[Alaska Airlines NEWBIE LOUNGE] Ask Your Questions Here (flame free) (2010-2014)
 

Welcome to FlyerTalk.

The Newbie Lounge is a place where you can get answers to your questions about Alaska Airlines and the Mileage Plan program. No question is too stupid, nothing is taken for granted, and anything about Alaska Airlines you were afraid to ask elsewhere, or weren't sure where to ask, you can ask here.

We realize that FlyerTalk is a huge place. Until you learn your way around, feel free to post here without fear of retribution or reprimands for not using search. Our volunteer Ambassadors will be monitoring the lounge to assist you in finding your answers but I think you'll find that all members of FlyerTalk are here to assist you with answers and advice.


We're all glad you are here.

Great idea! Despite being nearly MVPG, I'm sure I'll manage to make use of this thread quite a bit. :p

Me, too!

I'm honored that the Alaska Airlines forum is generally a flame-free, friendly place, but I hope that this thread serves as a great resource for people new to the Alaska program, the Alaska forum, FlyerTalk in general, or who just need to ask a question in a dedicated, friendly environment staffed with people charged to be especially helpful.

The ambassadors will be monitoring this thread regularly, answering your questions and/or pointing you in the right direction as to where to find more information or get further assistance. Any question is fair game, from earning and using miles on Alaska to qualifying for elite status or even for help understanding the ubiquitous acronyms used across the forums here. No question is too small or too dumb to be asked, and you're guaranteed to get a helpful, friendly response!

Those of you Alaska old-timers, feel free to contribute answers here just as you normally do in the rest of the Alaska forum. And while it's rarely an issue around these parts, make sure to leave the snark or the :rolleyes: at the door before entering. :) Also, I'll make two requests of you guys:

1) Limit the use of acronyms. Many newbies find acronyms to be exclusionary, and we don't want to make anyone feel excluded. If you're going to use an acronym, take the opportunity to help the newer people learn our shorthand around here by defining the acronym before using it.
2) This is a "lounge" thread, and discussion on virtually any topic is therefore allowed here. However, this thread is geared towards newbies, so let's not steal their thunder and go off on wild tangents here. Use the Alaska Airlines Lounge Thread for that. When posting in here, always respond with the idea that your post should be constructive to a newbie.

Cheers and welcome!

jackal
Co-Moderator (with Cholula)
Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan Forum

Happy to start the list of "I oughta know this, but haven't found it anywhere" and "man, this is embarrassing to ask" questions:

As a first time MVP, counting miles to requalify, I don't know if bonus miles count as EQMs.
It appears the 'top-up' to 500 miles ones do, but do the MVP bonus miles?

Wish I had taken snapshots of our accounts before and after mileage posted!

Thanks for being the first, and your question is perfect for here!

Unfortunately, the answer is no. Only actual "butt-in-seat" miles count, with the sole exception of--as you already noted--the 500-mile minimum on short flights.

Thanks again!

Thank YOU!
This thread is a great idea.

Nope, one other exception. Paid First Class is 1.5 x actual EQM

A question: is there a way one can ascertain fare classes for various segments by viewing on AlaskaAir.com? I've added an upcoming flight (all QX/AS metal, not a codeshare) to "My Trips", but all it tells me is that it's "coach".

This thread is a superb idea - thanks to all of the ambassadors for stepping up to do this!

The only place i've seen it is on the Confirmation letter alaska airlines emails after you purchase and on the boarding pass.

**EDIT** I found it. When you have your itin pulled up in my trips scroll all the way down to the bottom of Rules and Restrictions. You will see a link that says View All Fare Rules.

It will bring up one of those windows where you have to enter the code as it appears on the screen. Next it will bring you to a page with the fare basis for each segment. The first letter is the fare class

Alas, I still can't find it. The page I'm viewing is tagged with "FormName: UCViewPnr" (gray letters just above the J.D. Power award logo on the bottom left hand corner of the page).

I tried to e-mail the full itinerary/receipt to myself, but the system errored out.

I am wondering if the problem is that this reservation is found underneath the "Other" category (the other two My Trips categories being "Purchased" and "Held"). I seem to recall that the travel agent I'm compelled to use for work may not have "issued" the ticket just quite yet.

Thats the form name i'm looking at. It must only work for itin's booked straight through Alaska Air. Mine has a coupe lines of white space right above the form name and right above that is a link to baggage fee info and View All Fare Info is right above that. I also have an award ticket and it says award rules instead of View All Fare Info.

Ach, alas. I do appreciate you looking at this though: I'll keep monkeying with it and see what comes up. I have a bad feeling that I'm not getting upgraded anyways (First Class was not a purchasable option for the SEA-IAH leg in the AS reservations system).

EDIT 11/02: Okay, the reservation has been moved from "Held" to "Purchased", I can now view the fare rules, as well as add myself to the upgrade waitlist.

While not on alaskaair.com, your AS-issued boarding pass should have the fare class printed next to the flight number.

I'm glad to see this thread and am excited to learn even more about AS/QX.

Thank you! Very interesting. Because companion certs work with First Class tickets, and the companion normally receives full mileage credit, would the 1.5 X EQM also apply for the companion?

Yes. I've traveled on a FC Companion certificate a number of times and I've received 1.5 X EQM every time. :)

I've never convinced anyone I'm traveling with to 'pony up' to F... ;)

Decent value IMO...

I would pony up for F if we are flying from the east coast to Hawaii in F :) DCA-OGG in F is the same price as SEA-OGG :D

Alright we'll do it sometime ;)

Well, its close but not exactly the same. The longer haul(most east coast and AK) first class fares to Hawaii connecting in SEA are usually ~ $700 ($676 or $701 before taxes) while the SEA-OGG or HNL first fares are about $550. Still a deal for a x-country first flight for only an additional $150.
For example:
11/14
DCA-OGG -- $701+
SEA-OGG -- $551+
Some other cities like MCO are more, usually ~$800++.

Redeeming Mileage Plan
 

I'm kind of new to Mileage Plan, trying to figure out a couple things.

Firstly, are you allowed to mix and match as many partners as you want for an award?
From looking at the award chart its kind of confusing, each partner has their own required mileage...

Secondly, can I fly BA, North America-Australia using Mileage Plan? That would be the ultimate in value for miles...

Thanks for any tips.

AS does not allow mixing of partners. The only mixing allowed is they will get you to the US gateway city on AS/QX so you can hop on the partner flight.

You can't do a BA award to Australia either. I wish you could since i'm trying to get there from BOS. It would be so much quicker for me to fly through Europe. The Australia awards are US-Australia and US-Asia - australia. the only airlines allowed are, Qantas, Cathay Pacific, Air Pacific, Delta & Korean Air (With Korean Air's blackout dates make it almost impossible)

fs
 

You are limited to one partner plus Alaska/Horizon.

As in flying North America-London-Australia? BA is not listed on Alaska's Australia pricing page. The partner desk may be able to book it for you as two awards with two fuel surcharges, that is a total shot in the dark though.

Just to provide further clarification, you book a round-trip award on a single partner carrier (i.e. Cathay Pacific OR Qantas OR Korean)--no mixing and matching, as described above. Where Alaska comes in is: If you cannot find a flight on the partner carrier leaving directly from your originating city, then Alaska will provide you with a connection to the international departure gateway. For example, if you are looking to fly Qantas from Anchorage, since Qantas does not serve Anchorage, the Partner Desk agents will book you on Alaska to LAX or San Francisco and then Qantas from there to Sydney. This does not cost any more mileage.

Unfortunately, the award option between North America and Australia on British was pulled about two or three years ago. I was fortunate to have been able to book it before the award was removed, and it was indeed quite the experience (and an exceptional value). However, I look forward to trying Cathay one of these days, since reportedly their product is superior to BA's. Cathay would still be an excellent value. :)

BA awards NA to Australia went bye bye in 2008. See:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/alask...ustralia+award

As others have pointed out, you can use AS/QX to get to the gateway city, but cannot combine various partners in one award. The agents tend to get pretty creative on finding those routes and gateway cities...and don't forget stopovers are allowed on most award reservations...there's nothing stoping you from making a non traditional city (AUS, SAN, MCO) your gateway city and visiting friends on your way... Lastly, there is speculation that we may see one way award options with some partners in the future. I would guess maybe Delta and American, but likely not the international carriers. This might make it easier to find space via one way tickets to Europe or Latin America and essentially do a combined itinerary as separate one-ways...however, this remains to be seen.

As for your second question, I think that this used to be possible, but was removed as an option 2-3 years ago. I'm sure our moderator jackal will pipe in here, as I believe he did the BA award to AUS via London in the past. (Edit: looks like he beat me to the punch).

Yeah, I hope AS can make this happen with DL/AA and allow us to mix cabins [J outbound Y return, etc]

Another tip to help find award space [especially in the premium cabin], is AS allows open-jaw itineraries as long as it is on the same airline and both cities are in the same zone...

I.E. I booked LAX-LHR on the outbound and FRA-LAX on the return on DL.

It is very common to find award space on the outbound, but the return is not available or the other way around. So, by using the multi-city option it makes it easier to find award space.

OK, folks, we've got a bunch of enthusiastic, eager Ambassadors and other helpful forum members cruising through this thread like piranhas looking for fresh meat.

Let's feed them some additional questions before they start gnawing on each other. ;)

Are you saying our forum is TOO helpful? :p

OK, in the spirit of the recently-concluded World Series, I'll dish up a hanging curveball:

I've done what I consider my best to divine the meaning of most of the acronyms used here on FT. One, however, still has me befuddled and that would be the acronym FO. It apparently has something to do with elite status on Delta. However, when I went to the DL web site and looked up their elite statuses, I could find no reference to FO or anything in long form that would contract to such an abbreviation.

So, please advise what FO stands for.

I've started the clock. It's ticking..... :p

Wirelessly posted (beckoa\'s PWP wonderous poster: BlackBerry9000/4.6.0.304 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102)

This is DL's internal code for Silver Medallion, their base elite tier. Back in the day it is rumored to originate from Flying Orchid, DL's first elite program of sorts. But well before my time ;)

Thank you for your swift response!

Now that the horse is out of the barn, I could have answered my own question by Googling it.

I would also suspect the acronym came into use on FT because SM could ambiguously represent both Silver Medallion and SkyMiles. Therefore, the internal DL code of "FO" was probably used by someone waaaay back, and it caught on.

I have no knowledge to attest to this; it's just my idle speculation. :p

Both are correct :)


:D Isn't it easier to ask us than googling it up? Just like an executive having an executive assistant ;)

Given the way Delta has treated Silvers, it can also stand for something else :) I won't say it since this is a public board ..but the second word is "off"

Alaska Visa Purchase Bonus
 

Nice idea with the new forum. I've got a question. I have an Alaska Air Visa Platinum. I can't figure out the purchase bonus. Usually I get a bonus equal to the amount of the ticket purchase (example 675 miles for "platinum card activity" and then 675 for "platinum card ticket purchase bonus", both with the same date. Sometimes I also get an additional "SPECIAL SERVICES
WEB PURCHASE BONUS WITH BANK CARD" of 1000 miles. This extra 1000k is dated the day I purchase the ticket. The last two time I got the 1000k was when I was flying with my daughter using my companion fare.

Is the 1000k bonus coming from using the companion fare? I seem to remember getting it before on on regular ticket purchases (also used to get web check in bonuses). Where can you look up current bonuses?

Thanks to all the FTers who take the time to help out!

Umm.....continuing research shows that when you are buying the ticket for someone else (my lovely college daughter) THEY get the 1000k bonus. Aha. That explains it...because most of my purchases seem to be gettting her too and from school these days. I still get the matching bonus miles for the ticket price :)

:)

When making purchases with your Alaska visa you will always get 1,000 bonus miles per e-ticket with AS FF # booked. Therefore, if you put in your daughter's Alaska FF# when making the reservation with your Alaska visa, your daughter will get the 1,000 bonus too... Heck, if you have 5 people on your reservation and if you put in their Alaska # they all will get the 1,000 bonus. Just make sure you put in their AS# when making the reservation, not after.

This is one of my favorite benefits with my Alaska Visa card :D

For the Platinum card bonus, you will get 2x miles per $1 spend with Alaska. So if you spent $300, the first 300 miles are already included with all the other transactions you made with your CC during the month. You will also get an extra 300 miles on top of it as part of the 2x bonus miles.

Basically for Platinum cardholders:

1,000 bonus miles every time you use your Alaska Visa
2x miles per $1 spent on Alaska Airlines [not sure if that includes inflight purchases]

Also, a hint, if you are not using a companion ticket, you could book two one-way tickets and get 2,000 miles instead of 1,000!

That came to my benefit recently when a work colleague bought me a ticket using their card - actually, I think everyone on the itinerary gets miles. Another benefit IME is that if you later cancel the ticket, you keep the 1,000 miles - even on fully refundable tickets.

If any AS Visa cardholder purchases a ticket on alaskaair.com, the AS MP member named in the reservation will receive a 1000-mile purchase bonus.

Savvy mileage collectors have learned to split a round-trip ticket into two separate purchases to take advantage of this bonus, given that AS offers no pricing benefit to a round-trip purchase.

Wirelessly posted (beckoa\'s PWP wonderous poster: BlackBerry9000/4.6.0.304 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102)

YMMV on that one...

It seems they can be reversed if the $ is put back on your CC...