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I just noticed that you can book Alaska Airline awards on AA.com!
I’ve always liked American Airlines’ online booking tool, because it really is quite easy to use. Even for me!
The online tool has a calendar with color codes indicating availability in both the MileSAAver (regular, but limited seats available) and AAnytime (double priced, but last seat availability) award level as well as the class of service (first, business, economy).
The only downside is that you can only book American Airline awards online. For example, you had to call AA reservations (and pay a $20 $25 booking fee) if you wanted to book any flight which involved a Oneworld or AA partner airline.
American Airlines is rumored to be updating their online booking tool and the plan is to eventually be able to book all partner awards online.
Alaska Air is now bookable on AA.com
Alaska Air is the first American Airline partner airline on which you can book awards on AA.com
Alaska Air not only flies to Alaska, but has a significant presence in Seattle and a few other West Coast cities.
Here’s a link to the Alaska Airlines route map.
You can book not only Alaska Airline flights (for example their Kansas City to Seattle flight), but you can also book mixed flights – i.e flights with both American Airline and Alaska Airlines.
Flights to Alaska can be pretty expensive, so using miles to get there is great! I’m dying to go hiking there, but just don’t know when I’ll have the time off. Perhaps in 2013!
I like how easy American Airlines has made it to book partner awards and can’t wait for them to make more partner airline award bookings available on the web.
Thanks for the update. I have a feeling that this will help with either an Alaska or Hawaii trip for the family sometime soon. Hopefully they will add other partners sooner rather than later. Wouldn’t it be nice if someone made booking alliance awards easy?
@rom & Brian (J) – You can book Alaska flights with British Airways Avios points, but you have to call in to make the booking.
@David – I just noticed it!
@The Wanderer – It sure would be easy to book partner travel on 1 website!
This has been coming up in award search results for quite awhile for me… I just thought it was normal.
Sorry, typo. I meant can you book ALASKA AIRLINES(not american) flights with BA miles?
can you use BA miles to book AA flights?
@Savvy Traveler – Nice to know. I agree that a good use of Alaska miles is for partner travel!
@brian(J) – Thanks for the detailed explanation. I’ve never experienced a Digiplayer yet, but do remember the walkman! The Alaska Air companion pass is a great deal (though I haven’t yet used mine!)
@Matt – 🙂
@twothirds – You can’t make seat selections for most partner awards, but it would be nice if you could!
@rom – Yes, you can use BA miles to book AA flights. This is a great deal for short non-stop flights since BA has a distance based chart which is a lot lower than AA’s chart for some flights.
I booked an award trip on Alsaka via aa.com a few weeks back for an annual hawaii vacation. The one downer is that you cannot make seat selections at the time of booking. You need to call AS after the flight is confirmed.