This past Thursday I wrote approximately the massive devaluation Alaska made to Emirates first course redemptions,where we saw award costs increase by anywhere from 67% to 100% without any advance notice. For example, the cost of a first course award between the US and Africa increased from 200000 miles roundtrip to 400000 miles roundtrip.
Making a change without notice was completely within Alaska’s rights, and as the terms of the Mileage draw program say they can make whatever changes they want whenever they want. But there’s a difference between what they can carry out and what they should carry out,especially since they’re a loyalty program. A lot of Mileage draw members lost trust in the airline with this change, and that goes against everything a loyalty program should stand for.
Given the volume of feedback Alaska received, and they addressed the situation in a blog post the same afternoon,and blamed the need for the immediate change on "travel hackers." They said the following:The post Alaska Airlines Has A unusual Explanation For The Emirates Devaluation appeared first on One Mile at a Time.
Source: boardingarea.com