Tag Archives: Alaska Airlines

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Midyear Review: My 2024 Airline, Hotel & Credit Card Predictions

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Good morning everyone, happy Friday!  I recently watched a Frequent Miler On The Air Podcast episode on YouTube where Greg and Nick reviewed their 2024 predictions, so I figured it would be fun to review My Overly Ambitious 2024 Airline, Hotel & Credit Card Predictions.  The original predictions are in black, correct predictions are in green, and incorrect predictions are in red.  Without further ado, here are my predictions for 2024:

My 2024 Airline Predictions

  • Alaska Airlines or Southwest Airlines will introduce a “family pooling” benefit for miles or travel credit. – Nope, but Southwest Airlines Wanna Get Away Plus fares do offer Transferable Flight Credit that can be used for other Rapid Rewards members.
  • American Airlines will allow Web Special awards to be changed online (currently, they can only be cancelled). – Nope, not yet, but I haven’t booked any AA Web Special awards recently.
  • British Airways will add another airline (besides Finnair) to the Avios family. – Nope, not yet, Qatar and Finnair were the most recent additions.
  • Delta will change their 15% SkyMiles discount for Delta credit cards holders. – Nope, not yet, I haven’t booked many Delta awards this year.
  • United will allow you to combine multiple travel bank funds and future flight credits for the same reservation. – Nope, not yet, I confirmed this a few days ago when I purchased a United Airlines flight.

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Comparing Alaska Airlines, British Airways & Qatar Airways Award Prices for 2 Finnair Flights (DUB-HEL & HEL-ARN)

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Good afternoon everyone, happy Friday!  Last week on the Miles to Memories Podcast, I mentioned my upcoming Summer trip with Laura to Dublin, Helsinki, and Stockholm. I wanted to share my award booking strategy for 2 flights: Finnair flight from Dublin to Helsinki (DUB-HEL) and Finnair flight from Helsinki to Stockholm (HEL-ARN).

I found these flights using the Point.me award search tool and saw that there were many different airline programs that could book the same award.  So which airline program was best?  Spoiler alert: no single airline program was best for all economy and business class awards, but I will show you the various options available for each flight and tell you which program I picked for each flight.

Flight 1: Finnair from Dublin to Helsinki (DUB-HEL), 3 hour flight

I picked a random date in the Summer (June 5) and the flight was 257.64 EUR ($276.43 USD) for economy and 297.64 EUR ($319.35 USD) for business class.  I didn’t pick the cheapest option since I will have more than 8 kilograms (17.6 pounds) of carry on bags and would need to check a bag.

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My Preparation to Close American Express Business Platinum Card

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Updated 2:20pm PT on 4/24/2024: My $237.77 refund check from American Express arrived in the mail today, 5-6 days after requesting the refund check.

Good afternoon everyone, I hope your weekend is going well. A few days ago, I wrote Contact AMEX if Alaska Airlines Seat Assignment / Upgrade Purchases Do Not Trigger Airline Fee Reimbursement Credit.  That post was in preparation of closing my American Express Business Platinum Card after the $695 annual fee posted earlier this month.  I had already tried my luck at retention offers via AMEX Chat and calling, but the only offer I received was for 10,000 AMEX Membership Rewards Points after spending $5,000 in 3 months.  That retention offer wouldn’t have made a large enough dent toward the $695 annual fee, so I decided to close the card.

I still had a few weeks before the annual fee had to be paid or the card had to be closed, so I was determined to earn as many of the benefits before that date.  Through mid April, I was able to get 4 x $10 Wireless Credits, the $200 Dell Credit for the first half of the year, and the $200 Airline Incident Credit with Alaska Airlines (read the blog post at the top of this post for more details).

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Contact AMEX if Alaska Airlines Seat Assignment / Upgrade Purchases Do Not Trigger Airline Fee Reimbursement Credit

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well.  Recently, I noticed that my Alaska Airlines seat assignment purchases on my American Express Business Platinum Card were not triggering the $200 Airline Fee Reimbursement Credit.  I paid for 4 premium economy seat assignments on Alaska Airlines in January and the credits had not posted in the following 2 months.  I went to Frequent Miler’s Amex Airline Fee Reimbursements. What still works? post and scrolled down to the Alaska Airlines section.  There was a note that said:

“Since 2022, there have been many reports of Alaska charges not being reimbursed automatically. It seems that many have had success getting charges for premium seat selection and things that ordinarily should be included (like lounge access, onboard purchases, etc) manually credited via the chat function, but only after 2 weeks has passed since the transaction date. Historical Alaska data included below, but beware that you may need to chat and hope for a friendly agent. See more data in this Flyertalk thread.”

I decided to reach out to American Express for help.

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3 Buy Miles / Points Promos Ending Soon: Spirit Airlines (40%), Hilton (100%) & Alaska Airlines (70%)

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Good afternoon everyone, happy Friday!  I was working on my Buy Miles & Points Page and found 3 offers that end in the next week.  Always check the math to make sure that buying miles & points makes sense for you.  Do not buy miles & points speculatively unless you have a use in mind.  With that said, here are 3 offers that end soon.

Up first, Spirit Airlines is offering up to a 40% discount, depending on the number of Spirit Airlines Free Spirit Miles you purchase.  This offer expires today – March 8.

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