bwoodlandca

I booked 3 flights for my mom, brother, and his wife on Alaskan Air. I recently changed all three of their return flights to different dates and they received a total of $275 "credit" (not refund). It bothers me that they still charged them a total of $225 for the change fees and did not use the credit towards the change fee (typical greedy corporate America). Anyways, can I, the person who booked these flights but am not flying on this reservation, use this $275 worth of credits or does each of the three only have $75 to use just for their future flights? In other words, can you transfer unused credit to another person on AK Air?

bwoodlandca

You can deposit the credit certificates given anyone into any AK Air Miles account. Just get the Cert. number and pin and deposit into any AK Miles account "Wallet". Then use it whenever.

czpdx

Yes, you're right on that. I share your frustration at not being able to apply your credit to the change fee. Granted the change fees are half of what they are on some other airlines, but still... I just paid $300 in change fees (ouch!) on AA and they gladly deducted them from the flight credit, minimizing my new cash outlay.

BLI-Flyer

Just FYI, the abbreviation for Alaska Airlines is AS, not AK. AK is the abbreviation for Air Asia.

formeraa

And the name is ALASKA Airlines, not Alaskan Air.

bwoodlandca

So I got all three AS credit certificates deposited into AS "my wallet" account after creating an AS Miles account. Then I went to book a flight for me from SMF to LAX, and to my surprise, Alaska Air would NOT let me use "my wallet" money for this reservation because some of the flights were partner airlines like AmericaWest and Skywest and the entire booking process was on AS web site. Unbelievable! They first charge you $75 to change to a lower fare, then do not apply that change fee to the difference, then don't let you use your credit on a future flight. I hate corporate America!

dgreen12

http://www.alaskaair.com/content/mil...let-terms.aspx

Read the terms and conditions..... All available on the website. Jen can help you find them if needed.

bwoodlandca

I now know the terms and conditions, but my point is that the terms and conditions are unfair based on corporate greed, not on fair business practices, which most companies used to follow until the last couple of decades. It is obviously unfair to the customer to:
1. not use your credit towards the change fee and
2. not allow you to use your credit to any fight that can be booked on Alaska Air web site.

regardless of the terms and conditions being stated in fine print, which most people don't read because they mistakenly trust companies to be fair to their customers, but not any more...

beckoa

Wirelessly posted (beckoa's PWP wonderous device: Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9800; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.8+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0.0.526 Mobile Safari/534.8+)

America West was absorbed by US several years ago...
I guess you were trying to use this on a codeshare vs only a flt sold and operated by AS, QX (and select AS sold OO flts). Now for using that route, IIRC AS/QX operates SMF-SJC-LAX; would that routing work for you?

czpdx

Granted, their fee is twice as much, but AA comes out ahead on both of these points. I just used some AA credit on an AS codeshare last week. No problem. These two policies really are consumer unfriendly.

juggler451

I have about $1,200 in flight credit from flights booked in November 2010 for flights in December 2010. I didn't actually make any of those flights, and so I am now looking to use those funds for new travel. I am also hoping to use one or more $99 companion tickets from BofA Alaska Airlines cards.

In speaking with Alaska CSR, I understand that the latest I can use the funds for travel is 1 year +30 days from the first date of travel on original itinerary. The CSR told me that I am able to get the extra 30 days by doing the booking over the phone, and if I did it on the web I would be limited to 1 year for new travel from date of original travel. Is there any way to use credit for flights beyond the 1 year + 30 days?

My original plan was to use the funds for booking a trip to Maui in January, which I think I will be able to do using the phone option in terms of the original funds from the ticket, but I'm not sure I will be able to use the $99 companion ticket with that. A different CSR that I spoke with yesterday told me that I'd have to put the funds in my e-wallet to utilize the companion ticket. Is this correct?

I had also planned to use the other funds for booking a trip for my parents to Maui in April, but I think I'm SOL on that one unless someone can tell me how to get past the 1 year + 30 day window.

I'm Alaska MVP Gold if that helps in my efforts. Any ideas or insights are appreciated. Thank you in advance.

CDKing

I'm not sure if it still works but, in the past I booked a new ticket with my wallet funds. A few days later used the gold fee waiver to cancel and add to my wallet. The expiration date was a date much further in the future

juggler451

CDKing, thanks. I'll probably try that one out on one of the tickets to see if it works.

Any other insights?

juggler451

Just tried to deposit one of the tickets into my e-wallet but no luck b/c it was booked through expedia. Guess I'll have to call customer service again...