Alaska Devalues Award Redemptions for Japan Airlines
Alaska Airlines miles are quite valuable compared to other carriers, and one of the best uses for those miles is through Japan Airlines. But this week, with no prior notice, Alaska Airlines increased award rates to fly Japan Airlines to Tokyo and Southwest Asia by much as 42%.
We saw a similar move by Virgin Atlantic last week. But this Alaska Mileage Plan devaluation is even worse as it affects mot fare classes.
Japan Airlines first class product saw the biggest jump in award pricing, especially from the Midwest and East Coast. West Coast travelers will also have to pay more, but the increases are a bit more palatable.
Here are the rates that have changed:
- Midwest and East Coast to Japan
- Economy Class : from 35k to 45k
- Business Class: from 60k to 80k
- First Class: from 70k to 100k
- West Coast to Japan
- First Class: from 70k to 85k
- Most of USA to Southeast Asia
- Economy Class : from 37.5k to 57.5k
- Business Class: from 65k to 100k
- First Class: from 75k to 100k
Conclusion
These are big increases for award redemption on Japan Airlines and a big hit for Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan members.
We suspected a devaluation was due when Alaska Airlines first revealed a new simplified award chart late last year. While Alaska touted the simplicity, the new chart replaced individual partner charts and listed minimum prices for travel between regions. That left the door open for devaluations, which we are witnessing now.
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I don’t make any effort to earn Alaska miles. They have duped me twice. As luck would have it, I was looking for business or first seats to upgrade our trip to Japan on March 23rd. There was a pair of first seats for March 24, that someone must have cancelled on March 11th. We could have changed our plans. But then on March 14th, Alaska changed the award miles needed. I cannot here, politely say how I feel about Alaska Air. Other than I am done with them!
Should not surprise anyone “Ben” has been slowly turning AS fantastic program for us FF’er into a train wreck. OW with AA as lead is got us off the tracks, we lost EK the premise of all this was we the FF’s of AS would have a greater playing field more flights with AA and OW, turns out ( at least for my international travel) it stinks. I have once found a premium seat with AA using awards, I have never been upgraded to boot on a paid seat. From the west coast a business / first seat on rewards is 280K unless of course you want to fork over miles and 1K per seat on BA. I have been flying internationally for 20 years and miss the Delta agreement we had. Asia was a snap and Europe was equally good for seats. No this isn’t Alaska Airlines as it once was, SAD.