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Yep, it’s true, and something I wasn’t aware of until I did it last year. As the year was closing out, it started to become very apparent that I would be within striking distance of Alaska’s MVP Gold 75k, and I remembered a flight I took from Chicago to Shanghai on American that credited to American’s Aadvantage program. In hindsight…I wish I would have credited that flight to Alaska and began do some digging. What I found out was that it takes a little bit of effort, but you can, in fact, change the loyalty program you credited an old flight to a different one. Here’s what I did.
I phoned American Airlines
I said that I had credited a flight to their loyalty program, but was really close to getting status on Alaska, and wanted to remove credit. They said that they would reverse the flight credit and notify Alaska. The agent was very helpful and my AA account showed the removal instantly, and miles were deducted.
Now…time to ask Alaska for the miles.
I submitted a request following Alaska’s normal protocol for missing credit. Unfortunately, Alaska never received notification from American noting the removal of the AA credit and, as a result, my first request was denied due to duplicate request.
I phoned Alaska and they said I needed to submit the request, showing the original credit and then the removal.
Here’s the original credit.
And then the statement post removal: You can see nothing on the 17th now.
After this I then needed to provide booking information to Alaska:
I gave them my boarding pass, original ticket receipt ( which was via American Express ). After a couple of additional emails, the flight was ultimately credited to my Alaska account.
I mean look at the difference in earning – that MVPG75 elite bonus is huge. 125% of every mile flown.
Is this something you could do all the time?
No, this is only something to do in select circumstances. I only did it because, without it, I wouldn’t have crossed the threshold and hit top tier status. In fact, I only made MVPG75 by a couple thousand EQM. Getting this one flight moved from American to Alaska not only got me Elite status, but as you can see, netted me almost 16k RDM vs 3355 when credited to American. It also meant I got those sweet 50k Alaska Miles when I requalified for MVPG75 on December 31st. It was a race to the finish line.
Those 66k miles almost paid for my Cathay First flight from HKG to ORD which set me back just 70k Alaska miles.
Seriously, get your bestie, book some Cathay First, sip some fine wine, order the fancy fish eggs, and blow your instagram. You’ll never regret it 🙂 BYAH!
There’s always something to learn, and stuff like this is why I absolutely love writing this blog, and figuring out new ways to navigate the labyrinth.
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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