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Update: the points populated a few hours after publication – roughly 30 hours post purchase
I just finished up an incredible trip to Saudi Arabia, and will have quite an extensive post coming up. Until then, I wanted to give a little heads up regarding purchased Alaska miles. Right now, they’re offering up to a 50% bonus on miles, and I wanted to take advantage of it to nab some first class Emirates seats for my return. I have an Etihad routing already booked with AA miles, but a direct from DXB to LAX opened up and we would have much preferred that routing.
And then a hiccup occurred.
In the past, for myself, friends, family, and clients, purchased Alaska miles, processed via Points.com, have instantaneously populated accounts. That has not been the case for my account or my fiancee’s account. To make matters worse, my account, which is MVP Gold, shouldn’t have any limitation to the number of miles I can purchase in a year, but annoyingly, my account is being capped at the non-elite maximum of 150k purchased, which needs to be rectified.
I should have been able to load up my account with enough miles for the two of us, but instead needed to split which also proved that it wasn’t just my account causing an issue, but both of them.
It’s been over 24 hours since the mileage purchase, receipts have been received, no fraud alerts issued, and both of our accounts are experiencing the same problem. No miles.
I reached out, and the only response/explanation given is that points.com mileage purchases can take up to 30 days to process. WHAT?!
My suspicion is that there is something going on IT wise either with points.com or Alaska airlines, but until the miles populate and I’m back stateside with better service to rectify my mileage cap, I’d recommend only purchasing points if you can wait that long to book.
30 days might as well be 100.
Many programs don’t instantaneously populate, but the annoying thing here is that most people buying points are doing so because they see availability and want to book it. If this becomes a recurring problem, it’s undoubtedly going to negatively affect the volume of points.com purchases as people will be fearful the of the points not populating in time to book the award space they want.
That was the case for us. We purchased within 12 hours of the flight we needed and the points didn’t populate. Lucky for us, we will use those points in the future, and also had solid back up options, but for most non-blogger purchasers, that is a game changer.
If you can’t instantly populate your account then I couldn’t honestly promote purchasing them. Programs devalue so often and in the cover of night, so if you’re not buying for an intended redemption ( that you see available ) I’d strongly advise doing so with the knowledge your “investment” could lose value in the interim between purchasing and redemption.
Anyone else experience my issue?
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I feel you. This just happened to me with points.com and Marriott. I purchased 100,000 points during their October promotion and it took a week for them to arrive (despite charging me instantly), and only even then after complaining to Marriott. Only makes sense to purchase points with an immediate use for them, which is rendered pointless when they don’t come through immediately to spend.