rustykettel

PV_Premier

Anecdotally false.

Today, AA F and J are both available LAX-HKG departing at 11:55 tonight. Tomorrow and Friday both have J available. LAX/DFW-NRT basically the same story.

I've booked quite a few AA F domestic tickets on the day of the flight using AS miles and I don't expect INTL to behave all that differently based on my limited searching today and in previous trips I was considering making on short notice.

seawolf

CDKing

I was having good lock with a ton of space last minute to South America. I checked again today and a lot of it disappeared.

Orwaid

Hi Pinniped -


i usually don't have my date range set until 1-2 months out. By then I can usually only reserve Premium Economy. I usually go ahead and book it, knowing that I might have to change things a day or two here or there to get a TPAC in J or F. Now, that option won't be available to me ....

channa

Why not limit last minute changes or bookings to customers with status, or customers who have flown AS at least once in the past 6-12 months?

I get there are bad guys out there. But there are ways to put hoops in there without impacting everybody.

smilee

This is horrible, horrible news, and yet another devaluation for the Alaska Mileage program.

It has been a frustrating couple of years with the AS program. First the huge increase in EK F and J redemption. Then the false display of award inventory on EK. Then the loss of AA and DL for earning. And now the loss of the majority of CX F and many J awards, as they often only are available last minute.

If they are available only over the phone anyhow, why couldn't they maybe just limit to bookings in the same name as the account holder. That would have been a simple solution. It would stop mileage brokers. It would stop mileage theft, and would probably not upset all that many members.

pushmyredbutton

Because I, and many others, believe that fraud isn't the real motivation behind this change; if so, they wouldn't limit it to just a few partners.

My guess is that CX and JL redemptions cost AS the most amount of cash, combined with the fact that most of the CX and JL premium cabin redemptions only become available within a few days of departure, this limitation allows AS to keep their generous charts but really clamp down on the number of bookings that they allow.

Unfortunately for AS, their members are smarter than that and realize when they are being lied to. In my opinion, without an alliance, AS needs to tread lightly in how it treats it's most loyal customers.

Orwaid

Hi -

I can't believe I am saying this - I just signed up for a platinum challenge at DL.

CDKing

Could be true since it Asian carriers that are limited. I know back in my UA days Air China was bad reservations would be randomly cancelled so that brokers could grab the space when it went back into inventory.

2014 UA Issued Awards on Air China (CA) Are Mysteriously Being Canceled (Hacked?)

missydarlin

So. much. conspiracy theory.

This is in fact a fraud issue, and a big enough one that they took fairly quick and some would say drastic measures.

There are changes coming to try and minimize this impact to our legitimate and loyal guests, so stay tuned.

No secret motivations here. Ain't nobody got time for that.

Orwaid

Hi missydarlin -

It is not about conspiracy theory. it is about transparency.

When any company makes a major change that affects their customer base (and this would certainly qualify), You need to get out in front of the issue. You have some bad news affecting MP members, you need to tell it all, tell it fast, be blindingly transparent. I would have thought the AS corporate office would have learned this with the QX pilot staffing fiasco. By not being open and transparent about the operational issues, the conspiracy theories were allowed to flourish, I suspect to the detriment of the airline in all sorts of ways.

The reality is that conspiracy theories, office politics, cliques, haves vs have nots -- they all get a chance to flourish when transparency is lacking.

dayone

I have a bit of insight into another airline program. I can say that international premium rewards are a disproportionately large percentage of fraud. Two common examples: Reward sales by both brokers and individuals, and manipulation of premium revenue inventory by reward seekers.

Erasmus

I am heartened by missydarlin's post and hold out hope that Alaska, is, indeed, just using this as a temporary measure. I really feel for folks who have flights coming up in the near future, especially those in Y/J planning to swap to F when it pops open as one does when booking these airlines...

At least with EK, they didn't make it impossible, just expensive. The difference might be semantics to some, but is meaningful.

VegasGambler

Wouldn't it be better to combat the fraud rather than just remove the service for everyone?

Here are some ideas:

1. Implement 2-factor authentication on accounts. This can be done through SMS codes or an authenticator phone app. Don't allow users who don't turn on 2FA to make close-in bookings. That should prevent people hacking accounts to make close-in bookings directly.
2. Implement a waiting period before transferred miles can be spent (put newly-transferred miles in a "pending" state). Waive it when the recipient of the transfer is a long-time customer with a history of earning and redeeming miles, and has the afore-mentioned 2FA turned on.