a7m

Alaska substantially changed my schedule (3 pm departure became 7 am departure). Can I ask for a refund? If so, will I be reissued a companion certificate, the original expiration for which was the end of last year?

a7m

I was surprised to get a quick response from AS about it. I will get a new certificate for companion fare with 90-day validity from the time of issue.

clarrkkent

At least they informed you about the 90 day expiration. I had to cancel a flight with a companion fare attached. They told me it would be reissued, but the agent did not mention once that it would have an expiration of 90 days from reissue. I made the (wrong) assumption that it would retain the original expiration of June 2021. Went to book a flight with it 93 days later and poof, it was gone.

.......And that's when I canceled my AS card.

lensovet

I'm chatting with an agent right now and they are saying that they cannot reissue the companion cert even though the schedule changed. Is this a new policy? At the same time they are saying I can set aside the ticket until September 2022, one year from when the original flight was supposed to depart.

This seems crazy to me (the cert originally was supposed to expire in December 2020).

Calculon

It’s not new. Discount codes are lost when the ticket is cancelled. It would be their discretion (well, possibly their supervisor’s) to issue you a new one as a courtesy. They’re not required to do it. I find it’s easier to just keep the ticket value for use later, which will preserve the discount.

Last year during the big travel meltdown, they were pretty good about extensions and replacements, but that was always going to be temporary.

lensovet

Good to know, thanks. Is the yearlong extension from the original date standard as well?

Tussis

Just a week ago cancelled a companion fare round trip flight where the return departure changed by literally five minutes over the policy. Called in and said straight up “our flight changed by 65 minutes and I would like to cancel it for a refund in line your 60 minute schedule change policy.” Rep immediately said no problem, and issued a refund and the companion certificate was re-issued a few days later.

My new issued code is set to expire appropriately though in 2022 consistent with my original code, not the 90 days others are noting. Or if I’m misreading, maybe the 90 days being mentioned is when their travel already is past the expiration of the original code. Or if they’re referring to a ‘discount’ (not companion) code? Not sure what’s up with other’s, or if my status (MVPG) or it being an international flight made it more seamless. Anyway, one data point.

Calculon

Yeah, that's normal. Your original itinerary/reservation is cancelled, but the ticket that was attached to it is still valid a year from when it was issued (as long as it's not a saver fare).

But if you really want a refund + new code, you might try contacting them again. As someone else just posted, Alaska can still do it even if it's not automatic or standard procedure. EDIT: Never mind - just realized your code was past expiration. So keeping the ticket is probably your only option.

lensovet

yeah this is different because the code has since expired. your code was still valid so you just got back the original code. my and OP's codes expired in 2020.

lensovet

yeah that's the thing. the ticket wasn't issued this month; it was issued in january 2021. so i would expect it to be valid through january 2022, not september 2022.

Calculon

Ok, so I just pretend-cancelled a trip for next week on 9/14, and it said mine would be valid for travel by September 14th, 2022. So for me it was one year from the original date of travel.

Any chance your flights were changed from an earlier trip before they ended up booked for January?

lensovet

i think you got confused

your pretend cancellation is indeed confirming what i was told, but appears to be at odds with your (and my) earlier belief that the ticket is good for one year from date of issue, not date of travel.

the flights were not changed from any earlier trip, though there was a significant schedule change of multiple hours and a change from a non-stop to a layover from when they were originally booked.

To recap:
- tickets were bought on 1/14/21 with a companion cert that was about to expire
- original flight dates were 9/11/21 - 9/15/21
- tickets were cancelled today and agent informed me that we could reuse the value on them through 9/11/22 and keep the companion cert

Calculon

Makes sense.