1. The author is planning a trip to Santa Barbara and decides to fly first class on Alaska Airlines using Avios.
2. The author books the flight using British Airways Avios and manages to change their frequent flyer number to Alaska Airlines to receive elite status and a confirmed upgrade to first class.
3. The author receives confirmation of their upgrade to first class and completes their booking, feeling satisfied with the deal they got.
I jumped on the opportunity to use my points for a first-class flight to Santa Barbara. I had to get creative because my friends Nick and Greg were likely booking fancy transcontinental awards. I decided to take a trip on the Pacific Surfliner, an Amtrak train that operates between Santa Barbara and San Diego. I checked the train’s schedule and saw that there were departures from both San Diego and Santa Barbara that would give me over an hour to get to the hotel in LA.
I began looking for the best redemption options using miles. I was particularly interested in Santa Barbara because Alaska Airlines had a nonstop flight from Seattle on the E-175, a regional aircraft with a 1-2 business class seating arrangement. This seating arrangement provides direct aisle access and your own window, making it my favorite domestic first class that’s not lie-flat.
I searched through both Award Tool and Points Yeah, but I didn’t immediately find any options that were inspiring for a flight to San Diego. Everything was either expensive, had lengthy connecting itineraries, or both. Santa Barbara, on the other hand, had a non-stop flight from Seattle that I was hoping for, but it was insanely priced at 65,000 miles for first class. Economy seats were available for “only” 15,000 miles, but I wanted my flight to be cheaper than Nick and Greg’s, so I needed it to be less than 15,000 miles.
Luckily, both search tools also found the Alaska flight on Iberia for only 11,000 Avios. However, I didn’t want to book the ticket using Iberia because their partner awards are non-cancellable and non-refundable. I wasn’t 100% certain that I would be put on the first-class upgrade list on Alaska if I was flying on an Avios award. Probably 95% of the Alaska reps you talk to will tell you that you don’t get elite status when flying on a partner award, but I’ve found that’s often incorrect.
Neither tool found the Alaska flight using British Airways Avios, but I knew it should theoretically be there, so I went to the website and found it. I booked the ticket, knowing that I could cancel it up to 24 hours before departure for only $5.60 in fees.
Now, it was time to see if I could get my Alaska 100K status associated with the ticket, which I thought would give me a confirmed upgrade to first class. Unfortunately, tickets booked with BA Avios automatically add your BA Executive Club number, and there’s no way to change it online. However, there’s a bizarre workaround where you can access Avios bookings via certain other oneworld airlines’ websites and then change your number. Finnair.com is one of those sites, so that’s where I went.
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