Alaska Partner Booking Error

I am going to apologize in advance if this gets a bit spicy, since it is something that I have run up against several times in the last week or so. It appears that my experience isn't all that unique either, as many ToP team members have run into the same thing. It is something we have even seen reported numerous times in the ToP Facebook Group recently. That experience would be a truly annoying Alaska partner booking error that keeps showing its ugly head. I have no idea why it is happening, or even how to correct it, but it is a frustrating endeavor. I'll go over what exactly is happening, and how I have tried to get around it. If nothing else, you should know you are not alone if you are running up against the same thing.

My Experience

I am in the midst of planning an extended family trip to Europe for later this year to check out some Christmas markets. My goal was to burn my stash of American Airlines and Alaska Airlines miles as much as possible for the 20 tickets I needed to book. (I'll try to do a full booking breakdown once I have it all set.) At the same time, I needed to book some flights to Mexico for a work trip. It looked like Alaska partner bookings was going to come in really handy for both objectives. I don't think I was ready for what was in store though.

Cancun Alaska Partner Booking Error

For some reason the dates I needed to fly to Cancun are super super expensive. While Delta has the only non-stop flights out of Detroit, the 40K they wanted for economy each way wasn't looking too hot. I was finding similar pricing for American and United too. The low cost carriers aren't showing on my searches yet, but I doubt they would be much better. As luck would have it, I did find a business class flight home on American metal via Alaska miles.

The routing was pretty ratty, with an overnight layover in Charlotte, but it was only 15K for the booking – plus taxes and fees. That sounded like sweet music to my ears after seeing sky high prices everywhere. That is especially since I know there is a 5K a night Hyatt Place right by the airport and the hotel wouldn't put me out too much. The same flights on American were showing at 29K in economy!

Booking A Placeholder

My plan was to book this flight and then see if anything better pops before the trip, since I have plenty of time still. With the ability cancel for just the $12.50 partner booking fee, this felt like the best way to go. That was until I went to book it…

I filled out all of my info, added my credit card and hit submit. The wheels spun for a bit and then victory was mine! Wait, what the heck is this? Instead of the expected booking confirmation page, the Alaska wheels of death spit out an error.

We're sorry, we aren't able to confirm space on these partner flights. Please try again and choose different flights, dates or cities.

I tried the booking again, but the same thing came up. What was this trash? That is when others in the ToP team reported they were running into the same errors trying to book American flights that day too. Okay, maybe this was just a glitch in the Alaska matrix, and I'll try again in a few days. I gave it another shot a day or two later and the booking went through no problem.

Christmas Markets Alaska Partner Booking Error

A couple of days after the Cancun Alaska partner booking error me and Alaska were back at it – trying to play nice. This time I actually needed to transfer some Membership Rewards to Hawaiian Airlines to Alaska Airlines to top off my account. I had finally received word from my sister that their time off had been approved and I could book the flights. After booking our flights, and my parents flights, my Alaska balance was coming up a bit short. Luckily the Membership Rewards to Alaska pathway is still open. Although, I should note that doing the Amex MR to Hawaiian transfer kept throwing an error when I tried to do it on my computer. Luckily using the American Express app worked flawlessly, and after a few minutes I was all set to get to booking.

That Pesky Booking Error Shows Its Face Once Again

Luckily the award space was still showing as available and I got their departure flights locked and loaded. Yes, I wasn't making that roundtrip booking mistake again! After adding my sister's family info, verifying the credit card info and hitting submit – I patiently waited to be crowned uncle of the year. My hopes of rubbing my extreme excellence in their other uncle's face were quickly slapped down by the same annoying error message. Skibidy Toilet! (Did I use that right? Definitely not)

Should I Assume The Same Fate On Their Return Flight?

Somehow I resisted the urge to smash my laptop on the spot and decided to try to book their return flight home instead. If this was a systemwide issue then this award booking would share the same miserable fate after all, right? The only thing that saved my keyboard from being finger punched into oblivion while keying in the new flights was the fact that Alaska saved all of their personal info on my account. No need to add all of their birthdays etc. again. By now I had passed anger and reached the acceptance phase and was ready to accept my booking error fate. Then the slow wheels of Alaska's IT systems spun and spun and spun – for what felt like 5 minutes, but was more like 45 seconds. To my complete shock, the booking went through and I had their flights home secured!

As A Glutton For Punishment, It Was Time To Give The First Flight Another College Try

Now, with some much needed bravado from my successful booking, I decided to ignore the definition of insanity and do it all over again. This time I would fool Alaska's incompetent IT though. I would book a different routing option, since there are like 7 acceptable options for the day I needed. So I tried, and tried, and tried. Instead of success I was met with error, after error, after error. I was eating and leaving all the crumbs! (I most definitely got this one wrong too)

Okay, time to switch it up some more. What if I use Apple Pay instead of my credit card, maybe that would … damn it! Nope on a rope. Failure – complete and utter failure. Payment method does not seem to be a trigger. It also looks like changing the routing doesn't really help at all either. Maybe calling and having Alaska book it over the phone is the key?

I picked up the phone and tried my luck there. After a 10 minute hold the nice Alaska Airlines rep came on and told me to essentially pound sand. She explained that if I am getting that error then it means that they can't do anything either. She explained it as there is a lag between the two systems, and it likely means the space has been used but their system hasn't updated yet. I don't buy that for a minute, since I tried a metric buttload of routing options for that day. I think there is just a disconnect between the two systems at times, and you have to hope that time corrects.

My luck had not changed by the next morning by the way. We will see how it goes in a few more days.

Alaska Partner Booking Error: ToP Thoughts

I am sorry I don't have a workaround if you run into an Alaska partner booking error like I did. If you have figured out something yourself please feel free to share it over in the ToP Facebook Group. My uncle of the year award is at stake here after all! It seems time really does heal all wounds, err, booking errors. That looks to be our only option right now for this particular variety of error at least.

Hopefully I get lucky like I did with the Cancun booking and the space is properly bookable in a few more days. This is a reason to be cautious about transferring tons of Membership Rewards over to Alaska Airlines though. Their partner awards seem to be completely unreliable right now. I fear some people will be stranded with a balance they didn't really want because they couldn't book a flight that shows as bookable. With American Airlines not having an award chart it is hard for us to confirm what is considered a saver or not before doing the transfer too. That is what I call having no rizz. (Pretty sure I nailed that one – no cap)