AS does have this feature, and I've used it for some very simple rescheduling--I think one was a three-minute change in arrival or departure time with no change to the other. But I still have to call in more often than not for similarly minor changes.

I guess that's true. But I wouldn't want to call in on a bad change before knowing what the other options were first. Basically I don't like making a call without knowing the desired outcome first. :D

How are you going to research the other options before calling when you don't know the extent of the change? Look up all space-available alternatives for each segment, just in case that's the one that got nixed?

Usually you can see the partner PNR and see what's been auto-rebooked. If it's AS metal, you can usually figure out the issue since there are not that many flights.

Yeah, look for the original confirmation email and compare this to other flights around the same time/ flight #. Might be able to get on a more desirable flight, or even net more miles. Not always. Good to see alternates before calling in.

I just had this happen to me; I have an award flight for August 2018 that includes the final legs of NAN - SFO - SEA on Fiji Airways. FJ switched their NAN - SFO flight from being on a Sunday to Saturday and auto booked us into the Saturday flight, but I had to call in to get the SFO - SEA legged patched up.

No idea when the schedule changed originally but glad I looked when I did so I could get my second flight updated to the correct day as well while there was still availability. I received no notification from Alaska, and just noticed it because I happened to be looking at the reservation. Wish there was some sort of email that came through to me though or alert banner on my Alaska account for things like this!

Yes there should be. Time for us all to write AS!

Aren't there third-party sites can keep track of this and notify you of changes? (Of course, it might a paid service, and you also might need to separately put each reservation into the third-party system once. But if it's really important to you...)

A few weeks ago AS cancelled the AS metal morning flights SEA and PDX to/from SFO and replaced them with VX. This lead to a big problem with my award itinerary PDX-SFO-CDG (on AF) with AS only offering a single evening flight PDX-SFO. I did get an email on this but it took a few days after I first noticed the itinerary with the message to call in. They initially wanted me to do a 22 hour layover in SFO and then I asked about the VX flight that replaced my morning AS flight and was told it would be elevated. It took two days but now I am on VX PDX-SFO and AF SFO-CDG with a 3 hour layover. This will be a problem for most partner awards starting in SEA and PDX connecting in SFO, at least until the integration is completed in April???

Imagine it will be a problem for those 4 months.

After then, award space in F will be the issue for those chasing premium cabins. 16>12>8 seats is a squeeze.

From what I have seen AS is very stingy with F saver award space.. My awards in March are saver level on partners, J on AF and in F on BA. The connecting flights in Europe on AF and BA are all in saver J but my connecting flights in the USA are all in saver Y on AS and VX. Using expertflyer I see that almost all of my AS flights have 7 upgrades to F available, which means F is almost empty, and yet no F saver awards seats. I land in LAS late on the 19th so would ideally would like the 10am LAS-PDX flight but it has no saver awards in F or Y available..

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...c85f363d99.jpg

I just got a note to call in (from the app) because my inbound was going to land 5 minutes later. Urrrgh! Why can’t I accept that via the app?

they're too busy enabling F meal pre-ordering... ;)