Alaska Cuts Mileage Earning Rates on Most LATAM Fares

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The cuts keep coming to Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan. After dropping Aeromexico, Air-France/KLM and Delta as partners and reducing its ties with American, Alaska is devaluing its mileage earning rates across the board for its South American partner LATAM.

Starting July 1, flyers in economy and business will earn fewer miles when crediting their LATAM flights to Alaska's frequent flyer program. Alaska is still integrating with LATAM to add TAM flights to its program, so right now, you can only earn and redeem Alaska miles on LAN-operated flights.

Here's the new earning chart:

And here's the old chart for comparison:

The changes come in three spots. First, those traveling on discounted business class tickets will earn 25% fewer miles, with mileage earning dropping from 225% to 200% of miles flown. Second, while most economy tickets previously earned 100% of miles flown (except for a few discount economy fares which earned 50% miles), now only two fare classes will earn 100%, with another two earning 75%, four earning 50% and six earning a measly 25%.

There's one grain of good news: premium economy fares will now earn a 10% mileage bonus, increasing earning from 100% to 110% of miles flown.

The new earning rates kick-in for travel on or after July 1, which appears to be the case even if you booked your travel before the changes were announced. We've reached out to Alaska to see if that is indeed true, but haven't received a response by time of publication.

If you need to make up for a dearth of Alaska miles due to the changes, the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature credit card is currently offering a 30,000 mile sign-up bonus after spending $1,000 in the first 90 days. It offers 3x miles on Alaska purchases and 1x miles on everything else, plus an annual companion fare that can be used on Alaska flights.

H/T: One Mile at a Time