Alaska Airlines quietly implemented a huge devaluation to their award program for redeeming on Emirates, and they did this without any notice. However, the airline finally decided to own up to it today!
Here’s a look at the new partner award chart:
Here’s what Alaska Airline is saying:
Today Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan made a small but significant change to award levels for Emirates Business Class and First Class. Award levels for Economy Class are not changing.
“Our goal has always been to offer our customers the best loyalty program in the industry. It is a priority to ensure Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan members retain access to first and business class on Emirates. Today we made a necessary change that caught many of our members by surprise,†said Ryan Butz, Alaska’s managing director of loyalty marketing. “We apologize to the customers who may have been surprised by today’s update, which we were unable to communicate in advance.â€
Bottom Line
Overall this is a huge devaluation to Alaska’s program, however if you did purchase miles after March 1, 2016, you’re able to get a refund if you intended to book an Emirates award.
Feel free to share your thoughts below about this latest devaluation!
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I get it. It’s not nice. But it’s life in the game we are playing. Deal. Not all airlines will do like AA did with their recent adjustments and we’ve been fleecing this more than generous golden goose for far too long. We operate on a rationale of earn-and-burn so I’d hope anyone with a leg to stand on would not be caught with their pants down. Next drama, please.
Actually, what they did is the diametrical opposite of owning up. They accepted no blame at all, instead trying to blame anyone else.
Too many posts on too many sites did indeed lead up to too many people booking. These sites don’t moderate at all. There must be hundreds of posts on This site about Emirates and Alaska. They beat a dead horse to its real death. I agree Alaska couldn’t give notice. Everyone would have booked every last seat.