2016 changes
 

Has anyone heard about any changes for 2016??

the issues are:

(1) American Airlines

--it appears American will discount economy seat miles next year on Alaska Airlines:
http://loyaltytraveler.boardingarea....anuary-1-2016/

What will Alaska do if you fly on American Airlines plane on (a) an Alaskan Airlines ticket purchase(like SEA-ORD-???), or (2) you buy on American but use your AS number for your ticket, or (3) you buy an American ticket but fly a leg on AS (SEA-DFW-MCI---you cant purchase this thru AS but can thru AA where SEA-DFW can be an AS flight)

When delta decreased the mileage, Alaska responded by decreasing on AS. they just decreased miles but not legs.

(2) Delta Airlines

Will the partnership end????

I'm thinking next year I will have a better shot to maintain with legs/segments than be just short with miles (being around 22,000 with AS and partners but flying at least 8 round trip flights next year.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/alask...ll-follow.html

Apparently we need additional speculation...

Once again, unless there is an upper-level employee who is willing to risk their job by disclosing information they may possess, you're asking anonymous people on the internet to speculate?

The AA board has JonNYC, who is apparently fed inside information. The AS board has no such person that posts similar information.

I think this is a more general thread about potential 2016 changes to AS Mileage Plan while that is a thread focusing on mileage earning on AA partner flights...way more specific and honestly, as a person who almost never flies AA or DL, not that interesting.

In 2016, I predict that AS Mileage Plan will...

1. Start allowing AS elites on award tickets to be added to the upgrade list (at the bottom of course)....hey, I can hope, right? All the changes don't necessarily have to be negative :)

2. Provide a complimentary fresh food or snack item to MVPG/75Kers in Y.

3. Provide AS Beyond codes to elites that allow for 2 free tv shows or 1 free movie per flight (when they are not on flights with tablets).

4. Allow LEGAL (ie, reasonable) routing changes on SDC...for example, allow PDX-SEA-LAX in place of PDX-LAX or vice versa.

Wirelessly posted (beckoa's BB: Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9810; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.11+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.1.0.694 Mobile Safari/534.11+)

787 orders!






I can dream, right?

FWIW, I think this is a great list, and one that is not exactly shooting for the stars (read: what AS competitors are already offering for their elites).

One of OP's original questions:

"What will Alaska do if you fly on American Airlines plane on (a) an Alaskan Airlines ticket purchase(like SEA-ORD-???), or (2) you buy on American but use your AS number for your ticket, or (3) you buy an American ticket but fly a leg on AS (SEA-DFW-MCI---you cant purchase this thru AS but can thru AA where SEA-DFW can be an AS flight)"

Seemed relevant to my thread... :confused:

But hey, far be it from me to discourage speculation. ;)

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/alask...ad-2010-a.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/alask...ad-2011-a.html

:D

The upgrade lists would actually have to work when they do last minute additions to them. Every time I've SDC'ed this year, I've been dropped entirely from the upgrade list and have had to ask to be re-added at the gate. Maybe they could fix that before adding elites on awards?

I don't see that routing changes are any less reasonable than co-terminal ones... and co-terminal ones used to work (they don't any more). :(

Wirelessly posted (beckoa's BB: Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9810; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.11+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.1.0.694 Mobile Safari/534.11+)

When SDC'ing there's a link on your reservation that says 'complimentary upgrade', just click it. Not everyone wants an upgrade, hence its a manuual process to be added to the WL.

Never seen this in the iOS app.

I pull it up on the main website; don't think its accessible from an app. Maybe that would be a good fix too.

To be totally honest, seeing what is happening on all the other airlines, I would be happy if Alaska just leaves everything as is!!!

Now that AA has changed its mileage accrual policy from one based on miles flown to spend, AS is the only one left with a traditional mileage program.
How long do you think that will last?

As long as it makes business sense to do so.

A few years ago a Southwest flyer might have said:
"Now that all the other airlines are charging for checked bags, Southwest is the only one left with a traditional baggage allowance.
How long do you think that will last?"

It's fair to assume that earning on AA partner flights will be changing for the worse, but if AS decides that Mileage Plan should continue to be something that distinguishes them from their competitors, as WN does with luggage fees, it could continue as it is for long time.

Or, as flytoeat said, one day they'll decide it's better for business to follow the lead of the other carriers.

JetBlue had a similar free-bag policy as Southwest. Wall Street didn't like it and demanded B6 implement one. Now you pay $20 for the first bag.
I am sure Southwest is now in the crosshairs as well.