alaska award booking on fiji change

Old Nov 17, 2022, 6:35 pm
  #1  
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alaska award booking on fiji change

I was able to book LAX->NAN->AKL and MEL->NAN->SFO->LAX with the long legs being in business and the remainder in economy on Fiji via Alaska miles (55k one-way). Anyone have experience with changing the economy legs (NAN->AKL or MEL->NAN) to business within the same booking? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. So far no luck. I'm a noob.
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Old Nov 17, 2022, 6:58 pm
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Originally Posted by aanihc
I was able to book LAX->NAN->AKL and MEL->NAN->SFO->LAX with the long legs being in business and the remainder in economy on Fiji via Alaska miles (55k one-way). Anyone have experience with changing the economy legs (NAN->AKL or MEL->NAN) to business within the same booking? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. So far no luck. I'm a noob.
Have you identified if NAN->AKL or MEL->NAN have business class award seats available? Then phone?
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...s_destinations Fiji also flys to BNE, SYD, WLG & CHC (but may not be up to date)

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Old Nov 17, 2022, 7:00 pm
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Yeah for example NAN->AKL is available for booking business class (35k). I called Alaska and they do not "see" it as available for switch.
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Old Nov 17, 2022, 10:24 pm
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unless you’re stopping over in NAN, this is probably married-segment availability (FJ has to have award space available for booking LAX-NAN-AKL as an entire trip; what’s available on the individual segments is unfortunately irrelevant)
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Old Nov 18, 2022, 11:52 am
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OP,

I had a similar itinerary to MEL with the second leg from NAN to MEL in economy. I kept monitoring the economy flight and when I saw saver business class open up I phoned Alaska.

The agent said the same thing, she couldn't see the space. I told her if you try to make a separate booking for just the NAN to MEL the J space is indeed there.

She did see that and said the best she could do was put in a request for the economy leg to be upgraded to business. She put me on hold and about 10 minutes later returned to the line and said to her surprise the request was approved. In fact, since exchange rates worked in the USD favor I was given a small refund as well of the taxes!

Idk if it is a HUCA situation until you get an agent who can do it, but it's definitely doable IMO.
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Old Jan 23, 2023, 10:27 pm
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Originally Posted by Dpetryszyn
OP,

I had a similar itinerary to MEL with the second leg from NAN to MEL in economy. I kept monitoring the economy flight and when I saw saver business class open up I phoned Alaska.

The agent said the same thing, she couldn't see the space. I told her if you try to make a separate booking for just the NAN to MEL the J space is indeed there.

She did see that and said the best she could do was put in a request for the economy leg to be upgraded to business. She put me on hold and about 10 minutes later returned to the line and said to her surprise the request was approved. In fact, since exchange rates worked in the USD favor I was given a small refund as well of the taxes!

Idk if it is a HUCA situation until you get an agent who can do it, but it's definitely doable IMO.
I just tried this and was unsuccessful twice. I even tried booking a ticket and then merging the two but the partner desk couldnt do it; presumably like it was said before it was married segment logic. The only way that the request can be made to Fiji Air is if there is a schedule change to the original flight; otherwise there is no way to make a request from the international partner desk. I have two longhaul J tickets from Fiji to SFO but the two portions in economy to Fiji from Auckland are not visible to the agents in business, only as individual bookable segments.
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Old May 3, 2023, 9:37 am
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Bumping this, I've got a y booking YVR-NAN and now see that Alaska shows J space, and confirmed that AA shows J space. When I tried to change it online it says cannot select seat, and the agent supposedly called the partner desk and said there's nothing they can do. Thinking should I cancel my Y ticket and try to rebook into J or try calling back and asking for the partner desk? It seems like there is plenty of Y space so not too concerned if I cancel but there's the $25 partner fee that won't be refunded.

edit: looks like someone else had perhaps booked it but had not ticketed as now it's gone, darn!

Last edited by ellipsicon; May 3, 2023 at 10:37 am
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Old May 3, 2023, 10:38 am
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Originally Posted by ellipsicon
Bumping this, I've got a y booking YVR-NAN and now see that Alaska shows J space, and confirmed that AA shows J space. When I tried to change it online it says cannot select seat, and the agent supposedly called the partner desk and said there's nothing they can do. Thinking should I cancel my Y ticket and try to rebook into J or try calling back and asking for the partner desk? It seems like there is plenty of Y space so not too concerned if I cancel but there's the $25 partner fee that won't be refunded.
How did you try to change it online? If you choose "Cancel this trip and use the value toward a new trip," you can just book a "new" itinerary in J with the same date. Make sure to set "Shop for" to First / Business from the drop down list.

Essentially, you are canceling your first itinerary and booking a new one even though the PNR won't change. The search will offer you options and will show any differences in miles and Fees & Taxes; those can be either add/collect or redeposit/refund. Select the new flights you want and proceed to check-out.

Since this is an effective change the partner award booking fee won't be collected again as you already paid that fee on the original booking.

James
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Old May 3, 2023, 11:10 am
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Originally Posted by Flying for Fun
How did you try to change it online? If you choose "Cancel this trip and use the value toward a new trip," you can just book a "new" itinerary in J with the same date. Make sure to set "Shop for" to First / Business from the drop down list.

Essentially, you are canceling your first itinerary and booking a new one even though the PNR won't change. The search will offer you options and will show any differences in miles and Fees & Taxes; those can be either add/collect or redeposit/refund. Select the new flights you want and proceed to check-out.

Since this is an effective change the partner award booking fee won't be collected again as you already paid that fee on the original booking.

James
Thanks, I tried both "change this flight", and "cancel trip and use the value towards new trip". I edited my post to say it looks like someone else booked the ticket and it went away from showing available online. Weirdly I just went back and saw that space is in showing up again but I get the same error (We're sorry, seats for the requested flights are no longer available. Please try again and choose different flights, dates or cities.) Sounds like maybe phantom space. AA used to show two seat available, and now it's down to one (YVR-NAN on 3/4/2024)

edit: Called again and got to the partner desk, definitely phantom space!

Last edited by ellipsicon; May 3, 2023 at 11:40 am Reason: updated
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