Alaska 2025 Partner earnings SUCKS! Mileage plan changes

An open letter to Alaska leadership:

I must express my deep disappointment regarding the 2025 changes to the elite program and earn rates. These adjustments seem misaligned with the needs of global travelers, effectively pushing loyal flyers like myself toward other international programs such as Delta, AA, and United or even an international partner.

Alaska remains primarily a regional airline, with a strong West Coast, Hawaiian, and limited international footprint. While this regional focus is understandable, the shift to favor purchases through Alaska’s website, coupled with reduced earn rates on partner flights, disregards the realities of global travel and the OneWorld Alliance. Alaska's limited codeshare network often prevents direct purchases through Alaska for partner flights—yet the new program essentially mandates purchase via Alaska.

As a frequent business traveler, I find the new partner earn rates to be among the least competitive, driving me to credit miles elsewhere and ultimately choose competitors like Delta or United for

For example:

BUD-SEA or Sea-BUd: Only Aer Lingus is available on Alaska’s site, with no access to BA, Finnair, Iberia, or AA one-stop connections.

Fra-Sea again only Are lingus, even though partner Condor flies it daily direct. So once again I choice but to purchase via the partner website. Look Sea-FRA and Condor shows up. Yet no AA or BA. What gives?

Sea-Ppt no options on your website for a revenue ticket Yet Air Tahiti flies it

Lax-ICN only option is on QR or HA. Where's the flights on JAL, Starlux or Korean? All your partners?

Lax or SFO to Hong Kong. No options on CX. The only option that's direct.

SEA-KEF – Icelandair is the sole option, while viable connections on BA and AY are inaccessible due to the lack of codeshare agreements.

Routes to Africa – Purchasing codeshare tickets via European partners or Qatar Airways is often impossible through Alaska, diminishing earning potential.

This situation is exacerbated by the new earn structure. Under the previous system, business class flights could earn 150-250%+ EQM. Now, these same flights earn only 125% in business and down to 25% in economy. Alaska wants to drive us to their website to purchase tickets but they don't sell most routes on partners.

By comparison, AA, BA, and United consistently offer higher earnings on identical routes, even when tickets are purchased directly from partner airlines vs their own website. Even Delta offers better earn rates on flights purchased via partners.

Even with United or Delta, partner-purchased business class tickets most often yield 200%+ miles—far exceeding Alaska’s new structure.

The 2025 changes neglect the realities faced by global travelers. Previous segment-based qualification requirements made far more sense than the restrictive approach being introduced. As that ensured flyers flew on Alaska. . The changes would make sense if Alaska offered a global network or at least code share options. Yet the limitation of Alaska's IT, codeshare and interline agreements make the new Mileage plan program impractical for global flyers and those who are not based on the west coast with a limited. A huge devaluation to both earning miles and elite status.

More details of these negative changes can be found at: https://www.alaskaair.com/content/mileage-plan/how-to-earn-miles/earn-on-alaska#2025