Alaska Airlines has been restricting booking award flights within 72 hours of travel. That’s a big deal, because often the best award availability comes close to departure. You can book a ticket and then improve your award as travel approaches, to get a more manageable itinerary. Or you might be stuck somewhere, maybe you get sick abroad, and need to delay your return home with a last minute change.

The airline says this is temporary and this restriction will be lifted within days. But it’s not the only issue affecting Mileage Plan members right now. For several weeks, the airline has been unable to offer award space on oneworld partner Qantas and, more recently, also on British Airways. A spokesperson tells me, “we’re trying to figure out what’s going on.”

British Airways Business Class

Fortunately, at least for British Airways, I’m now also told that “BA has a fix in progress.” They expect that award space on BA will be restored “early next week.”

These issues have been frustrating, but the good news is that there’s no intention to leave them in place. They recognize this limits the value of their miles and that’s not something they want to allow. Often with airlines, issues – especially IT-related – persist for months with little communication but here they’re willing to acknowledge them and promise swift resolution.