Another week, another loss of an award sweet spot to Japan.
Last week, Virgin Atlantic increased the points needed for travel on ANA, without warning.
And now Alaska has done the same for travel on JAL.
- Coach awards from the US East Coast to Japan have gone up from 35K to 45K miles. Flights from the US West Coast remain 35K.
- Coach awards within Asia have gone up from 17.5K to 25K miles.
- Business awards from the US East Coast to Japan have gone up from 60K to 80K miles. Flights from the US West Coast remain 60K.
- Business awards within Asia have gone up from 25K to 50K miles.
- First class awards from the US East Coast to Japan have gone up from 70K to 100K. Flights from the US West Coast have gone up from 70K to 85K.
I warned that Alaska joining OneWorld would prove to be ripe for devaluations. It’s just unfortunate that programs don’t even value their customers enough to warn them of changes, something that Alaska previously promised to do. Loyalty to airlines proves to be a one-way street time and time again.
Alaska still has lucrative rates on Cathay Pacific, Fiji, and Qantas. I don’t expect those to last very long.
Leave a Reply
10 Comments On "Alaska Devalues Award Travel On Japan Airlines Without Notice"
All opinions expressed below are user generated and the opinions aren’t provided, reviewed or endorsed by any advertiser or DansDeals.
Which Alaska lucrative rate with Fiji do you refer to?
https://www.dansdeals.com/airfare-deals/mileage-deals/hurry-wide-open-business-class-award-space-us-south-pacific-australia-new-zealand-fiji-airways/
“Alaska still has lucrative rates on Cathay Pacific”
LOL to finding award space though
It brings it in line with AA. Too many points chasing too few seats. Too many easy 70K sign up bonuses and with joining OW, easier wto accumulate points. Again, why would anyone accumulate points through CC spend in anything but a fungible /transferable point currency.
Not really! AA to Japan is 70K in business, for partners. Now Alaska is 80K from most of the country. Just 3 gateways on the west coast are 60K, to Japan. It is only a matter of time before Alaska goes completely dynamic, since the award charts were removed in December.
JAL availability on Alaska has been non-existent in the past several months. Hopefully some availability will return.
Within 2 weeks of your departure date, seats can be found on JAL. Problem is Alaska and AA are not releasing them. But ANA is even worse!
Tried calling AA?
dan can you tell us when you travel to japan, Australia and hawaii etc if you pay for interisland travel and within country travel or you have an award ticket that gets you lots of stopovers i wish i could figure this out as it is hard to waste 17.5 k points when I know there is a way not to thank you in advance
@dan have you noticed that it’s impossible to find any award availability for JAL flights from NYC to Tokyo via Alaska, Aa, or ANA via united or aeroplan? There’s nothing anymore!!