Alaska Airlines Award Chart Changes, Southwest Extends Their Schedule, and Earn a Surprise Bonus With United Airlines!

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Happy Wednesday!  If you’ve got Southwest points or Alaska Airlines miles saved up, you’ll want to review today’s miles & points news.

1.   Alaska Airlines Award Chart Changes

Link:   Alaska Airlines Award Chart Changes

Alaska Airlines is making some changes to their award chart effective for bookings on or after June 25, 2018.  There is nothing too devastating, and nothing jumps out to me as a spectacular deal.  But if you were planning on using Alaska Airlines miles soon, you’ll want to take a look at the new chart.

The good news is they aren’t making any changes to their partner award charts.

The changes aren’t too drastic, and because they’re only giving us price ranges, it’s hard to know how this will shake out.  For example, saver level awards to Hawaii from the Continental US & Alaska are dropping in price by 2,500 Alaska Airlines miles.

But the highest-priced awards are increasing by 10,000 Alaska Airlines miles.  So it’s going to come down to how many of the lowest level award seats Alaska Airlines makes available.

You can book award tickets on Alaska Airlines flights up to 330 days in advance.  So if you’ve got an award you want to book, check out these charts to see how the prices are changing, and whether or not you should wait to book your flight with miles.

Domestic coach award tickets aren’t changing much.  But short-haul domestic First Class awards will be getting cheaper, while longer domestic First Class flights will be increasing in price.

2.   Southwest Opens Up Flight Schedule Until November 3, 2018!

Update:   Thanks to sharp-eyed readers Camilla, Agilmut, and jayuup for pointing out Southwest actually made this schedule extension some time ago.  The next schedule extension is due to come out May 31, 2018.

The one knock against Southwest is that they don’t let you book flights anywhere near as far in advance as other airlines, which typically allow 10 to 12 months in the future.  Nobody is perfect.

But they just opened up their calendar through November 3, 2018!  If you think you might need a Southwest flight any time before then, go ahead and book now.  You can always cancel or change the flight for free if your plans change or the price drops.

And via Deals We Like, the next time Southwest is going to extend their booking schedule is May 31, 2018.  I’m setting a reminder for that one, because it will cover reservations for holiday travel up to January 6, 2019!

3.   United Airlines Purchased Miles Bonus (Variable Bonus)

Link:   United Airlines Miles Mystery Bonus

United Airlines has a mystery bonus promotion for buying miles.  You’ll have to login to see which bonus you are targeted for.

United Airlines has bonuses of up to 100% on purchased miles fairly frequently.  So if you were targeted for anything less than that, I would give this one a pass, unless you’re desperate to top off your account for a trip.