New Global Alaska Airlines Still Has IT Like A Regional — Bug Adds $500 Fuel Surcharges To Its Own London Award Tickets

Alaska Airlines was once a small regional carrier, but they’ve grown, they acquired Virgin American and now they’ve bought Hawaiian Airlines. They’re going global – taking Hawaiian Airlines Boeing 787s, adding to them, and building a route network out of Seattle to both Europe and Asia.

However, Alaska’s IT systems haven’t kept up with those same global ambitions – because if you go to spend Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards points on their new London to Seattle flight, in conjunction with a connection within Europe on British Airways, they get confused – forgetting they fly from London – and, thinking their own flight is operated by British Airways, they add draconian fuel surcharges to the ticket. They want to charge you nearly $700 – in addition to 150,000 miles – for business class.

Alaska launches London Heathrow terminal 3 service May 21 using a Boeing 787-9 acquired with the Hawaiian Airlines merger, configured with 34 business class seats and 266 coach seats.

AS100 SEA–LHR: dep 9:40 p.m., arr 3:05 p.m. +1
AS101 LHR–SEA: dep 5:00 p.m., arr 6:45–6:50 p.m.

Alaska did not win its own slots in the initial Summer 2026 coordination round at Heathrow. American Airlines ultimately agreed to lease 14 weekly slots (one daily pair) to Alaska for summer 2026. This trades off with American’s second Miami – London flight.

These 787-9s will be based at Alaska’s new 787 hub in Seattle, eventually planned to total 17 Dreamliners. Alaska will also be flying:

• Tokyo Narita
  
• Seoul Incheon
  
• Rome
  
• Reykjavik (737 MAX)

And they’ve talked up at least 12 long-haul destinations from Seattle by 2030. Hopefully they’ll get the IT figured out before then.

If you book an award for Alaska’s London – Seattle flight but you don’t originate at London Heathrow – if you have a British Airways flight that connects in London to the new Alaska service – then Alaska is pricing this with typical British Airways-style surcharges. This is described as an Alaska Airlines-imposed surcharge.

What makes me assume this is a bug – Alaska just doesn’t know how to handle the fact that it now flies out of Europe! – is that,

• The surcharges don’t appear on flights departing the United States
  
• And they don’t appear if you originate at London Heathrow
  
• This only happens if the first segment on the itinerary is British Airways – that makes it ‘look to Alaska like’ this is a BA itinerary that requires surcharges.

Alaska Airlines still hasn’t figured out how to allow more than one airline to be included in most of their awards, even though this has been promised for a couple of years. So it’s progress that British Airways and Alaska can be combined at all. Still, this is part of being a global airline. Your IT systems have to recognize the rules around your own flights!

(HT: Chris)