I’ve mentioned it enough – I had a pretty tedious time finding award space from NY to Seattle for the first weekend of August, so I decided to allow myself a full day in Vancouver since award space there was wide-spread.
I knew it would be easy to hop down to Seattle from YVR, and I considered a number of options, including flying, Amtrak, and even the new BoltBus.
Since flying was the fastest option of the 3 (and most enjoyable), I decided to redeem 4,500 Avios for a flight with Alaska Airlines.
Alaska Airlines awards with British Airways Avios have to be called in; if you’re not familiar with that process, you can check out my recent post about booking Alaska Airlines flights here
The only problem was that I didn’t exactly have many flight options. The only award space was a flight leaving YVR at 8:15 pm, which would put me into SEA way later than what I was hoping for.
Usually in situations like this, since I hold top-tier status, I’d book the available/cheaper less-desirable flight and then do a free same-day change with United or free standby with American to a flight that works better. I’ve had nearly 100% success with that tactic.
The first thing I did with this particular example was get myself familiar with Alaska’s flight change/standby policy. I will also add that I do not have any status with Alaska Airlines.
From the information I found, it seemed like a pretty seamless and simple process: pay $25, and if a seat is available, you could get yourself a hassle-free confirmed seat if you make your request within 6-hours of your desired flight.
Since YVR-SEA is a popular route, I knew there would be many earlier flight options to choose from on the day of. I judged my chances based on how empty the seat map looked. Soon enough, I had my heart set on a flight departing at 2:25PM.
If all went well, I wouldn’t have to worry about missing my one of my favorite part’s of miles and points get-togethers – the opening night happy hour.
I went ahead and booked the 4,500 Avios flight with intentions of changing it to the flight I really wanted. I felt pretty confident that I would be successful.
On the morning of my flight, I called Alaska Airlines promptly at 8:25 am (the start of the 6-hour window for my new flight), and I had myself a boarding pass for my new seat in under 4 minutes.
Overall, I think the Alaska Airlines same day flight change policy is extremely generous, especially for the average traveler without any MVP status like myself.
Compared to other major airlines, who generally charge $75+a difference in fare, for a same-day change for customers without status, paying $25 to Alaska Airlines won’t leave me huffing and puffing.
In the end, I got my gambling fix, my glass of wine, and most-importantly, my desired flight. I consider that a win!
Do you have experience using Alaska Airlines’ change/standby policy as well?
It is really great to have so many options to Seattle. I see u mention the Boltbus and just wanted to warn on a similar service called the “Quickshuttle”. Took it on Friday from Vancouver to Seattle and despite leaving a 3.5 hour buffer for me to get to SeaTac the shuttle stops at 4 locations in Vancouver, ran 2 hours behind schedule at the border and then still stopped in Bellingham and Seattle downtown. Passengers flying out of Bellingham missed their flights and a few of us really had to run to make flights in SEA. If my flight wasn’t delayed I would have missed it. All this can be attributed to “it happens…” but it was the bus driver’s actions that had passengers up in arms, joking about how he is slowing down on purpose, even berating Bellingham customers for booking same day flights! I’m sure it is a “one bad apple” situation but other travellers be warned!
Don’t confuse the 2. Quickshuttle is a separate company. I have used Boltbus which is a subsidiary of Greyhound for several years now. They have never been significantly late. In fact, most of the time we are 15 minutes early to either Vancouver or Portland. I have flown and used Amtrak as well and Boltbus is by far the least expensive way and hassle-free to commute between the 2 cities.
If I were willing to pay more for the trip, I would select Amtrak as immigration is done at your seat on the train which is a nice feature. Fly between YVR and SEA is the worst choice IMHO. It’s very expensive, far from downtown at either end, and requires transiting through the airports. Not my idea of easy.
@Angelina – Living in PDX I am learning more about and booking more flights using Avios on Alaska. I was unaware of Alaska’s change policy so this post is most helpful. The only morning flight I could get using Avios to the Bay area for a trip next week leaves at 6AM. It doesn’t look like this policy will help me this time but it is great to know. Thanks.
@Soltatio – I also have plans to take a bus from DC to Philly later in the month. I was leary of booking the bus for the same day as our flight back to PDX, so decided to take an evening bus and overnight in Philly. Your story makes me happy I did!
@Angelina Great info, so could you explain how things would work if I attempted to do something similar with AA or UA if I don’t have status with either airline:
1. In terms of whether you can SDC an award flight on either of those 2 airlines?
2. If so, what would the costs/fees be (since I assume fare difference would not apply, so is it just a flat SDC fee)?
3. What windows of time apply, in terms of I could make the request 24 hours in advance, 12 hours in advance, stroke of midnight on the day of travel, etc?
Thx!
You can’t duplicate this on AA or UA. Forget SDC on award tickets, even for elites – the desired flight has to offer saver award space. I think you can do airport standby on saver award tix, without the bucket being available, but I’m not certain. Could be a problem if using a partner airline’s award miles.
Hey Angelina! That was a very good article this will help more and more people. Keep share this type of informational content with us.