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Alaska Airlines dumps partnership with American Airlines

Posted by (Portland, Oregon) on

First, Alaska dumped Delta (or maybe the other way around)? Now, they are dumping AA.

www.alaskaair.com/content/mileage-plan/how-to-earn-miles/airline-partners/american-airlines

A shame - I have used Alaska miles to fly to Europe for the last several years, and I took advantage of their free stop-over to be able to stop on the east coast on the way to Europe - and there are many direct AA flights from PHL to Europe. This after Alaska devalued their frequent flyer program by removing the "free changes up to 60 days before departure" policy that I also used to take advantage of.

I have some remaining Alaska miles that I guess I can use to fly on other carriers to Europe. But I already use Southwest to fly domestically. I guess I'll use up my Alaska miles and move on to another airline program.

Posted by
1443 posts

Andrew, this is a real bummer and I agree that maybe it is time for me to move on from their frequent flyer program. A shame because I do like flying on Alaska Air.

Posted by
6713 posts

Sorry to hear about this. I understand their dumping Delta because Delta is competing aggressively at the Seattle hub, but I don't know what American has done so bad to them. A couple of years ago they dropped Aeromexico, which was a shame. I have a lot of miles with Alaska and I like the flights and service, but maybe I'll have to use up the miles and look elsewhere.

Posted by
2787 posts

And this just as we were going to try to use Alaskan miles to get to Europe from SEA on American.

Posted by
3617 posts

Not happy! First Condor ( which was direct from Anchorage to Frankfurt in the summer) and now, this! It’s already difficult to get to Europe from Alaska, my retirement dreams definitely involve a move!
And I use to watch diligently after I booked a flight, because if the price or miles went down, they would either credit you the difference in your wallet or give you the miles back in your account.
One time, I got 10,000 miles back because of this.
It seems cruises and airlines cannot be greedy enough!

Posted by
12152 posts

Sadly Alaska has joined the race to the bottom.( and regrettably are making excellent progress)

AA hasnt made biz/1st class available for Alaska FF folk for over a year ( at least not for any flight over salt water)

The Aer Lingus rates are crazy; 60k miles for coach and 280k for biz class for a one way.

Alaska miles will be useful mainly for continental 48 state travel and not much else

As Andrew said, "use 'em up and move on"

Posted by
5687 posts

And this just as we were going to try to use Alaskan miles to get to Europe from SEA on American.

Can you book before next March? If so, go for it, even if your travel date is well past that. When Alaska ended their Delta partnership, I was able to book one last flight before the cut-off date (loved using Alaska miles to fly the Delta direct flight from PDX to Amsterdam), and there was no problem booking a flight later than their end date, as long as I booked before their partnership ended.

I checked just now - still see flight availability with Alaska miles on AA to Paris into April and surely beyond.

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