Alaska has long offered a companion fare with both the Ascent and Business credit cards, which allows a companion to travel for $99 + taxes (altogether, starting at ~$121). It’s valid on any North American economy fare class on Hawaiian or Alaska, and the companion earns both status and redeemable points while also receiving elite benefits (just like the fully-paid traveler).
Officially, the fare is only good for one-way or round-trip travel. Alaska used to be very flexible on both definitions, as it allowed up to three layovers of longer than a few hours, as well as open-jaws (a 2+ segment route that begins and ends in a different city). Thus, in practice, you could book four individual legs and three stopover flights on one companion fare, provided they were wrapped around the semblance of a round-trip itinerary.
That’s no longer possible, and now companion fares can only be used for strict one-way or round-trip flights without multi-stops or open-jaws, a serious downgrade to their utility.
In addition, and possibly most damaging, Alaska no longer allows any wallet funds to be applied towards a ticket that utilizes a companion fare. You must now pay for the entire cost of both tickets with an Alaska credit card.
The News
- Alaska has modified the use of its paid companion fare in several key ways:
- It’s no longer possible to apply wallet funds towards any portion of the cost of a ticket booked with a companion fare
- Open-jaw itineraries are no longer allowed
- Booking stopovers is no longer possible
- It’s unclear which, if any, of these changes are intended to be permanent or if some of them will be reversed. For now, Alaska is declining to provide any real clarity.
Quick Thoughts
First off, it’s important to note that Alaska now offers two different types of companion fares: a 25K Global Companion Award that comes with the Summit Visa and only applies to tickets booked with points, and the traditional version that only applies to paid tickets and requires the user to kick in $99 + tax for the companion. We’re strictly talking about the latter here.
That said, this stinks. Alaska’s Companion Fare has long been an incredibly useful instrument, but that utility has taken a serious hit with these changes. For me, the most customer-unfriendly is the new (and unannounced) inability to use wallet funds towards a ticket with a companion fare.
Like most US airlines, Alaska has a relatively generous cancellation policy: if you buy a Main Cabin ticket and cancel it after 24 hours (and before departure), you get the entire amount that you spent credited to your Alaska wallet as funds that can be applied towards another Alaska or Hawaiian flight.
We’ve always been able to apply these funds towards companion fare tickets, but no more. Now, each time you use a companion fare, you have to pay for the entire total using your Alaska credit card, regardless of how much credit you have in your wallet.
Had to cancel a family trip and now have $1k+ in wallet funds that you want to use with a companion fare? No can do, regardless of whether or not you put the original fare on an Alaska credit card.
I’ve had several times where I booked a ticket with a companion fare, had to cancel it, then called and asked for the companion fare to be reinstated so that I could use it for another booking. Now, I’d have to pay for the entire fare on the new ticket while the old funds, now with a 12-month expiry, wilt away in my wallet.
I know that Alaska wants to direct as much spending as possible to its credit cards, but this is a bizarre, consumer-unfriendly move. Folks have already spent the money with the airline; Alaska should let them apply it to any flight they want.
I’m not surprised that Alaska is trying to restrict the ability to book multi-stops and open jaws; the previous incarnation of its booking engine allowed folks to book some marvelous itineraries. However, it feels like they’ve thrown the baby out with the bathwater.
Alaska award tickets offer a free stopover each way…why are these paid fares now more restrictive? Why can’t someone who wants to fly from Seattle to New York, then back to Los Angeles, not be allowed to do it? My guess is that Alaska wanted to put a stop to the more creative uses, but without taking the time to figure out how to allow for completely legitimate ones.
We reached out to Alaska about these unannounced changes, primarily to find out if they were intentional and permanent. Here’s the response we received:
While we understand that cardholders have appreciated the $99 Companion Fare’s flexibility to use wallet funds for payment, or book multi-city or stopover travel, our recent systems modernization has closed this long-standing loophole. We are actively exploring solutions to reintroduce greater booking flexibility in the future.
We tried to clarify whether or not that meant Alaska actively intends to bring back any of these features, and received this in response:
We’re looking into all options.
Given the fact that Alaska is referring to using wallet funds and booking open-jaw/multi-stop itineraries as a “loophole,” my sense is that no one should hold their breath for a change any time soon.
Final Thoughts
Although I’ve heard some folks refer to Alaska’s Companion Fare as a “free” companion ticket, it’s not. You have to pay at least ~$121, the $95 annual fee on the card, and spend $6K during the year to get one. If you’d be spending the $95 and $6K anyway, then it’s still a $121 round-trip ticket. If not, the cost is now $216 plus whatever rewards you might otherwise earn by putting that $6,000 in spend on another card.
That will probably still be attractive for many folks who can maximize the companion fare on an expensive round-trip ticket. For others, the juice may no longer be worth the squeeze.
I normally find Alaska to be one of the more customer-friendly US carriers, and in that context, these changes are undoubtedly disappointing. Hopefully, the airline finds a way to reinstate at least some form of these features, while filtering out whatever behavior it’s trying to restrict.
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Are these changes effective immediately?
People have been reporting the wallet fund part since July on Flyertalk.
I am not thrilled about the open jaw and complete travel. I tried to use another card once but realized it does make sense for it to always be the card that gives you the benefit that needs be used. I guess if they could link the wallet funds to having used that card. But I do see it as useful to me and personally feel comfortable that is has to be on the card with the benefit involved. Fair is fair.
It doesn’t actually have to be the specific card that gave you the companion cert. Any AS Visa (incl. Summit) will do. Doesn’t even have to be yours.
Hopefully you and Gregory Davis Keaney will continue to contact them and put pressure on them. If you guys stay on them with your blog credentials maybe something will change, if you do nothing other than complain once in a single post, then it’s done for. Thanks for fighting the good fight.
Alaska is making the same mistake as Hyatt lately: just because the big kids can get away with it, doesn’t mean that you can. Alaska simply does not have the network or market share to be able to afford to alienate their customers during this international expansion. While this move on its own won’t move the needle, it’s clear they see their program as too generous broadly and are working to rectify that.
Dumb move in my opinion on Alaska’s part. As an east coast flyer the Alaska companion pass is one of the reasons I started flying them and we have 3 companion passes in our family and use the Alaska credit card quite frequently. However, being on the east coast where newark only has 4 flights to the west coast per day and if I want to go to the Caribbean or anywhere else I need to usually stay overnight and connect on the west coast the companion passes lose a lot of value. Before, I could go from Cancun to San Fransisco visit friends and then fly home to newark and take a direct flight on United to Cancun. Now, I would need to use 2 companion passes and pay twice to accomplish the same routing.
I will be cancelling all of my Alaska airlines personal and business credit cards because the companion pass is the primary benefit for $99. I am already one world emerald from American so get free bags with Alaska. Not worth paying $99 just for the ability to earn Alaska miles.
Whenever I traveled west I started booking with Alaska instead of American because of the superior product even when not using the Alaska companion pass. That likely won’t happen anymore since there prices are slightly higher and this change leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I guess that means more business for United at Newark where I am a silver elite. They clearly didn’t think this through unless they really only want to be a west coast airline.
Our household has three legacy companion certs (the ones that don’t require $6k spend). I frequently used wallet credit, but never booked anything but straight round trips. Guess I won’t buy any more Costco Alaska gift cards since companion travel is the bulk of our paid AS travel. And I’ll be careful to not build up too much wallet credit by other means.
I specifically asked Brett this in a reddit forum and he responded.
ME “Why did you guys remove the benefit of using wallet funds with the Alaska CC companion pass. Some people like me were waiting to use the companion pass on Hawaiian wallet funds. Any chance you can revert this? This was a major loss for those cardholders with the pass. ”
BRETT “I completely understand the frustration. The change around wallet funds and companion fares was part of a broader update, and candidly, we didn’t give enough consideration to the downstream impact on our members from this particular change. That’s on us.
We are actively evaluating this internally. We know this was a valued benefit, and your feedback reinforces how important it is to revisit.”
I wouldn’t call it a “benefit” to be able to use the money that I already gave them (e.g., from receiving a gift card) for any fare they offer.
Frankly, I would be surprised if this comes back. They “actively” working on a ton of stuff per the Reddit chat and most seem to be a net negative for their customers.
“Alaska now offers two different types of companion fares….” Actually, if you consider Alaska & Hawaiian one merged company, they offer 3-4 companion fare types. The Barclays Hawaiian card has a 50% off companion fare the first year, and a $100 off companion fare in subsequent years.
The couponization and gotchas on all the award cards have pushed me to be a strictly 2% cash card user, plus do spend for whatever decent SUB comes along. I used to have dozens of cards. Now, less than a handful. I don’t miss the game at all.
While I recognize the usefulness for many, companion tickets are utterly useless to me. I am solo flyer virtually all of the time.
15+ years ago, I used a SW companion pass to travel to some hearings with a co-worker, but nothing since then (and I have had them from SW, AA, and Alaska).
It would be only fair if they offered some sort of accommodation for solo travelers as the companion certs are a significant part of the AS credit card value proposition. I think some of their BOGO codes used to work for a single ticket and reduced the fare by 50%.
wow, i didn’t even use mine last year and still paid the $95 AF. I have been using it with a stop over for the last few years to visit parents. I guess I will be cancelling my alaska card next August (even though i have the grandfathered version that does not require spending $6K).
I’ve had the Alaska visa card for years, so I’m grandfathered and don’t have to spend $6000 to get the annual companion fare award. Do you think I might be grandfathered to be able to use wallet funds as always? (now don’t laugh too loudly)
Probably not. I have four grandfathered cards and don’t have the ability to apply wallet funds.
No.