This week, we’ve seen that American Airlines is now restricting nonstop award space booked via partners, but on top of that, it appears that Alaska Airlines is also now charging more miles for close-in bookings on AA.

Alaska Airlines Atmos Now Charging More Miles For American Airlines Awards

Earlier this week, we saw American Airlines restrict nonstop awards booked via partners within one week of travel. Space that widely was available in such programs as the Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards and British Airways Cub were suddenly unavailable. In its own AAdvantage award program, American added a surcharge of 2-5K miles for these close-in bookings.

But beyond those restrictions of saver space, it appears that Alaska Airlines has also raised prices on AA domestic awards.

I was looking at a last-minute booking on Thursday for Chicago (ORD) – Palm Springs (PSP) via Phoenix (PHX). The price was 15K miles for economy class and 35K miles for business class.

Today, the same ticket is 22.5K miles for economy class and 45K miles for business class, a 50% price increase for economy class awards and 29% increase for business class awards.

It’d be one thing if Alaska Airlines had access to additional award space and charged a premium for it, but this is formerly “saver” space that just went up in price with no notice.

How disappointing…

It appears that nonstop saver space (now only bookable seven days in advance or more) remains 12.5K miles for economy class and 25K for business class.

We’re seeing a lot of inflation in award chart pricing, which is bad, but at least not the sort of restrictions that Lufthansa Miles & More has introduced across the Atlantic. Alaska awards are still fully refundable minus the small partner booking fee. I hope they stay that way…

CONCLUSION

Alaska Airlines appears to have devalued AA awards without notice, now charging up to 50% more for domestic awards than it did last week. Coupled with American’s new restrictions on releasing nonstop award space to partners, your Alaska miles are suddenly less valuable today than they were last week.