Alaska Airlines Will Soon Let You Book Short-Notice Award Flights Again

Updated: November 14, 2024, 12:19pm CST

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Alaska Airlines To Remove Block on Close-In Partner Award Bookings
Final Thoughts

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If you’ve tried to book a flight on short notice using your Alaska Airlines miles, you probably noticed that it’s not possible. However, there’s good news, as Mileage Plan members will soon be able to book flights departing in less than 72 hours with their miles.

Here’s what you need to know about the current state of things and how Alaska Airlines is responding.

Alaska Airlines To Remove Block on Close-In Partner Award Bookings

Presently, you can’t use your Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles to book a flight departing in less than 72 hours if you want to fly on a partner airline like Cathay Pacific or Qatar Airways.

Why? Alaska Airlines representatives say they’ve experienced a high amount of fraud on these types of bookings. Essentially, someone might redeem your miles for a flight departing the next day, hoping you won’t notice before they’re jetting off somewhere on your dime.

For example, when searching for flights from multiple U.S. airports on the East Coast to multiple airports in Europe, we couldn’t find any flights in the next 72 hours flying on British Airways or Iberia. However, we did find flights on Aer Lingus and American Airlines — and that’s more than we saw earlier today.

Alaska award search NYC LON without BA results — Not finding any British Airways flights to London is a key indicator that something is missing. Image Credit: Alaska Airlines

However, a spokesperson for Alaska Airlines says this block should go away soon:

The 72-hour restriction we currently have in place for award redemptions with our partners is short-term — it’ll last only days and not months. We understand its impact on some of our guests’ travel planning and we apologize for the confusion. We’re always focused on ensuring we have the most compelling proposition in the market. We know that’s not possible with a limitation on close-in bookings.

While many people might not plan a trip to depart within 72 hours, you might be planning a flight home during that timeframe. Say something went wrong on your trip and you need to get home early. Perhaps a relative at home is sick, and you need to make new travel arrangements. Or what if you’re heading out on vacation today and your flight is delayed? You might want to book a backup plan using your Alaska Airlines miles. Presently, none of this would be possible.

Bottom Line:

Presently, there are few options to book a flight departing in the next 72 hours using your Alaska Airlines miles. However, the airline is working to remove this restriction in the coming days.

Final Thoughts

If you’ve been frustrated by the inability to use your Alaska Airlines miles for close-in bookings (flights departing soon), there’s good news. The airline has heard its customers’ frustrations and will remove this block in the coming days. Once that is removed, we’ll be sure to provide updates.