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The KUCB Newsroom provides newscasts Monday through Thursday at noon and 5 PM on KUCB Radio. You can find many of our local news stories here.

Unalaskans Will Have To Wait To Use Their Alaska Airlines Miles On Ravn Flights

Hope McKenney
/
KUCB

Customers will likely have to wait until next year to use their Alaska Airlines miles to purchase tickets on Ravn Alaska flights, according to airline officials.

 

Ravn had announced earlier this month that it had reached an accord with Alaska Airlines and its customers could immediately purchase tickets for their flights using Alaska Airlines miles.

 

“Travelers with extra Alaska Airlines miles can now redeem [them] for travel anywhere Ravn Alaska flies,” a representative initially told KUCB in an email on Aug. 12.

But according to representatives from both airlines, that’s unlikely to happen this year.

 

“Systems will be in place by 2022 for travelers to apply Alaska Airlines miles toward the purchase of a Ravn flight,” a spokesperson for Ravn said. 

On Thursday, Alaska Airlines spokesperson Tim Thompson confirmed the 2022 timeline, citing engineering work needed to combine online systems.

 

As of now, the much-anticipated frequent flyer agreement only allows customers to earn Alaska miles on Ravn flights. Still, it is a significant step towards making travel to remote Alaska communities more affordable.

 

Unalaska had previously relied on codeshare agreements between regional airlines, like the former RavnAir Group and Alaska Airlines, but has been without any such arrangement since a fatal plane crash at Tom Madsen Airport in October 2019

 

Ravn Alaska has new owners and management from the previous RavnAir Group, which filed for bankruptcy last year.

Theo Greenly reports from the Aleutians as a Report for America corps member. He got his start in public radio at KCRW in Santa Monica, California, and has produced radio stories and podcasts for stations around the country.
Hailing from Southwest Washington, Maggie moved to Unalaska in 2019. She's dabbled in independent print journalism in Oregon and completed her Master of Arts in English Studies at Western Washington University — where she also taught Rhetoric and Composition courses.
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