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Waiver for Tickets Purchased Through 12/31/2020

Old Mar 11, 2020, 10:41 pm
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Last edit by: hur88
Alaska Airlines is waiving change fees both for flights ticketed on or before Feb 26 (for original travel dates until May 31) and for flights ticketed after Feb 26 (for original travel dates until Feb 28, 2021).

Excerpted from the associated FAQ:

What if I used miles? If you used miles to purchase your ticket, for travel in March, we’ll re-deposit the miles in your Mileage Plan account.

What if I used a companion fare? If you cancel your reservations entirely, and if it included a companion certificate, we will reinstate your certificate with original expiration date or June 30, 2020, whichever comes later. Please call Reservations for assistance with canceling tickets using companion certificates

What do I do if I’ve already paid the change fee? If you traveled or are traveling between February 27, 2020 and May 31, 2020 and you were charged an out of pocket change fee, please contact Reservations. We’ll take care of the change fee to your original form of payment.




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Waiver for Tickets Purchased Through 12/31/2020

Old Mar 9, 2020, 3:48 am
  #61  
 
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: British Columbia
Programs: AS MVPG100K, Marriott Marriott Titanium Elite, Hilton Gold
Posts: 7,263
Originally Posted by _fx
Thought of another: let’s say you have a multi-segment ticket. You want to change segment A but keep segment B. The price of new A is the same as old A, but price of B has gone way up. With option #1, you pay nothing. With #2 you have to pay the new, more expensive fare for B.
I could see #1 beneficial for someone whose itinerary is set in stone and wants to reprice the itinerary for a negative fare differential (refund) without canceling and rebooking at the risk of losing his seat/seat selection. In essence, it would be a change only to the fare component of the original itinerary with a refund of the fare differential already paid, much like the old price gurantee. So as not to allow subsequent repricing, AS has added the provision that only allows one change in that regard.

James
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Old Mar 9, 2020, 11:41 am
  #62  
 
Join Date: May 2017
Posts: 48
I got option #2 no questions asked and I booked my flight on the 26th.
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Old Mar 9, 2020, 3:33 pm
  #63  
 
Join Date: Oct 2014
Posts: 259
Twitter - Unexpected Pleasant Surprise

Purchased AS Mileage tickets January for a May trip SEA-HNL. Underlying health issues & age so decided hubby & I were definitely not going.

Tweeted AS asking for consideration of extending the waiver. Within 15 minutes, our tickets were cancelled, refund of fees/taxes to our credit card & miles redeposited back to the account as a "one time courtesy". Miles appeared straight away and advised refund may take a week.

Very impressed, wasn't expecting anything and was going to cancel last minute as necessary.
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Old Mar 9, 2020, 7:02 pm
  #64  
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 232
Orlando conference cancelled last minute, ticket booked last October. Tried calling to talk about options but was on hold for an hour so I gave up and sent a Twitter PM. Answered came quickly: unfortunately, need to pay the $125 change fee (submitted for MVPG75 status challenge but not yet approved) to preserve value toward future travel. No health issues brought up, just the conference cancellation.
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Old Mar 9, 2020, 8:56 pm
  #65  
 
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: Seattle
Programs: AS
Posts: 2,292
Originally Posted by MAXII
Purchased AS Mileage tickets January for a May trip SEA-HNL. Underlying health issues & age so decided hubby & I were definitely not going.

Tweeted AS asking for consideration of extending the waiver. Within 15 minutes, our tickets were cancelled, refund of fees/taxes to our credit card & miles redeposited back to the account as a "one time courtesy". Miles appeared straight away and advised refund may take a week.

Very impressed, wasn't expecting anything and was going to cancel last minute as necessary.
We are in almost an exact same situation. Award Flight in June to Europe . We also have underlying health and age issues so we will need to cancel those tickets. Your experience makes us hopeful we will have a good resolution .
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Old Mar 9, 2020, 11:12 pm
  #66  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: May 2001
Location: San Francisco/Bangkok
Programs: Alaska 75K United 1K
Posts: 1,406
Looks like AS has quietly extended refunds (my wallet) to
tickets prior to Feb 26

https://www.alaskaair.com/content/ad...odID:Awareness
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Old Mar 9, 2020, 11:25 pm
  #67  
 
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: SFO
Programs: AS, UA, WN, IHG Diamond Elite, Hyatt Globalist, Hilton Gold, CET 7*
Posts: 3,284
Originally Posted by boycruz
Looks like AS has quietly extended refunds (my wallet) to
tickets prior to Feb 26

https://www.alaskaair.com/content/ad...odID:Awareness
Interesting, and bravo. We'll see if that new piece gets extended past 3/31...

Last edited by NoLaGent; Mar 9, 2020 at 11:34 pm
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Old Mar 10, 2020, 1:41 am
  #68  
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Neither here nor there
Programs: UA Slvr, DL Slvr, AA plt, HH LTD, MR tit/LTP at least two of those buy 10 get 1 free coffee cards
Posts: 3,421
Originally Posted by boycruz
Looks like AS has quietly extended refunds (my wallet) to
tickets prior to Feb 26

https://www.alaskaair.com/content/ad...odID:Awareness
Yes they have. Glad they decided to do so. Canceled our SEA-PHL flights and will probably put the credit towards Hawaii this summer.
Thanks for coming around AS!
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Old Mar 10, 2020, 11:40 am
  #69  
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: North of 90° S
Programs: B6 Mosaic, WN A-List
Posts: 565
Originally Posted by boycruz
Looks like AS has quietly extended refunds (my wallet) to
tickets prior to Feb 26

https://www.alaskaair.com/content/ad...odID:Awareness
Good job by AS, only issue as you mentioned it is not highly publicized and confusing for some folks.
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Old Mar 10, 2020, 12:48 pm
  #70  
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: KOA
Programs: DL Gold/MM, HH Diamond, Hyatt Explorist, IHG Platinum, Marriott Lifetime Gold
Posts: 2,280
Has anyone cancelled an award trip online after the new fee waiver? The regular form is still there with the cancellation fee indicated. Is the fee waived after you click to cancel? That is how it works with Delta, but they advise that is how it will work.

Edited: Never mind. I accomplished the cancellation through Twitter.

Last edited by Richard1148; Mar 10, 2020 at 2:55 pm Reason: No longer need help.
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Old Mar 10, 2020, 2:05 pm
  #71  
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: BLI
Programs: Alaska Million Mile Flyer, Marriott Lifetime Titanium Elite
Posts: 3,191
Looks like a conference I had to attend in San Diego at the end of the month is about to cancel, and my spouse was coming with me on a companion cert. The tickets were purchased months ago so only the new waiver option would apply. I had open questions which I direct messaged to Alaska Airlines on Twitter and got the following responses, which may help others here.

Q: Travel begins before the March 31 cutoff, but the return is April 1. I'm assuming the waiver would still apply because the outbound portion of the roundtrip ticket is before the waiver cutoff date?

A: Yes, the waiver will apply if the round trip on the itinerary starts prior to April.

Q: Because my spouse and I are on the same PNR and I paid for both my ticket and the companion fare, I'd be the one getting the flight credit for future travel in My Wallet. I'm assuming that I would get full dollar credit for both of our tickets on the PNR (even though one was a companion fare), but the companion certificate would be lost?

A: Yes, you would receive a credit for the full dollar amount in the form of a credit. To avoid losing your companion fare, you can choose to save the value on the ticket, without depositing it to your wallet. That way when you rebook, you can just use the ticket value and companion fare for the new booking.

Q: If I do decide to save the value on the ticket instead of in MyWallet, does the fee waiver travel with it? In other words, if I choose to use the companion cert and related value later, will there still be no change fee?

A: Yes, there will still be no change fee applied if you choose to save the value to the ticket.

If I ultimately decide to split the PNR so only the companion cert and its value are saved to one of the two tickets and the regular non-discounted ticket's value is deposited in My Wallet, that will require either calling or texting a CSR. But I may not bother, as the companion cert's original expiration date may make it a brown banana. Better to get the dollar credit at this point.

Alaska Airlines responded very quickly and thoroughly on Twitter, too. It was impressive, and appreciated.

Last edited by Seattlenerd; Mar 10, 2020 at 2:48 pm Reason: Added AS' responses to the questions
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Old Mar 10, 2020, 2:53 pm
  #72  
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: KOA
Programs: DL Gold/MM, HH Diamond, Hyatt Explorist, IHG Platinum, Marriott Lifetime Gold
Posts: 2,280
Originally Posted by MAXII
Tweeted AS asking for consideration of extending the waiver. Within 15 minutes, our tickets were cancelled, refund of fees/taxes to our credit card & miles redeposited back to the account as a "one time courtesy". Miles appeared straight away and advised refund may take a week.
Thanks for the tip. Their response time was amazingly fast, and they agreed to cancel at no charge.
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Old Mar 10, 2020, 3:07 pm
  #73  
 
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: Seattle
Programs: AS
Posts: 2,292
Originally Posted by MAXII
Purchased AS Mileage tickets January for a May trip SEA-HNL. Underlying health issues & age so decided hubby & I were definitely not going.

Tweeted AS asking for consideration of extending the waiver. Within 15 minutes, our tickets were cancelled, refund of fees/taxes to our credit card & miles redeposited back to the account as a "one time courtesy". Miles appeared straight away and advised refund may take a week.

Very impressed, wasn't expecting anything and was going to cancel last minute as necessary.
We just tried to do the same. Told by AS, they only offer waiver for travel to end of this month. So, sorry. NO no extending waiver for us.
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Old Mar 10, 2020, 3:19 pm
  #74  
 
Join Date: Aug 2018
Location: PDX
Programs: AS MVP Gold 100K
Posts: 2,329
Originally Posted by pcoll
We just tried to do the same. Told by AS, they only offer waiver for travel to end of this month. So, sorry. NO no extending waiver for us.
HUCA LOTA (Log off tweet again?)
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Old Mar 10, 2020, 3:31 pm
  #75  
 
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: Seattle
Programs: AS
Posts: 2,292
Originally Posted by RAD_PDX
HUCA LOTA (Log off tweet again?)
Good idea. 😊 thanks
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