Just a couple of weeks after Alaska Airlines stopped allowing stopovers on intra-Asian awards, it’s become clear that the program will suffer another devaluation starting next year.
Earning rates for discounted economy class tickets on its partner, Qantas, will go down significantly starting from January 1, 2020.
Qantas Discounted Economy Class to Earn Less Alaska Miles
Alaska’s Mileage Plan is well-known for its interesting combination of partnerships with airlines all over the world – as well as for excellent earning rates as well as redemption rates on some of its partners, especially in premium classes.
Just as an example, Cathay Pacific first class passengers can earn as much as 350% of the distance flown. The miles a first class round-trip between Hong Kong and New York can earn are enough to book a one-way business class ticket between Hong Kong and Europe or South Africa.
Mileage earnings for Qantas flights are excellent as well. Currently, first class flights earn 350% of the distance flown – just like Cathay flights.
More notably, though, all economy class tickets earn 100% of the distance flown. Unfortunately, they will go down to 25% and 50% for discounted economy class tickets depending on the booking class, starting from January 1, 2020.
Earnings for premium economy, business, and first class flights will remain unchanged.
The award chart remains, for now, unchanged. It’s still possible to redeem 55,000 miles for business class and 70,000 miles for first class flights between the United States and Australia among other award tickets.
Summary
In the past, most – if not all – economy class tickets regardless of their booking class earned 100% of the distance flown in most of frequent flyer programs. Over the years, however, as discounted economy class tickets became cheaper and cheaper, those earning rates have dropped.
Nowadays, it’s incredibly rare to see airlines offering such generous rates. Instead, it’s much more common for discounted economy class tickets to earn anywhere between 50% and 10% (or even nothing in some cases).
As such, while it represents a significant devaluation for passengers often crediting their Qantas flights to Alaska Mileage Plan, it’s a devaluation that was bound to happen sooner or later.
Personally, while I think it’s an unfortunate change, I was more disappointed about Alaska Airlines cutting stopovers on intra-Asian flights and rearranging its award chart for Singapore Airlines flights to exclude China from the Southeast Asia region just a few days after publishing it.
With all that said, with Mileage Plan still offering solid earning rates on some airlines, some excellent redemption opportunities, and the ability to buy miles frequently at a good price, the program still remains highly valuable.
