Sorry for this question - I just can't seem to find the answer myself. I am trying to book ORD to Anchorage in late May of 2015. I am finding plenty of availability on Alaskan's website, but I don't have enough miles with them to book the flights.

I went on AA's website and they have no seats listed around my time frame - even in AAnytime first class.

I know they are part of the same alliance (or are partners?)- is there any way to use my 282,000 AA miles on Alaska?
Again, sorry for the post if it is stupid - I have been googling for a couple days and reading this site and am still unsure.
I appreciate any and all help.
Thanks!

Partners and not same alliance. You need to look for saver availability on the AS site. 25K each way for F or 12.5K each way for Y. Any of the other award tiers are only available to Alaska Airlines mileage redeemers.

May 20th is the only day in the second half of MAY with saver Y and that's AA ORD-LAX and AS LAX-ANC

May 29th has saver F all the way through but Its AA ORD-SEA and AS SEA-ANC

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

There's no need to search on the AS site. If AS SAAver seats are available, they will be displayed on aa.com during an award search, as long as you have opted to include partner carriers on the search.

AAnytime awards are only valid for travel on AA metal.

Thank you. Not the answer I was hoping for, that's for sure! I have applied for the Alaska credit card, and am awaiting my 25,000 mile bonus, but that only gets me one way. I've got my husband's card on the way as well, so he can get there as well.
Maybe I will look for paid flights for the way home and compare.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

Paying for two one-ways might be more expensive than paying for one roundtrip. Look into using your and your husband's miles for a roundtrip (two one-ways) for just one of you; then, buy a cash roundtrip for the other.

Also, if you're paying for one ticket, that credit card gets you a companion ticket for $100 or so, and both of you earn miles. That card is churnable (can be gotten repeatedly) so you may be better off using the companion certificate for this trip and miles for the next one. I'd play around with the various possibilities based on cash fares one-way and roundtrip to see what works best.

The Alaska card is fairly frequently churnable. So in a little while, get another one for another 25k! See this thread for more:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...ss-25k-up.html

But meanwhile, keep checking fairly periodically. Saver aviailibity may appear at any time between now and a few months before the flight. There's no point in booking "anytime" awards too early (since you may pay a penatly fee if you later find "saver" availabliity and want to change to that).

Finally, paid flights one-way are typically way more expensive than half the round-trip fare, sometimes very close to the round-trip fare. So perhaps you should consider having one person pay round-trip, and the other person two one-way awards, rather than both having awards one way and both paying the other way.

Alaska has gone to a 2-tier mileage pricing on domestic award seats, 12.5K miles one way (economy) and 20K miles one way. The 12.5K seats are quite scarce on peak routes in peak periods, so the "availability" you're seeing on Alaska's website is most likely all at the 20K level.

AA won't book SAAver awards on AS flights unless the AS inventory is open at the lower level, since AA prices its domestic SAAver awards also at 12.5K miles.

A second major problem is that the (huge) majority of AS flights to ANC are via SEA, and getting space to/from SEA during cruise season on AA metal is VERY hard due to demand just to get to SEA.

Use the AS website to find seats at 12.5K, trying various AS gateways (SEA, SFO, LAX) and then see if you can put together connections out of ORD on AA metal. You may need to phone for the booking, as the website may balk at things like second-day connections, itineraries with more than two plane changes, etc. Hard work, but you can make it happen.

Also look for first class one way awards, including US metal from PHX. It might be in greater supply, even though US' first class product is pretty miserable compared to AS'.

This thread appears to have been moved to the wrong forum. I will relocated it to the correct place, and I've also retitled it to clarify its contents.

~Moderator

Alaska doesn't do "stupid pricing tricks" like the other legacies. One ways are half the cost of round trips, to the best of my recollection, just like WN and other LCCs.

(In fact, an AS round trip is merely two one ways. )

Three tier in coach/economy, actually: 12.5K, 20K and 30K.

Thank you for all the help. I will keep checking the AS website, looking for the 12,500 mile fares. I need to check how soon I will get the companion ticket voucher. I would love to book the non-stop ORD-ANC if I need to buy the ticket.

Thanks again!
Colleen