I use Alaska Air for a lot of leisure travel and they put Aeroplan and most other FF programs to shame with respect to refund/cancel policies (and IT):
For an award on Alaska:
- more than 60 days from departure full refund of points, taxes, fees or change for FREE
- within 60 days from departure for a $125 per PERSON (no matter how simple or complex that particular booking)
For an award not on Alaska you just lose the $25/person/round-trip partner booking fee.
For non-refundable revenue ticket on Alaska similar, but the amount goes into "My Wallet" where you can also deposit Alaska gift cards, which are FAR less restrictive than AC.
And you can almost always do all of this on-line.