There’s some bad news in store if you credit your Qantas Flights to the Alaska Mileage Plan program. From 1 January, you’ll earn fewer points on a range of Economy fares. Depending on your booking code your earnings could be cut by as much as 75%.
Fortunately, the changes only affect bookings in the Economy cabin. If you fly in the higher cabins there is no change.
Alaska Mileage Plan earn on Qantas
As is often the case, it is the earning tables that tell the story.
As the tables show, it is the earn on Economy airfares that see the real earnings drop.
Generally, the new earn rates match the categories that Qantas have assigned in its own program. For example, N, O, and Q are Discount Economy in the Qantas program. Similarly, B, H, and Y are Economy Flex.
Unfortunately, from the Qantas booking engine, it is hard to find your booking class. While booking, you are shown a fare-family such as red-e-deal. The problem is that this is not enough to determine the earn rate.
As a guide, red-e-deals could book into one of E, G, L, N, O, Q, S or V codes. Economy Flex could be B, H, K, M, or Y.
Final Thoughts
These changes were probably inevitable. If you compare the earn rate in other programs, the Alaska Mileage Plan earn rates have been quite generous.
Unfortunately, with these changes, that generosity is no more. If you have been crediting your Qantas flights to Alaska Mileage Plan, then you should consider if there are better options out there.