NWplatinum

I’ve just noticed over the years how often AS sells miles. Obviously this is a treasure trove for mileage brokers, and a great deal for actual frequent flyers of the airline. I’m glad they limited it to 150,000 for non-elites, and I wish they’d take further steps. Like only allowing non-elites to book J if they’re going to dilute the market and space so much with their miles.

But given how much fraud occurs, and their partners getting slightly P’Oed (hence what I think ultimately lead to the EK increase) why does Alaska always sell these miles constantly? Obviously it’s accounting for a pretty penny of their bottom line or they wouldn’t be doing it. But can’t there be a better way to do this than the way they’re currently executing it? For approximately $2,000 I can get a $30-$40,000 EK F seat, so it’s a terrific value and I love to take advantage of it. But shouldn’t that opportunity be limited to their most valued clients?

I just wonder what the cost is, how their partners feel about it, the dilution of their “currency,” the fraud, and other aspects of it? Is it worth it? Are there further steps they could take to actually let the people who legitimately earn the miles the hard way have a leg up?

I personally don’t like the fact that if I’m a 75K, I’m constantly going out of my way to give AS my business and money, and collect their miles. Only to have them be so diluted and space gone because they sell these miles. A large majority of which I’m sure ends up with mileage brokers. I feel slighted by this because I worked hard to earn these miles and now the space isn’t there because every Tom, Dick, and Harry have access and ability the same as me. Except I’m actually loyal to the airline and the purchasers just stumbled upon a good deal.

I realize I’ll probably get a lot of people who take advantage of these deals yelling at me, and that’s fine; I’m more interested to hear from actual AS flyers. But do other elites also feel a certain sense that AS doesn’t care about you when they’re constantly giving out their miles and then having to limit your space on partner bookings? I just think a 75K/Gold bucket reserved for their top-tier elites on partners would be a good idea to keep the flyer who gives them the most dollars happy. And not some Asian blogger who found out a loophole and is taking full advantage of it, which is what happened/happening.