be able redeem miles on a BA premium economy flight to Europe from YVR? How much in advance would I have to book?

Thanks for your help with this.

Go set up a BA EC club account. You can search BA award availability online under "Spending Avios." You don't have to actually have any Avios to look at availability. This will give you an idea of the availability for the routes you are interested in. Remember that availability can change at any time, and is subject to seasonal variations in demand as well as the whims of revenue management.

In general, BA has good award availability if you are mildly flexible with your departure point and the exact date of travel. However, that availability comes at a significant price. When redeeming AS miles for BA awards, you are liable for very significant fuel surcharges. For NA <-> Europe, these surcharges are normally several hundred dollars and can often approach the cost of a paid discount ticket. The fuel surcharges are assessed regardless of the class of service flown, so many choose to use their miles for premium cabin redemptions instead to receive greater value.

Thanks baliktad. This information is very helpful. Do you happen to know if I can book one ticket using miles and another for my husband using my credit card at the same booking time? Or must I redeem with AS and book the other ticket some other way?

Thanks for your help!

You cannot combine a paid and award ticket in a single reservation. You will have to book your AS award on BA, and then purchase the paid ticket from BA itself (or a 3rd party booking service like Expedia, Orbitz, etc.). The reservations and tickets will be completely separate and unrelated.

My question is relating to redeeming miles. How likely is it that if I will be able redeem miles on a BA premium economy flight to Europe from YVR?

Are you looking for European destinations served uniquely well by BA (LHR, certainly!)? KLM flies non-stop YVR-AMS and awards can be had with AS miles. An unfortunate feature of AS is that partner carriers can't be mixed on the same award; there will be no going over on BA and returning via KLM. (They count AF and KL as one.)

Thanks to both of you. Looking at BA specifically as would like premium economy although if others will offer same soon would consider same, provided they fly the polar route. No non-stop to Paris as far as I can see.

If this is really how you want to fly to Europe, I suspect that getting an Avios-earning card and using Avios to upgrade paid coach tickets to PE would be the better way to go. The bonuses are often better, and you will be paying nearly as much as a coach ticket in fuel surcharges if you use AS miles- and you would earn miles on a paid BA coach ticket (and need to use less miles to upgrade Y->Y+ with BA Avios than it would to get the ticket on AS).

Firstly, I am Canadian and am limited to credit card options . I am flying BA next month (PE) and having my BA avios points converted to AS miles. Is this a bad decision? The RBC BA card is an option I was looking at as it has a companion fare after $30000 spent in a calendar year. I have no hope of doing this given that it would be Sept before I received the card. Are there other Canadian CC's that would provide me with more options? I plan on flying to Europe annually for the next few years.

Thanks for any suggestions!

Firstly, I am Canadian and am limited to credit card options . I am flying BA next month (PE) and having my BA avios points converted to AS miles. Is this a bad decision? The RBC BA card is an option I was looking at as it has a companion fare after $30000 spent in a calendar year. I have no hope of doing this given that it would be Sept before I received the card. Are there other Canadian CC's that would provide me with more options? I plan on flying to Europe annually for the next few years.

Thanks for any suggestions!

I don't understand this. Flying BA with Avios why would AS come into play? I also have never heard of converting Avios into AS miles. I have a ton of Avios and if that is possible let me know how! :-)

I suspect the OP is planning to accrue AS miles on his BA flights, not BA Avios, and just used an awkward turn of phrase for that. There is no conversion between programs, obviously.

OP:

http://www.britishairways.com/travel/rbc-tmtbaw035/public/en_ca

I believe that is the only Canadian card available, yes?

FWIW, 15,000 Avios is enough to upgrade a YVR-LHR coach flight to premium economy one-way.

http://www.britishairways.com/travel/spend-avios-flights/public/en_ca
http://www.britishairways.com/travel/avios-calculator/public/en_ca#CalculatePod

Also, you would acquire more Avios were you to credit to BA (25% bonus with BA instead of 10% with AS)- plus if you accrued enough oneworld flights on top of your BA flights (AS flights won't count), you might gain BA status (depending on your travel patterns).

You may need to sit and do the math with this, but given the heavy fuel surcharges and taxes you will pay on BA award flights, I am not sure that using AS miles for awards on BA is the most valuable use of miles (especially for classes of travel like economy and premium economy; it's a bit different for business and first), and Avios are quite usable for upgrades (you should check out the BA forum for more information).

Not sure if this is helpful to you, but given that you'd have to connect regardless and are already in the market to spend ~85k for Y+, you might consider a business class trip would be cheaper at 80k AS miles on Iceland Air, and business elite is 90k on DL- a few routes with flat beds. This, of course, presumes you can find seats for your dates of travel, but these may provide more value than a BA redemption which requires miles+ several hundred $$ for a lower class of service.

you can get Y+ for 65k on Iceland Air

...or 60k on delta, plus ~$250 buy-up to economy comfort, probably still cheaper than BA.

for cheapest possible, go AA for 40k during the winter.

Thanks everyone. We've decided it might be better to use our AS miles on other airlines.

KLM's Economy Comfort product is coach with extra legroom, not a separate cabin of service with wider seats and differentiated catering. But compared to the cost of BA's fuel surcharges on a long-haul award, you might be able to live with it.

When you book a flight on a partner airline using AS miles for a coach seat, do you pay for a premium seat at the time of booking?

Thanks again. I really appreciate all the advice.

When you book a flight on a partner airline using AS miles for a coach seat, do you pay for a premium seat at the time of booking?

Thanks again. I really appreciate all the advice.

I'm not sure what your question is exactly. If you are redeeming miles for a coach seat, you will get a coach seat. If you redeem miles for a business seat, you will get a business seat (subject to availability of course). There are no "upgrade at booking" options for award tickets.

Award tickets on partners are issued on Alaska ticket stock, so only Alaska Airlines can make changes to the ticket. You will not be able to change your confirmed class of service by paying cash or redeeming miles from another program.

When you book a flight on a partner airline using AS miles for a coach seat, do you pay for a premium seat at the time of booking?

Thanks again. I really appreciate all the advice.

If you're asking about paying for something like an exit row or bulkhead seat within the same class of service that you have booked, then no, you do not pay at booking. I'm not sure which carriers even do this (charge for "premium" seats) besides Delta (with their Economy Comfort product), but you'd need to contact the other carrier after you book and pay them directly for anything like that.

Thanks again to all of you.