jashah

I booked a trip for two to LIH using a companion fare. I bought a fully refundable fare and paid for premium class seats. I am now thinking I rather use points to get first class upgrade which is available on flights I want according to AS website.

Can I make this change online and will the fee I paid for Premium be refunded?

Thx

NoLaGent

For a refundable fare, yes, but I wouldn’t do it online. Have them process it when you make the change.

https://www.alaskaair.com/content/tr...ss/premium-faq

be_rettSEA

I think it depends on how you are interpreting "use miles to upgrade to F" here. If it's cancelling / changing the itinerary outright, then I believe they are refundable. If it's using miles on the same flight to upgrade, I'm not sure - the terms say complimentary upgrades to first would result in no refund. This may apply to mileage or paid upgrades to first class too, but OP may want to check with AS customer service before pulling the trigger.

NoLaGent

OP says points to upgrade, so I interpret that as not complimentary, which is exactly why I said to call. Regardless, OP will need to confirm.

Flying for Fun

A few of questions?

1. Do you have AS Elite Status?
2. What fare class did you prchase?
3. Did you book a fully-refunable fare or did you pay to make your fare refundable?
4. Is there U space availability for 2 on both the outbound & return flights?
5. Do you have any GGUs? Gold Guest Upgrade Certificates?

The answers to these questions will help determine the best angle of attack. Keep in mind that upgrades with miles requires 15K per person per direction, 60K in total for a return for 2. That is a $1200 value at 2 cpm. Outright canceling the itinerary will void the companion certificate so "restructuring" is probably the best angle.

James

jashah

Thx for the comments. Update:

I called and did upgrade for flight home only as there were not any mileage upgrades for outbound flight. Premium seats I had booked on way home have been refunded. Used 15k miles x 2.

It was a bit of an ordeal as the first agent I talked to did not know that the S fare I booked outbound was a special refundable fare; we booked Y fare on way back. When she went to make the changes, my refundable fare was changed to non-refundable. She figured this out but had to transfer me to another agent to complete the changes but I got cut off during transfer. Hours later when I was able to talk to,someone, I was told that my fare was not-refundable and there was nothing that could be done. Fortunately, I was then transferred to a ticketing agent who was extremely helpful and sorted everything out. So in the end, my fare remains refundable; Premium outbound; F inbound after 15k mileage upgrade; inbound Premium seats refunded.