![]() ![]() He also stressed the following: "This approach is an additive option to fill out the award calendar. Smith also said that they intend to expand this model to other partners in the future, though it obviously must overcome some IT and logistical challenges before implementation. We also asked whether this model will expand to other carriers and were reminded that Icelandair and Condor already use this approach. According to Smith, these higher-priced awards exist so members can fly when they want using miles, not just when there happens to be saver availability. He emphasized that they have members with lots and lots of miles who simply want the opportunity to redeem miles for flights, almost regardless of cost, and the biggest frustration for partner award flights is lack of availability. He told us that the higher pricing tiers (60,000 and 80,000 miles in economy or 280,000 miles in business) are essentially buy-up fares that exist to allow Alaska's members the ability to redeem miles on higher-demand dates, in some cases with near last-seat availability. TPG had a chance to speak with Erik Smith, Director of Alliances at Alaska Airlines, and we took the opportunity to ask all about these different rates. This has not been the historic norm for most Alaska Airlines partner awards, so the fact that the newest partner has different award pricing tiers is concerning on some levels. When multiple award pricing tiers are utilized, that raises warning flags that a program is pricing awards dynamically. ![]() More worrisome is that Alaska economy awards on Aer Lingus have at least three pricing tiers that we could find - 30k, 60k and 80k miles each way. More on that in a minute.įrequent flyer programs have long had a saver and a non-saver rate for some types of awards, so that two-tiered system by itself isn't terrifying. This is bad for all cabins of travel, but it hits business and first class cabins especially hard when the price of the award is tied in some way to the cash selling price of the ticket.Īs far as Aer Lingus operated business class awards to Europe go, the pricing in our tests is either 60,000 miles each way or an astonishing 280,000 miles each way. The bad-for-consumers trend in frequent flyer programs for 2019 has unquestionably been the spread of dynamic or variable award pricing. Related: Review of Aer Lingus Business Class on the A330 The Ugly: Alaska Award Pricing Varies Note that United provides a disclaimer of this possible discrepancy during the award booking process: On the flip side, we found a few instances instances where there were actually four business class awards from the US to Dublin (or vice versa) via Alaska miles at 60,000 miles each, when according to ExpertFlyer there should have only been two. We searched many US to Dublin routes and found multiple months with zero 60,000-mile business class awards. Since you'll see several dates with only one business class award seat to start with - at most - this means there's usually nothing available at the saver level in business class via Alaska. We're finding that if ExpertFlyer has one business class award, it can't be booked using Alaska miles. ![]() Business class availability on Aer Lingus from the US to Europe is almost non-existent via Alaska Airlines at the moment, and the appears to be discrepancies between award seats that ExpertFlyer sees and those that Alaska can access. The Bad: Business Class Saver Availability is Pretty Terrible Related: Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® credit card : Get 40,000 bonus miles plus Alaska's Famous Companion Fare from $121 ($99 fare plus taxes and fees from $22) when you make purchases of $2,000 or more within the first 90 days of opening your account. For example, you can travel from Amsterdam (AMS) to Dublin (DUB), stop for however long, and then continue onto Milan (MXP) or wherever Aer Lingus flies from just 8,000 total miles (plus taxes and fees which would be under $70 on that example). Have questions? See the Chart Key.Should you wish to simply explore Europe utilizing Aer Lingus as your carrier for flights within the continent, you can now do that from 8,000 Alaska miles each way - and again, you can add on a stopover if you like. Clicking the header a second time will reverse the sort. The table below can be sorted by any column. ![]()
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