AS redemption question
 

Hi!

Been earning AS miles for a long time now and decided to pull some redemptions on this fine day. I booked 5x SFO-HND (in J) and then HND-SIN (in coach). It's my first time redeeming miles on AS, It cost 65k per person which I think is a fantastic deal, I'm a tad bummed that the 2nd leg is in coach, but it is what it is. There is a chance that the destination (SIN) might change, is it possible for me to change the itinerary to something like SFO-HND-HKG without cancelling the reservation? If I do need to cancel the reservation, would the SFO-HND in J be available immediately after booking? Thanks!

You don't need to cancel and rebook. Just use the "Change Reservation" function, and you'll be able to keep your spots on SFO-HND, without any worry of losing them.

Oh that's amazing. So basically I locked up SFO-HND. If I see any other destinations available to tack on a J flight to say HKG or TPE, I can do that without any fees? Super happy to hear that.

That doesn’t work well for mileage redemptions. More often than not you will get the message “We are unable to process your request at this time. Please contact Alaska Airlines Reservations call center at 1-800-ALASKAAIR(1-800-252-7522).” then have to call in, transfer to international desk and try and get help.

So calling them and getting transfer is still a 100% viable option? And I'm assuming the fee applies here if they help me ?

Thats your best bet. However, since you are already booked they may have hard time finding availability and may end up having to price it as two separate awards.

I’ve been looking for long haul Asia-US awards 2-6 months out, and rarely find J or F legs. Only on a short hop CGK-SIN, which they then want full premium mileage to the US for.

Yes. Was hoping if I find another J cabin for the 2nd leg, I can make a "smooth" change. I'm surprised there aren't any JAL TYO-HKG available even in coach. Probably HKG is not "fully" open yet.

I need to find my return flight, eyeing a SIN-SFO routing but that's via SQ miles at ~105k per person.

AS charges 100k for this, right?

It depends. In OP's case, which is changing the intra-Asia segment, the website works more often than not. Most "please contact us" issues happen when you try to change the TPAC segment, especially when upgrading from J to F, which many people do when F opens up at the 2-week window.

AS doesn't charge any award change fees. You only pay the phone booking fee when you call to make the initial reservation. There's no fee to change over the phone. Like I mentioned in the post above, there're technical issues related to JL awards here and there, and there's a dedicated thread that have detailed discussions on this:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/alas...-later-66.html