AwardWallet receives compensation from advertising partners for links on the blog. Terms Apply to the offers listed on this page. The opinions expressed here are our own and have not been reviewed, provided, or approved by any bank advertiser. Here's our complete list of Advertisers.
Alaska has announced the termination of their partnership agreements with KLM / Air France effective April 30, 2018. This brings the total number of Sky Team airlines Alaska has terminated a partnership with to43, after Alaska’s partnership with Aeromexico ends on December 31, 2017, and the previously ended relationship with Delta earlier this year.
Effect On Earning Miles
- For tickets booked prior to December 5, 2017, with travel through April 30, 2018, miles will post as expected.
- For tickets booked prior to December 5, 2017, with travel after April 30, 2018, you will need to submit a mileage credit request.
- For tickets booked December 6, 2017, and later with travel through April 30, 2018, you'll continue to earn miles and they'll post as expected.
- For tickets booked December 6, 2017, and later with travel after April 30, 2018, no miles will be awarded.
Effect on Redeeming Miles
You'll be able to continue to redeem tickets on Air France/KLM through April 30, 2018, and can fly through the rest of the schedule — so if its bookable on April 30, 2018, even if it is 10+ months in the future, you can still cash in your miles.
That said, you should expect limited support with itinerary changes after April 30, 2018. We wouldn't recommend any speculative bookings that you might want to change.
Our Take
Although Alaska seems to be orienting itself more and more with one Oneworld partners, we have no clear indication that such a move is in the works to join Oneworld. Given the recent acquisition of Virgin America, we don't foresee anything happening in the near future, especially with Alaska having to downgrade its relationship with Oneworld member American Airlines.
Even though Alaska remains outside any of the three major airlines alliances, it still has a solid loyalty program with plenty of sweet spots as well as a broad spectrum of partners, including Cathay Pacific, Emirates, and Qantas.
Source: Alaska Airlines
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
Another partnership Alaska is ending. As the network expands I see this becoming more common place.
Alaska is a great airline. One of it’s values are partner awards! I hate to see these partnerships end!
That’s too bad. Hope Alaska can pickup more partners.
I know people really like Alaska’s freq flyer program. Sad that they are losing more partners but I wonder if they are trying to make their own alliance? I like the fact that they don’t have an alliance with just certain carriers but are able to negotiate agreements with airlines across several alliances. I hope the program won’t change in the coming years but time always changes everything.
Any feelings like Alaska may make their own alliance?
Alaska has effectively done just that with their partners.
It would be nice if Alaska joined oneworld, but I’m certainly not holding my breath.
It’ll be interesting to see what Alaska’s long-term plans are here…
While this does not affect me personally, the trend with Alaska and some other airlines makes me wonder about holding miles for airlines I do not s use, but whose miles are usable elsewhere.
Very bad news, especially for me.
As European Air France and KLM are very handy for my flights.
I hope there will be some new European partners.
This is not great for Europeans. I’m not really seeing now where I can keep accumulating AS miles, other than BA and the occasional AA TATL.
I wasn’t too worried on the redemption side but on the earning side, this was a pretty sad news story.
Alaska is a terrific airline. Anxious to see what’s next for them.
Fewer options is never a good thing, but this change is certainly one I can’t imagine missing too much, if at all.
thanks for the heads up, i do hope they align with other partners as its very nice to have flexibility or points might become harder to use. Time will tell, i guess.
Think this has all to do with Delta. Not much of a choice for Alaska.
I cant see anyway American Airlines would allow Alaska to join Oneworld. And I don’t really see Alaska wanting to join an alliance. Seems like that is a key part of their strategy.
Not the best news but thankfully they still have great deals on domestic flights.
Some mild bad news… we’re used to much worse in the points&miles world.
thank you for the heads up!
What airline can you match Alaska status to?
I’d recommend checking out StatusMatcher.com for recent data points.
Too bad. Would definitely rather collect MP miles rather than Flying Blue miles.
Very true.
This had to happen after the Delta partnership ended. I guess it’s back to crediting to Flying Blue for me.
I hope Alaska does join an alliance. They have a pretty awesome loyalty program.
I would like to be a fly on the wall at Alaska to hear what the long term game plan is.
As Alaska Air gets bigger, it gains more independence.
Loss of flexibility is never good. I’ve never had the opportunity to redeem Alaska points through these partners and now I’ll never get the chance. They do seem to be aligning themselves with other partners however so we can only hope there might be better possibilities in the future.
This isn’t surprising at all.
Thank you for the heads-up.
Always sad to see the end of a pertnership, from a frequent flyer / point collector POV
It was always really hard, if not impossible, to find award space on AF/KLM. But I’ll miss the earning side – sometimes you were stuck flying for business on AF but earning AS miles made it worthwhile!