Thanks for the response Golfingboy!
I guess I will just have to hold out hope that in a couple years of flying I can use the 140k miles to fly the long way to Afirca via CX for 140k!:D

I do agree that the one-way/mixed carriers booking option has been great on UA, but we are fairly flexible with our locations/dates so hopefully that will help us.

Hi All,

First time poster, long time lurker.

I'm going to be flying weekly to the LA area starting next week. I will also be flying RT SEA-DEN a couple of times. Currently, I don't have status, but because of the duration of my project, I will pass the 25k miles required for MVP by the end of the year. Has anyone had success in asking to preemptively be made an MVP?

Right now, I have about $2.5K in flights booked.

Thanks for the help!

AS does not award status pre-emptively, regardless of how many tickets you have already purchased and intend to fly. If you have status on another airline, you might request a match, but given that this is a once in a lifetime thing and you’re gonna make it anyway, it’s probably not worth it. Those west coast and Denver hops aren’t bad in coach.

Note that if all your flights are on AS metal, you only need 20K to qualify as an MVP. However, even after you qualify, it will take some time (~2 weeks or so) for your new status to propagate throughout the system. Only after that happens will you start getting upgraded.

How many segments...
 

I am wanting to burn my small amount of AS miles on a one way ticket from SEA to ANC (maybe Fairbanks).

I tried to book on the phone AS 65 from SEA to JNU then a couple days later JNU to ANC on 61 (maybe then up to Fairbanks), but was told by the rate desk that there were too many segments. Of course, I forgot to ask how many is too many. :o

So I ask here. Does anyone know? Thanks :)

Brian

Anyone know the answer to this?

On the Alaska website use the multi-city option when booking award. Set segment 1 as SEA-JNU and segment 2 as JNU-ANC, choose associated dates. I did a dummy booking and was able to get on 61 (SEA-JNU) and 65 (JNU-ANC) with a 3 day stop in JNU for 12,500 miles (lowest award level).

This is how I am doing it. But, I am wanting to fly 65 (not 61) SEA-JNU then 61 (not 65) from JNU-SEA. Both available as individual segments, but not when I do multi-city.

-Brian

well YMMV . The first time I made MVP I basically received status pre-emptively based on what I flew before and what I had booked for the new year albeit through the MVP challenge. I missed MVP by 6 segments at the end of the year but had ANC/FAI day trips booked for Jan 2nd and one on Jan 4th and one on Jan 9th as well as a mid february trip to DEN. After I had contacted them to see if they'd flex a bit and grant me MVP status it was sent for review to a manager. A day or 2 passed and they got back to me and offered me the MVP 4 segments challenge and stated that was the best they could do and that this benefit is offered primarily to current elites that failed to qualify not like in my case where I never had status before. That good gesture that day from AS is what made me use them as much as I have to this day. It wouldve really sucked starting over after getting so close and that year I flew around 65,000 AS metal miles and AS made a lot of revenue from me so it worked out for both parties

Hello! I have heard of this message board from other travel boards and have a questions as I start planning for a vacation for the end of next summer.

We have Alaska Airlines miles cards and have always managed to get milage flights easily when I plan carefully in advance. Last year we booked our flights to Cancun the day they came out (we went in July so booked at the end of August). No problem getting round trip flights from SEA to CUN for 35,000 miles (partner on American). I had been carefully checking months and weeks in advance and realized we have to jump as soon as they are posted or the miles required would jump to either 60,000 or 65,000.

So we made plans with friends (who also have Alaska Air miles) to go to CUN again next summer...the last week in Aug. Today I started checking to see how the July milage rates were and was shocked to see that even if I booked the last possible date, there are no 35,000 milage flights. I checked the award charts and they still show there should be coach flights at that rate.

Is this a new trend with Alaska Air? Has anyone been out of luck with the milage flights? I can't use the "Award Calendar" for partner travel so I have to check day by day. I didn't find one under 60,000 (all business and first class). Are they significantly limiting the amount of coach seats that can be purchased with miles? The last week in Aug generally dips dramatically in price from mid-July since so many kids are already back in school. We are set on going the very last week in Aug. Any ideas?

Thanks for your help!

I don't think AS flies direct to CUN anymore. They stopped a while ago, so what is being quotted is a code share with AS to a departure city for AA or DL.

The flights I found include F or C on some flights, which are premium cabins. That accounts for the higher mileage redemption.

I am sorry, I do not know what the policy is with AS, but I can use anecdotal experience on UA and DL. If space is available and you can change all segments at the same time (i.e. Change ANC-SEA-LAX to an earlier itinerary at ANC) then it should only be $25.

Again, that is based on my experience of the industry norm, but that does not mean it is the norm for AS.

Since your friend is on an award ticket, you cannot SDC on award tickets (SDC only applies to revenue fares), but you can give reservations a call and change the itinerary if there is A space available.

A quick call to the reservations team or mileage plan customer service should tell you whether it is free to change or if there will be a fee.

Flight 61 stops in YAK and CDV ... which isn't allowed in the routing between SEA and ANC.

and since you are only allowed one stop ... if you want to go to FAI, you can stop in JNU or ANC ... not both

IIRC, although the first flight comes open for SDC at 10pm the night before, the 2nd one won't be available til after midnight... and in order to change them together, for one fee, he'd have to wait til after midnight. Meanwhile, there is the chance that in the 2 hours prior, the earlier flight will fill up.

If both flights that he wants are available now, it's probably worth the extra $50 confirm the change now.

Thanks on the former.

I was not looking for a stop in ANC FWIW.

Does the system count cities a direct flight flies through as stops in the routing?