The risk is that Alaska will devalue the program shortly after you transfer. They have a history of doing this suddenly (such as with Emirates awards) and objectively their program is more valuable than most of the competition right now so they could probably get away with it. Also, there are some spots in their program where partner awards are more generous than available in the partner programs; I can't imagine this will last. One example is American Airlines, where off-peak awards are still 20,000 miles and the "old" off-peak dates still apply.

I'm guessing that now that Alaska has less leverage over American, these awards--at the very least--will devalue. Meanwhile, though, Alaska has become more generous with awards on their own metal. They cost less and availability is about as generous as United. So, if you plan to redeem your miles for flying on Alaska, you're probably safe. If, however, you plan to redeem your miles for First Class on Cathay Pacific or an off-peak Europe award on American Airlines, it'd be smart to do this soon.

One other trend with the program to keep in mind: fuel surcharges. It used to be only BA levied fuel surcharges on Alaska awards. However, all of the new international partners--Hainan, Icelandair and JAL--levy fuel surcharges, while one major international partner without fuel surcharges is going away, and another (Air France/KLM) makes virtually no award space available. So this is another way that miles have become less valuable; they cost more to use.

(emphasis added)

JL levies fuel surcharges on their own awards, like CX does, but they don't show up on AS awards when AS tickets them (just like CX awards on AS tickets don't have surcharges added). See the attached screenshots comparing AA and JL. The only difference is the mileage pricing.

AFAIK, AS only passes on carrier-imposed surcharges from BA, FI and HU.

Now that my SPG points are in my VX account, anyone knows how can I transfer VX->AS? Or is my only choice to wait for that to happen automatically at some point later this year?

You should be able to transfer the points starting Monday next week after AS announcement.

Not sure AS will allow partial transfer, though. It'd be great if they do.

Thanks.

That's OK. I just registered a new VX account on December solely for the SPG->VX->AS transfer (I never flew VX before).