Alaska Airlines Devaluation: Huge Increase For Singapore Flights To India

One of the more unique facets of the partnership between Alaska Airlines and Singapore Airlines is the ability to book long-haul premium cabin awards. Singapore has historically not made these available to partners, but Alaska has had access to the award space. Prices were fairly comparable to what Singapore charges. But now it appears there has been a no-notice Alaska Singapore devaluation, specifically for awards to India.

The Alaska Singapore Devaluation: Chart Magic

Alaska has been pricing Singapore awards for two regions for flights from the U.S.: North Asia and South Asia. Although Singapore operates four different cabins on most aircraft, only economy, business and first class awards are available through Mileage Plan.

When the partnership launched, Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan offered awards on Singapore at the following rates:

• Economy between U.S. and Japan – 40,000 miles
• Business between U.S. and Japan – 80,000 miles
• First between U.S. and Japan- 110,000 miles
• Economy between U.S. and South Asia – 47,500 miles
• Business between U.S. and South Asia – 100,000 miles
• First between U.S. and South Asia – 130,000 miles
• Economy between U.S. and India – 47,500 miles
• Business between U.S. and India – 100,000 miles
• First between U.S. and India – 130,000 miles

You could also find awards for other regions and some non-U.S. region pairs, but I’m not going to post all the pricing. If you’re interested in flying Singapore, prices weren’t all that bad. But they really weren’t ever great.

It appears that Alaska has decided to increase the pricing of flights to India during the cloak of darkness.  The other award charts appear unchanged, for now at least.

Prices used to be the same as “Southeast Asia” (listed above). The pricing to India now matches the pricing to the Middle East, which is unfortunate. For Singapore’s product, I guess the prices to India and the Middle East aren’t entirely unreasonable. But given how valuable Alaska miles are and how easy it is to accrue Singapore Airlines miles, I would be loathe to use them on Singapore First at this pricing for almost any route. 

Overall this is an increase of 27% in miles needed to fly first class to India from the US.   Business class is even worse at a 30% increase in cost and economy comes in atop the list at an almost 32% increase.

It seems that now only Japan is in North Asia, as Hong Kong may have been before? The new charts says “Southeast Asia and China”. So I’m thinking Alaska also made an adjustment here, but it only affected one route, SFO-HKG.

Conclusion

I’ve long been a fan of Alaska Airlines and their Mileage Plan program. They offer great earning rates and the ability to earn elite status faster than the other major airlines for similar spend.

Recently, Alaska has partnered with American Airlines. What has worried me is that Alaska will adopt the worse parts of American’s program. I hope that this Alaska Singapore devaluation (changes?) isn’t a precursor to greater devaluation. But I fear it will be. 

Hat Tip Reader Ani P.

Disclosure: Miles to Memories has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Miles to Memories and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers.

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