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I flew American, but credited to Alaska. Something went wrong.
A few weeks ago I flew from Chicago to Shanghai with my buddy Dave on a #weekendwarrior trip. I purchased the ticket via Amex.com, had two SWUs left, applied them to the ticket, we flew flat, and all was dandy. The problem? I credited the flight to Alaska’s Mileage Plan, it even shows it on my boarding pass, but the miles didn’t post. I’ve found that AA miles take about a week to populate with Alaska, and they didn’t. A couple of weeks passed, and they still hadn’t posted. Hmmmm. Since it had been more than 14 days ( Alaska’s time requirement for filing a missing partner flight), I took a picture of my boarding pass and submitted a request for missing mileage. I’ve done this a lot this year when flying on Alaska’s partners. HOWEVER – this one was different. I got received this message: Declined Duplicate request.
I logged into my AA account and sure enough…the miles had posted there.
My flight credited to the wrong loyalty program!!!! How did this happen? I suspect it was a result of the SWU addition, but whatever the cause, it was wrong.
I then took this course of action.
I called into AA. I explained the situation and the rep was very helpful. He said that this happens from time to time, and he would reverse the credit, file it, and send electronic notification to Alaska that the miles had been removed, and that the ticket should have been processed with their loyalty plan.
Within minutes the miles were removed from my AA account.
As you can see…the last credit to the account was my Sprint monthly miles.
I then called Alaska
I explained the situation to the rep over the phone and she was extremely easy to work with ( per usual with Alaska.) She told me that normally they would need a screencap of the miles that had been forfeited and withdrawn from the AA account and this would suffice. The problem is that my account doesn’t show the miles were ever deposited. In fact, any evidence of the flight ( aside from my screenshot above, taken prior to the phone call) is completely gone.
I was put on hold as she investigated. She informed me that I needed to screencap the removal of flight from my AA account, and that a screencap of the date range should suffice.
Why do I care?
All in, taking screen shots, reporting missing mileage, talking to phone reps, has taken me about an hour. If the mileage was roughly the same, and any re-qualification for status wasn’t on the line, perhaps I wouldn’t have bothered. But status is on the line and the mileage difference is fairly substantial.
- The miles that I would earn with Alaska would be substantially more than with AA.
- AA = 3,355 as an Executive Platinum
- AS = 7,057 + 125% bonus as MVPG75, or 15,878 ( assuming my Amex booking credits 1:1 as they have in the past)
- Not only would I earn more miles, but Alaska miles are worth more than AA miles.
- I’m painfully close to re-qualifying for MVPG75
- This flight may make the difference between qualifying and not ( again assuming I get 1:1 credit on the ticket booked via Amex.com)
There is always something new to learn
I’ve never been in this situation before and the process was far easier than I feared it would be. Of course, my miles have’t posted to my MVP account yet, but I suspect it’s just a matter of time. I’ll keep you all updated as to my progress, and the ultimate result, but I’m pretty confident it will get resolved appropriately.
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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