Winterfell86

Hello! Quick question about upgrades. When does Alaska release domestic First Class for mile upgrades? I tried buying tickets for an August flight but no F space was available for mileage upgrades even though all seats were still open. Am I trying to buy too far in advance?

williwaw

Upgrade (or U) space has been a persistent complaint lately. It is being released at different times and amounts. There is not a clear pattern. But you are best off searching a range of routings and dates on the AS website or ExpertFlyer.

CDKing

too late now, sorry. You need to start outside Japan to get a Tokyo stopover. Also no way to get to HYD on JL.
CX has Hong Kong to India award but not an Asia to India award. Not that it matters anyways as CX doesn't allow stopovers unless start/end is North America; and stop-over is only in HKG.

remmster

That's what I thought. Thanks for confirming!

qisu

Was planning to use 7500 avios points to book an award economy seat on AS for OAK or SFO to SEA for saturday 2/23 (just under 2 wks away). Last week when I checked on aa.com, I could see my desired flights available at saver level. Then this past weekend only a couple of less desirable flights were available. Today no AS flights at saver level were available.

My question is in general, does AS have a tendency to release more saver award seats to partners close-in?

vji

You can check a good proxy by looking for flights a week from today, a day from today, etc. to see if there are awards available to your partner airline.

Not that it matters in this context, but you can stop in other cities with CX: https://www.pointsnerd.ca/alaska-air...athay-pacific/
(not intra-asia, but e.g. HKG-BNE-CNS is available and HKG-DXB-BAH don't touch North America)

Sky Dreamer

It looks like there's a mileage run deal though American Airlines from LAX-BKK in business class. My questions are:

1) Can I get Alaska Mileage Plan mileage credit if I'm flying JAL metal, but I purchase through AA and all the flights are booked with an AA flight numbers?

2) I want to get a package with hotel via AA Vacations. So can I book my JAL Metal (with AA Flight numbers ) and have the flight credit to Alaska Airlines? When I went to book on their website it only has the AA FF# field. I called and they stated I could add the Alaska FF# to the itinerary after booking. Do you think this is true? I'm doing this just for a mileage run so I want to make sure I get credit.





UPDATE: W

CDKing

Thats odd. The only stop-over spot allowed on CX awards is HKG. Sooner or later AS will fix that.

Flying for Fun

Yes, it is true. Any agent, Check-in, Gate, Lounge, via phone, can change your FF# number on the itinerary. However if the marketing & operating carrier are different it won't post automatically so it is probably better to not specify any FF# before flying.

Although the T&Cs state otherwise, generally AS will allow MP accural if both the marketing and operating carriers are AS partners and earning are based on the operating carrier's charts. A manual request will be required.

AA in I class earns 100% + 50% COS, no additional bonus, however JL in I class earns only 70%, no COS and 100% additional RDM only bonus. In summary, AA 150% EQM, JL 70% EQM

I would call AS and confirm how your particular itinerary would map between AA & JL before committing to what might be a good fare but a poor mileage run.

James

Sky Dreamer

"Although the T&Cs state otherwise, generally AS will allow MP accural if both the marketing and operating carriers are AS partners and earning are based on the operating carrier's charts."


So in my case JAL-metal, AA marketed. I want AS miles so- I would accrue based on JL's chart- 70%, no COS and 100% additional RDM only bonus for my AS miles?

allset2travel

James, Thanks.
My bold.
Can you point me to a web page on AS (or wherever). I want to learn about AS's earning (EQM) on partners' metal.

Sky Dreamer

Here's the link:

https://www.alaskaair.com/content/mi...rline-partners

You can click on each company's name to find out. These may have changed (so verify- I'm a newbie) but for *the lowest Business Class booking* I made a summary chart of the earnings as a cheat sheet. Once again- refer to the website for the latest info but this will give you an idea for earnings on their international partners.


Base Miles/CoS Bonus/Additional Bonus for Basic Business

Alaska (First)- 100%/75%/0%

AerLingus- 100%/25%/100%

American Airlines (International Only)-100%/50%/0%

British Airways- 100%/50%/100%

Cathay Pacific- 100%/25%/100%

Condor- 100%/100%/100%

Emirates- 100%/25%/100%

Fiji- 100%/0%/100%

Finnair-100%/25%/0%

Hainan - 100%/0%/100%

Iceland- 100%/25%/0%

Japan Airlines- 70%/0%/100%

Korean Airlines- 100%/0%/100%

LATM- 100%/0%/100%

Qantas-100%/25%/100%

Singapore- 100%/0%/100%

Nurse Traveler

So Condor seems to be the partner to mileage run on.

Flying for Fun

Well, Yes & No! You really need to look at the cost per elite qualifying mile to determine what is the better option or if it even falls into the "definition" of a mileage run.

James

Sky Dreamer

Without some special sale fare on an AS partner- I think Condor is your best bet. I've been researching this for months. From your home city of SEA, you can do a non-stop flight to Frankfurt and spend 1-2 nights there. From April 15th-April 18th is $2,530 in Business Class. According to the great circle mapper that is 5,109 miles.

So you would earn roundtrip: 10,218 Base Miles, 10,218 Class of Service Miles amd 10,218 Bonus Miles. SEA-FRA is about 21 hours round trip. So you would have 20,436 miles that would count towards your AS Elite status. You would then be only 4,564 miles from MVP.

The cost per mile would be for AS Elite Miles: 12 cents a mile
For overall earned miles: 20436+10218: 8 cents a mile

I thought to build miles I could do first class domestic all with AS but it's not cost/time efficient for me. I've looked at buying a first class ticket from LAX to SEA. Which is $507, I get 1,750 miles. So it's 19 cents a mile. AS first class is pretty expensive so I think it works out cheaper and more time efficient to do a mileage run on a AS partner.

Now that airlines are giving out miles based on Class of Service, unless you travel a lot for work. I feel the best bang (and most comfortable) for the buck is to fly a cheap international business class fare. Even if an AS partner has an amazing sale- sometimes the miles don't work out. So AA currently has a sale to Bangkok via JAL from LAX-BKK via NRT. So thanks to @flyingforfun guidance. I know that I won't get AAs earning rate but JAL's which is a pitiful 70% and no CoS bonus for Elite Status. So I end up paying $2,300, I'm on four planes and in the air for 37 hours and I only get 11,676 miles toward elite status. The plus side is that you get to go to Bangkok business class- but I'm looking at this as a pure mileage run only for status. With Condor you get double the miles toward Elite status in about half the time for around the same cost of a sale business fare on a AS partner.

Also note that Condor does not have true lie-flat seats- they are angled-lie flat so we will see how that goes.