Success: Reversing Marriott Bonvoy Points Transfer To Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan After Award Devaluation

Final week I wrote about one in all our readers who had patrons (or on this case FLYERS) regret after transferring a bigger sum of factors from Marriott Bonvoy to Alaska Airways MIleage Plan quick earlier than this system devalued the coveted Japan Airways awards.

She requested if there was any means she may get the factors again and whereas these applications normally say that transfers are irreversible I attempted to do a check run and request Alaska Mileage Plan to return my very own 25,000 / 60,000 Marriott factors again to Marriott Bonvoy based mostly on the awards now being considerably dearer.

I didn’t anticipate a lot to return of it and that Alaska would simply fluff me off however they certainly acted upon my request as I acknowledged that the award I supposed to redeem (HND-BKK in Enterprise Class) is now priced at 50,000 miles and due to this fact doubled in worth.

Early March, I transferred 60,000 Bonvoy factors, translating to 25,000 Alaska Airways for this objective. I’m not prepared to switch one other 60k Marriott nor purchase extra factors only for that award.

To my shock, it took only a few enterprise days till a transaction confirmed up on my Marriott account that displayed 60,000 factors being deposited as a “Mileage Exception”:

The factors weren’t instantly redeemed from my Alaska account and there wasn’t an e-mail from Mileage Plan to reply to my question both however I knew that might simply be a matter of time.

Certainly, at this time I obtained an e-mail from them that reads as follows:

The miles had been then withdrawn, mainly voiding the switch. It’s good to see that Alaska Airways (and meaning any airline actually) has the flexibility to refuse or reverse a mileage switch both by command or by contacting their liaison on the respective switch associate.

Right here is as soon as once more the Reader Query the place one in all our readers had the identical difficulty:

Reader Query: Can I Get My Transferred Factors Again From Frequent Flyer Applications After Award Devaluation?

I contacted the reader once more and prompt she is going to file her question with Alaska Airways as nicely. There may be nothing assured although as the e-mail mentioned it’s a one time exception. I’m not a standing member and neither is my Alaska account (or both of my applications) tied to any identifier that might reveal I’m writing for LoyaltyLobby. To them I lodged this request as a standard buyer and so they had been truthful sufficient to reverse the factors as I requested.

These applications don’t do themselves any favor by implementing such modifications with out prior discover. I don’t see what distinction it could have made if Alaska Mileage Plan had given 4 weeks advance discover contemplating the supply for JAL awards is so depressing which you can’t discover tickets both means. At the very least it could be truthful to members, and the argument that Alaska engages in foul play would have been moot.

I additionally likened the observe to promote miles consistently after which cull sure profitable awards in a single day with out discover as a rip-off, and I nonetheless assume that very least airways who interact in such dishonest actions ought to do is to supply a refund when requested.

Thoughts you, the accountable occasion to contact right here is Alaska Airways and never Marriott. They will’t pull the factors again, it needs to be initiated by Alaska Mileage Plan.

Conclusion

A reader contacted us and requested if it’s doable to reverse a factors switch from Marriott to Alaska Airways. Sadly, I needed to reply that that is technically not doable and that, based mostly on the present T&C, both program would most definitely refuse such a refund.

It obtained me curious as I actually transferred 60k Marriott factors to 25k Alaska Miles a month in the past and was to date unable to make use of it. I made a decision to ship an e-mail to this system requesting my factors to be refunded and Alaska Airways responded positively to my request, sending the factors again to Marriott inside a couple of days.

You may wish to do this as nicely if in case you have bought or transferred miles RECENTLY and had been negatively impacted by the latest redemption fee modifications.