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How did my British Airways First Class upgrade credit to Alaska Airlines?

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I’m just wondering…is Crow a gamey bird? More like chicken?

There were a lot of haters out there saying I was CRAZY for even thinking that my flight may credit to Alaska Airlines as First Class. Well, I’m not looking so crazy now. Aside from Brandon 😉 If you’re not familiar with what I’m talking about, last week I upgraded a British Airways Club World flight to First Class for $709. I speculated that since the ticket was reissued that I may in fact earn Alaska Elite and Redeemable miles at First Class levels. So how did my British Airways First Class upgrade credit to Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan?

a seat belt on a bed

I earned 13,640 EQM and 31,372 RDM.

I earned almost 11k more miles and an extra 5456 EQM than the same ticket in club world.

British Airways First Class upgrade credit to Alaska Airlines

Here’s what I earned earlier in the year on just a BA “I” fare.

a white rectangular frame with a black border

In addition to this, reader Brandon reported that his ticket credited to BA as F. BYAH!

The upgraded flight earned Alaska Miles as a British Airways “A” fare bucket.a screenshot of a screen

If you’re thinking of paying cash to upgrade your class of service on BA this info should help your assessment.

Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.

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8 Comments

  • ss September 3, 2017

    Congrats! Are you taking advantage of the current Alaska buy miles promo? I got 50% but am on the fence.

    • Miles September 3, 2017

      ss – I’m pretty solid with AS right now as I’ve been shooting for status, but 50% is hard to beat. you have a particular redemption in mind?

      • ss September 3, 2017

        Unfortunately no. I was planning on using my miles on JAL out of SFO (to HND) for the family, but my kiddo who is graduating didn’t want to go when we did. He’d miss out on all those graduating parties. What a turd! 🙂

        • Miles September 3, 2017

          Lol. Grad parties over JAL F? Miles is shaking his head 😉

  • Chris September 2, 2017

    This happened to me with a Delta flight credited to AS before the break up.

  • CDKing September 2, 2017

    There is this thing about “gift horses”. Thanks for letting Alaska know.

    • Miles September 2, 2017

      CDKing – haha says the person snarking all over an informational post

      The point of the article isn’t to expose some sort of mistake, but rather to illustrate that ‘BA upgrades’ credit in the same way as a reissued ticket, not as an upgrade. This is further substantiated within BA’s own program whereby they credit upgrades in the same way. The original fare bucket is negated by the new re-issuance.

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