Jan 4, 2017, 7:30 pm
Last edit by: Calchas
Welcome to the Alaska Airlines Flame-Free Q&A Thread for 2017!
Anyone is welcome to ask anything, even the most basic questions, in this thread without having to fear a snarky response. In this thread, there's no such thing as a dumb question--we were all new to Alaska Airlines, FlyerTalk, and even the whole idea of mileage programs once and needed some help navigating the ropes. We're here to help you do just that!
That said, if you want to do a little reading to see if your question has been previously discussed, links to some of the most common and extensive topics in this forum are listed in our FAQ thread -- click here to check it out.
Special care will be given in this thread to trying to provide answers in a clear manner with minimal use of acronyms and jargon.
If you need to contact someone for help, here's a current list of our forum's team:
Ambassadors (Our Greeters--members who have specifically volunteered to welcome and mentor newbies and monitor this thread):
ANC RED-EYE
baliktad
beckoa
golfingboy
Moderators (Our Janitors--members who have volunteered to do housekeeping/keep the forum in order)
ryandc99
jackal
You are welcome to send a private message to any of these individuals for assistance, but you'll generally get a faster response and broader palette of answers if you simply post your inquiry here in this thread.
Note to FlyerTalk members who enjoy the ability to take advantage of loopholes--if someone posts something that exposes information you'd rather not be public, please remember this is a Flame-Free thread, and harsh or snarky posts are not permitted. Although FlyerTalk itself does not censor posts that share information, members are free to edit their own posts to remove information. If you wish to request any poster to remove information they have shared publicly, please do so politely and respectfully.
Welcome, and we look forward to providing any assistance we can!
~the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan forum team~
For the 2016 version of this thread, please click here
Anyone is welcome to ask anything, even the most basic questions, in this thread without having to fear a snarky response. In this thread, there's no such thing as a dumb question--we were all new to Alaska Airlines, FlyerTalk, and even the whole idea of mileage programs once and needed some help navigating the ropes. We're here to help you do just that!
That said, if you want to do a little reading to see if your question has been previously discussed, links to some of the most common and extensive topics in this forum are listed in our FAQ thread -- click here to check it out.
Special care will be given in this thread to trying to provide answers in a clear manner with minimal use of acronyms and jargon.
If you need to contact someone for help, here's a current list of our forum's team:
Ambassadors (Our Greeters--members who have specifically volunteered to welcome and mentor newbies and monitor this thread):
ANC RED-EYE
baliktad
beckoa
golfingboy
Moderators (Our Janitors--members who have volunteered to do housekeeping/keep the forum in order)
ryandc99
jackal
You are welcome to send a private message to any of these individuals for assistance, but you'll generally get a faster response and broader palette of answers if you simply post your inquiry here in this thread.
Note to FlyerTalk members who enjoy the ability to take advantage of loopholes--if someone posts something that exposes information you'd rather not be public, please remember this is a Flame-Free thread, and harsh or snarky posts are not permitted. Although FlyerTalk itself does not censor posts that share information, members are free to edit their own posts to remove information. If you wish to request any poster to remove information they have shared publicly, please do so politely and respectfully.
Welcome, and we look forward to providing any assistance we can!
~the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan forum team~
For the 2016 version of this thread, please click here
2017 Alaska Airlines *FLAME-FREE* Q&A thread: all welcome, new and old!
Apr 18, 2017, 3:12 pm
#646
Join Date: Mar 2016
Programs: AAdvantage + Alaska
Posts: 9
Hey all!
Long time lurker, short time poster. I have been searching for a while trying to figure out the best strategy to get in on rewards, and unfortunately I would always get absolutely overwhelmed with the complex, opaque hierarchies I encountered.
I've thought about it and have begun to narrow my focus to the most obvious choices: Delta or Alaska, since I'm based in Seattle.
I'm hoping with that narrowed focus, I'm at a point where I feel comfortable enough asking a question that is specific enough to be actionable.
I'm a pretty simple portfolio - I don't travel very often/at all for business, and would be primarily focus on accruing points via everyday purchases for the purpose of booking international travel (primarily to Europe, and ideally Asia and Oceania as well). At the moment, I've purchased a single flight via points on American, and have accrued a handful of points that are scattered across American, Virgin, Alaska, United, and regional European airlines, so none of them stand out as an obvious choice over the others, and I'm still somewhat new to the whole concept, though I have a basic grasp of how it operates.
Given this information, my question is this:
What the heck kind of card should I get, anyways?!
There's so many potential avenues, it seems (airline affiliated bank cards, hotel cards like Starwood, local credit unions like BECU) and I'm just overwhelmed with information and am not sure which one would be the best usage of my spending habits to accrue points for the purpose of purchasing basic economy international fares. Currently, my practice has been to purchase cheap fares that I come across regardless of the airline, though I think I would benefit from sticking to one airline (as I did with American and got a free flight out of it, which I was quite pleased with!).
I hope I'm asking in the right place! I'm posting here because I'm leaning towards Alaska and am wondering if that's the right choice - Seattleites tend to hold Alaska in high regard, and the merger is also enticing.
Thank you everyone!
Long time lurker, short time poster. I have been searching for a while trying to figure out the best strategy to get in on rewards, and unfortunately I would always get absolutely overwhelmed with the complex, opaque hierarchies I encountered.
I've thought about it and have begun to narrow my focus to the most obvious choices: Delta or Alaska, since I'm based in Seattle.
I'm hoping with that narrowed focus, I'm at a point where I feel comfortable enough asking a question that is specific enough to be actionable.
I'm a pretty simple portfolio - I don't travel very often/at all for business, and would be primarily focus on accruing points via everyday purchases for the purpose of booking international travel (primarily to Europe, and ideally Asia and Oceania as well). At the moment, I've purchased a single flight via points on American, and have accrued a handful of points that are scattered across American, Virgin, Alaska, United, and regional European airlines, so none of them stand out as an obvious choice over the others, and I'm still somewhat new to the whole concept, though I have a basic grasp of how it operates.
Given this information, my question is this:
What the heck kind of card should I get, anyways?!
There's so many potential avenues, it seems (airline affiliated bank cards, hotel cards like Starwood, local credit unions like BECU) and I'm just overwhelmed with information and am not sure which one would be the best usage of my spending habits to accrue points for the purpose of purchasing basic economy international fares. Currently, my practice has been to purchase cheap fares that I come across regardless of the airline, though I think I would benefit from sticking to one airline (as I did with American and got a free flight out of it, which I was quite pleased with!).
I hope I'm asking in the right place! I'm posting here because I'm leaning towards Alaska and am wondering if that's the right choice - Seattleites tend to hold Alaska in high regard, and the merger is also enticing.
Thank you everyone!
Apr 19, 2017, 3:12 pm
#647
Join Date: Apr 2017
Programs: Alaska
Posts: 2
Hi,
I am trying to use AS miles to purchase a DL flight for the first time, and have hit a snag.
My general questions are:
Here is my specific situation:
I want to book a January 2018 trip using my AS miles for me and my wife. I had found an ideal DL flight on the AS site a couple of weeks ago, but now when I look on the AS website the flight is no longer offered for purchase using AS miles on that date (I would have booked back then, but I was waiting for the last few miles to post to my account). The DL flight is available for purchase using AS miles on the following day, but that doesn’t work for our schedule.
My assumption was that the available seats were purchased and that I had missed out. However, when I checked on the DL website to see what it would cost to purchase directly from DL, I saw that other than the last two rows being listed as unavailable only one other seat on the plane is taken. In contrast, when I look at the DL flight for the following day (the one that is available on AS) about a dozen seats are already booked.
My best guess is that the last two rows of unavailable seats on DL flights represent spaces earmarked for partners such as AS, and that even though the later flight shows other unavailable seats, the earmarked spaces are still unbooked. But that’s just me throwing out a guess.
Can someone please help me understand what is going on? Am I wasting time checking each day to see if the flight might be available again on AS?
Thank you!
I am trying to use AS miles to purchase a DL flight for the first time, and have hit a snag.
My general questions are:
- If a DL flight had been available on the AS website for purchase using AS miles, but is no longer there, is there a much of a chance that it might show up again?
- What determines whether DL flights are available to purchase using AS miles?
Here is my specific situation:
I want to book a January 2018 trip using my AS miles for me and my wife. I had found an ideal DL flight on the AS site a couple of weeks ago, but now when I look on the AS website the flight is no longer offered for purchase using AS miles on that date (I would have booked back then, but I was waiting for the last few miles to post to my account). The DL flight is available for purchase using AS miles on the following day, but that doesn’t work for our schedule.
My assumption was that the available seats were purchased and that I had missed out. However, when I checked on the DL website to see what it would cost to purchase directly from DL, I saw that other than the last two rows being listed as unavailable only one other seat on the plane is taken. In contrast, when I look at the DL flight for the following day (the one that is available on AS) about a dozen seats are already booked.
My best guess is that the last two rows of unavailable seats on DL flights represent spaces earmarked for partners such as AS, and that even though the later flight shows other unavailable seats, the earmarked spaces are still unbooked. But that’s just me throwing out a guess.
Can someone please help me understand what is going on? Am I wasting time checking each day to see if the flight might be available again on AS?
Thank you!
Apr 19, 2017, 3:31 pm
#648
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: SEA
Programs: Hilton/Marriott Gold, Accor Silver
Posts: 2,036
My best guess is that the last two rows of unavailable seats on DL flights represent spaces earmarked for partners such as AS, and that even though the later flight shows other unavailable seats, the earmarked spaces are still unbooked. But that’s just me throwing out a guess.
So yeah, you're SOL unless whoever nabbed that award space cancels or changes dates before the end of the month, when AS loses access to DL awards.
Apr 19, 2017, 4:06 pm
#649
Join Date: Apr 2017
Programs: Alaska
Posts: 2
Nope. Except for the airlines like B6 and WN with pure revenue-based redemptions, airlines maintain award fare buckets just as they do for revenue fares. Typically they only make their lower ("saver") awards available for booking through partners, and in this case it sounds like the available saver space has been booked. These buckets aren't linked to the seat map in any way.
So yeah, you're SOL unless whoever nabbed that award space cancels or changes dates before the end of the month, when AS loses access to DL awards.
So yeah, you're SOL unless whoever nabbed that award space cancels or changes dates before the end of the month, when AS loses access to DL awards.
I'll probably just book through DL, but this looked like a great opportunity for me to use my AS points.
Apr 19, 2017, 7:08 pm
#650
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: BOS/ORH
Programs: AS 75K
Posts: 18,323
Thank you for answering so quickly. So, in this situation, this has to mean that the person who used the awards spaces didn't pick seats yet, right? Because only one seat on the entire plane has been booked (every DL flight that I looked at for that month blocks out the last two rows, so I'll assume those are not purchased, just unavailable).
I'll probably just book through DL, but this looked like a great opportunity for me to use my AS points.
I'll probably just book through DL, but this looked like a great opportunity for me to use my AS points.
Apr 21, 2017, 3:40 pm
#652
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: SEA
Programs: Hilton/Marriott Gold, Accor Silver
Posts: 2,036
Apr 21, 2017, 4:32 pm
#653
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: Pacific Wonderland
Programs: ʙᴏɴᴠo̱ʏ Au, IHG Au, HH Dia, Nexus, Pilot FlyingJ Preferred
Posts: 5,336
Any issues purchasing and picking up items from the duty free stores in SFO? The missus wants to pick up an item while she's passing through. First time departing from SFO on AS and will be to an international destination (PVR) but not familiar with the AS gate setup there.
Apr 22, 2017, 12:27 am
#654
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend, Moderator, Information Desk, Ambassador, Alaska Airlines
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: FAI
Programs: AS MVP Gold100K, AS 1MM, Maika`i Card, AGR, HH Gold, Hertz PC, Marriott Titanium LTG, CO, 7H, BA, 8E
Posts: 42,953
Any issues purchasing and picking up items from the duty free stores in SFO? The missus wants to pick up an item while she's passing through. First time departing from SFO on AS and will be to an international destination (PVR) but not familiar with the AS gate setup there.
Apr 22, 2017, 4:41 am
#655
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: On the Lake USA
Programs: Marriott Ambassador, Hilton Diamond because they have nothing higher
Posts: 523
Error
Award Reservations Temporarily Unavailable
Access to book award travel will be restored as quickly as possible. Try again later.
Apr 22, 2017, 8:48 am
#657
Join Date: Aug 2013
Programs: Alaska MVP Gold
Posts: 917
Apr 22, 2017, 9:02 pm
#659
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: Pacific Wonderland
Programs: ʙᴏɴᴠo̱ʏ Au, IHG Au, HH Dia, Nexus, Pilot FlyingJ Preferred
Posts: 5,336
Thanks! Will give it a shot if the missus finds what she's looking for (a scarf for her trip). Worst case is just reverse the charges I guess, if the purchase doesn't make to us at the gate pickup or onboard.
Apr 23, 2017, 7:41 am
#660
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: LAX
Programs: Hyatt Globalist, AA EXP, Hilton Diamond, Wyndham Diamond, DL PM, Marriott Platinum, IHG Platinum
Posts: 1,305
If the white F on the dark blue background is still there when doing a dummy booking, yes. If it changes to a blue F on a white background that means U=0 and the upgrade won't clear. Without knowing the date and route it's hard to predict if that is a risk.
For that flight remember that P fares earn 175% EQM. The P fare looks to be only 60% more expensive than the K fare, so if you can swing the extra $100, it might be worth it to buy the P fare. You'd also get gratis BR access with a P fare.
For that flight remember that P fares earn 175% EQM. The P fare looks to be only 60% more expensive than the K fare, so if you can swing the extra $100, it might be worth it to buy the P fare. You'd also get gratis BR access with a P fare.