Alaska Airlines has announced that they will be making some changes to their award charts for bookings on or after June 25th, 2018. It’s a mixture of both positive and negative changes, but they are mostly minor changes rather than a true devaluation. A full list of the changes can be found here.
Alaska does gloss over some of the negative changes (e.g peak awards on trips between 1,401-2,100 miles are increasing by up to 10,000 miles and peak awards on trips longer than 2,101 miles are increasing by up to 20,000 miles). The positive Hawaiian changes are likely made ahead of Southwest entering that market. It’s also important to point out that the peak pricing for Hawaiian is actually increasing by 10,000 miles and the minimum rates are only decreasing by 2,500 miles.
It’s hard to get a feel for how bad these changes are without knowing how many flights will be put into the highest peak award pricing buckets. I always just assume all flights will be priced at their maximum and then it’s a nice surprise when that isn’t the case. I am worried about the nickel & dime approach that Alaska appears to be currently taking though, with the removal of fee free changes and cancellations and introduction of basic economy.
Hat tip to OMaaT
