Alaska Airlines has a really unique mileage program given that they partner with airlines across multiple alliances. While that’s awesome, the challenge with Mileage Plan miles is that with the exception of travel on Alaska, they don’t let you mix partners on an award ticket, so that limits options somewhat. Award space is limited enough to begin with, even when you can mix airlines within an alliance, and it gets even tougher when you’re stuck with just one airline.
There has long been a rumor that Mileage Plan would soon begin allow one-way awards on partner airlines, though up until now I haven’t seen an official date on the implementation of that. Per this FlyerTalk thread, it seems like they may be implementing one-way awards on partner airlines as of March 17. I called Alaska to try and independently verify this, and while they couldn’t name a date, several agents said they were in the process of undergoing training for one-way awards, which makes me believe this may be accurate.
This would be awesome news, given that Alaska has some real gems on their award chart, though it can be tough to accrue enough miles for a roundtrip ticket given that they don’t have many transfer partners. For example, roundtrip first class between the US and South Africa on Cathay Pacific costs just 140,000 Mileage Plan miles, which gets you four 15 hour segments in Cathay Pacific first class. If one-way awards were allowed it would be possible to do San Francisco to Hong Kong to Johannesburg one-way in Cathay Pacific first class for just 70,000 miles.
Similarly, Alaska just recently added Emirates as a mileage redemption partner, so this opens up a lot of great options for one-way awards as well. A one-way first class award from the US to Africa on Emirates would run you 100,000 Mileage Plan miles, while a one-way first class award from the US to Asia, India, or the Middle East would run you 90,000 Mileage Plan miles, both of which seem like a great value.
The other benefit is that if you can book one-ways you can potentially book the two directions of travel on different airlines, which may prove to be a huge benefit.
Anyway, this is an exciting development, and I’ll be sure to post if/when I see official confirmation of this.
Of course I hope that Alaska doesn’t devalue their award chart in the process of adding one-ways, since they haven’t updated their award chart in a while.
Loading ...
February 8th, 2013 at 2:13 pm
Lantean said,
LOL… what’s “training for one-way awards”? like it’s that complicated?
February 8th, 2013 at 2:39 pm
Ryan from MA said,
AWESOME!!! Now is NORTH AMERICA to Africa, include South Africa?
February 8th, 2013 at 2:54 pm
Mike said,
It’s about freaking time!
February 8th, 2013 at 2:57 pm
Ed said,
Is it possible to do a stop-over with a one-way award on Cathay ?
February 8th, 2013 at 2:58 pm
Mike said,
any other ways to get these miles faster? can you transfer starpoints? the CC is only worth 25,000 so it is hard to get enough for an award if you never fly alaska… Membership rewards should add them as a transfer partner!
February 8th, 2013 at 3:02 pm
Raj Panjabi said,
Hi All,
I just found out from AS that the one-way awards being introduced in March is only for AA and DL. In April the will introduce one-way awards for BA, KLM and AF. For the other carriers, there is not timetable set.
February 8th, 2013 at 3:22 pm
Corey said,
off of what Ed said:
which airlines allow stop-overs on one-way awards? and for how long?
February 8th, 2013 at 3:35 pm
lucky said,
@ Lantean — I was wondering the same thing!
@ Ryan from MA — Yes it does.
@ Ed — They haven’t announced the details yet, though I’d guess not.
@ Mike — Only Starwood and their credit card. I also wish they’d be added as a Membership Rewards transfer partner.
@ Raj Panjabi — Thanks for the heads up! Are you able to share a source on that?
@ Corey — Only one I can think of is American which allows a stopover at the North American gateway city, which can be for as long as you’d like (within the ticket validity period of a year).
February 8th, 2013 at 3:41 pm
Jeff said,
Are you sure the one-ways will be priced at 50% of the roundtrip?
February 8th, 2013 at 3:43 pm
lucky said,
@ Jeff — I’m not sure of anything, but that’s the speculation.
February 8th, 2013 at 4:30 pm
Raj Panjabi said,
My source for is Alaska Airlines direct that I contacted today.
February 8th, 2013 at 4:31 pm
kyunbit said,
If implemented on DL, it would be an invaluable resource
February 8th, 2013 at 4:49 pm
Gene said,
@kyunbit — Yuck, why would you waste such valuable miles on Delta?
February 8th, 2013 at 6:07 pm
PatMike said,
Emirates First one-way would be a great component to a mix and match !
February 8th, 2013 at 9:50 pm
Euro said,
@Gene
It’s either this for one-way Delta awards or Flying Blue otherwise. Or the wonky “one way as a tag-on to another round-trip” flight trick.
I’d love it to be true if Alaska were to allow one-ways- are you listening, Delta??
February 8th, 2013 at 10:42 pm
Rik said,
Do they levy a YQ surcharge if you fly on BA?
February 8th, 2013 at 11:23 pm
Brian L. said,
@Rik – Yes. There’s no way to redeem miles on BA without paying YQ.
February 9th, 2013 at 9:28 am
Greg said,
Yes, I believe the biggest reason to be excited about one ways is as you mention it drastically opens up your options for redeeming miles. For example say American has availability to Europe on the way over but not back, but say British Airways does on the way back you now can use your two one-ways to make a complete trip.
Crossing my fingers that this will come online soon.
February 10th, 2013 at 12:05 am
Kidi said,
Would any partners work for one way to Sydney ( first or business)? How many miles?
February 10th, 2013 at 9:50 am
lucky said,
@ Kidi — It’s anyone’s guess because they haven’t released the partner award chart yet.
Add A Comment