seaflyguy

"Remain calm! All is well!" -- K. Bacon, Animal House

david55

Does anyone know if you have to use the AS BofA credit card to buy the fare using the companion cert?

I will cancel the card but don't want to do so if I need it to redeem the cert.

KenfromDE

You can use any credit card. Have used DL Amex for 2 purchases.

rajuabju

This makes my decision about renewing the BofA CC very easy. The #1 perk I liked about the card has now been removed. Not that a coach class companion ticket is worthless, but certainly has no where near the value of F, especially considering its $110 + annual fee, and you can get a coach ticket for around that $ amount anyhow depending on where you are going.

Sucks, because Alaska had become one of my 3 preferred airlines out of LAX. I have about 50k miles to burn and then off to another airline me thinks.

Seattlenerd

Well, this cinches it for me. Let me do the math:

Reduced redemption use of the companion certificate (which I've started using for First) +

No 1,000 per ticket booking bonus (which I value more than any other benefit) =

A VISA that simply earns miles plus having a more-limited companion feature

Oh. I forgot to mention this also leaves the joy of dealing with BofA customer service, which again chose not to notify me last month when my BofA AS VISA was compromised -- through no fault of my own -- by a third-party security breach. Instead my card just stopped working. Until I received, more than a week later, a letter and new card. For the second or third time since I've had the card.

That alone was going to lead me to cancel one of my two BofA VISAs by the renewal date. Now I definitely will cancel both and move my credit cards to BECU.

ExecTraveler

Fantastic value? Can't help but feel this is polyannish. A $110 companion cert that costs you an additional $75 to get, with the only added incentive being 3x miles on Alaska purchases? Maybe will save some money if you live in Alaska, but sounds like garbage to me.

As stated earlier, BEFORE all these changes, it was almost worth dumping the card just so I didn't have to deal with BoA. Now, total no-brainer. I am living for the day that BoA asks me to complete a survey on what I think of their company!

Given how much my wife shops at Nordstrom (ugh!), probably gonna switch to one of their cards. Probably means that I'll be declaring bankruptcy within a year, but hey...at least we'll look good.

Itan2Much

This is strictly an Alaska Airlines decision and not BofA. I'm sure BofA is going to be "upset" at the number of cancelled cards they will be receiving. Alaska certainly hasn't thought this out. My wife and I are MVPs and fly at least 3-4 R/Ts from Hawaii each year. Even with the companion fare First Class option, we spend at least $6-8,000/year on Alaska Airlines. We switched our loyalty from Hawaiian Airlines to Alaska because of the companion fare and will most likely go back to Hawaiian. Hawaiians First Class experience is so much better than Alaska's . . . and, now that the price of a FC ticket on Hawaiian has come down to around Alaska's, it's a moot point.

If you would like to express your concerns to Alaska Airlines, you can email Caroline Boren, Managing Director, Loyalty Marketing and Cusomer Advocacy, Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan.

[Moderator note: email address removed for spam prevention, but Alaska Airlines email addresses are in the format of [email protected]]

I suggested they keep the option, but raise the price of the First Class companion fare option to maybe $199 (or, even $299. It would still be a great deal). The more opposition and emails the she gets and her committee, the better chance we as "riders" have of them changing their minds. The power of many can be significant. Don't do nothing . . . email her today!

dave1013

Welcome to Flyertalk. I'll act on your suggestion and email her, thanks for sharing the contact info. However, I do not support your raise-the-companion-fare option. Not sure what, if anything, I would replace it with.

AKLifetimeFlyer

I will email her as well.

bigbirdwithsilverwings

I agree w/ITan2Much's post pretty much in its entirety. The one exception being that Alaska should simply apologize and reinstate its original policy w/regard to the companion certificates. This will be a revenue loser for Alaska. Just as ITan says, I too only have my 4 B of A accounts w/Alaska for the companion certificates, and I use them each year. In June 2012, I did a round trip PDX-DCA and return BOS-PDX w/my daughter and another to Kona (w/my wife and son and daughter). I paid more than $5100 for a total of 6 round trip tickets (the 3 full fare first and the 3 companion seats) and all but one flight segment caused me to have to go through Seattle. But for the companion certificate, I would have flown non-stop on a larger carrier w/larger planes. If this new policy sticks, Alaska will lose my $300 in annual VISA fees and my business. The seats I would have otherwise bought and paid for will not be purchased for full fare. Rather, MVPs or Golds will be seated in them generating 0 revenue to Alaska. This is a horrible play by Alaska. I suggested sending an email to both Caroline as well as President Brad Tilden in the format the moderator suggested. I sincerely hope Alaska will reverse this decision

Itan2Much

Will email Mr. Tilden as well.

WebTraveler

BofA is such a mis-managed group that I doubt they really notice, except they will have to find a way to pay their CEO hellacious compensation and when it's not there they will notice and raise fees somewhere else.

Alaska really needs to pull away from Bof anyway.

ANC RED-EYE

Again...I agree that the changes are negative.

My point is this - I don't know where your travel is based from or if you always buy first class...or really what your travel patterns are.

But...for ANYONE who will even once per year fly with anyone else on AS metal on an itinerary that costs, say $250+, they would come out ahead by keeping this card and using it even if only for that purchase.

This doesn't describe me personally...and maybe not you either. I mostly fly solo, and mostly on itineraries that are not exclusively on AS metal.

But my point is, for a lot of people that hold this card, they WILL at some point every year fly with someone on AS metal in coach on a ticket that costs more than $250...in which case they'd get free money from this cc period.

If your travel patterns only call for So-cal to PNW travel, then maybe you're among the minority who never spends more than $250 at alaskaair.com. But for anyone that is based in Alaska, Hawaii, Florida, the East coast...or travels on AS to any of those destinations or Mexico, there is still the probability that they'd save hundreds of $/year with this benefit.

If most of your travel is less than $200, or you rarely fly with a companion...then it doesn't apply to you, but don't assume that is the majority of card holders, because I highly doubt that is the case.

HikerT

If both primary and companion have MVP status on AS perhaps you could still get first class (assuming U space is available) by purchasing a full flex economy ticket. Companion might not even need status if primary is MVP® Gold or Gold 75K. Guessing they would eliminate this loophole...

ANC RED-EYE

Actually, no. That is not a "loophole" per se, but continues to be a published benefit of status, and it appears that there is no intention of changing that yet.

I got a letter yesterday outlining the upcoming changes from Caroline Boren (Not my anniversary, so this was a specific letter just to inform me of the changes - haven't seen anyone else mention that, but I'm assuming everyone got/will get this).

In any case, her 2nd bullet point is as follows: