I am trying to book a partner flight on American Airlines using Alaska miles. My dad, sister and I are trying to fly to Europe business class. I was able to book 2 flights for my sister and I, but when I went to book the ticket for my dad (because he’s originating in a different spot), I got an Alaska partner flight error saying “We’re sorry, we aren’t able to confirm space on these partner flights. Please try again and choose different flights, dates or cities”. So far I haven’t been able to fix this error, though I’ve tried a few things to book this Alaska prtner flight.
Trying To Book An Alaska Partner Flight
I am trying to book a flight using Alaska miles. It’s from Houston to Dallas to Frankfurt, all on American Airlines. This worked for the flights for my sister and I (originating in different spots), but when I try to book the flight for my dad, I get all the way to the end, and get an error saying “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 have tried different browsers, different credit cards, different connecting flights, and every time I get the same error.
I have seen reports on both reddit and FlyerTalk about this, and they talk about it possibly being “phantom space”. But the weird thing is that it shows up as “saver” on AA (for only 62K miles), and it is also showing up as available on Qantas and British Airways.
I wouldn’t think it was Alaska showing phantom space if other partners (besides Alaska) can see it.
Other Options
I even tried calling into the Alaska Airlines reservation line. The lady that I spoke to was very nice, and she put me on hold to talk to the partner desk. What she reported back to me was that they were getting an error trying to book these on all but the latest connecting flight (from Houston to Dalas) that would only give a 45 minute layover in Dallas. I didn’t want to risk that short of a connection time, plus I wanted to have time for my dad to experience either the AA Flagship Lounge or the Capital One Lounge Dallas / DFW lounge.
The flight costs 70,000 Alaska miles plus $18. I could book the flight for 62,000 American miles, but I am a) trying to save my AA miles since I am getting crazy value for them for domestic flights and b) neither my wife’s account nor mine has 62,000 miles currently (waiting on a signup bonus to post). One thought I had while writing this post was transferring Marriott Bonvoy points to AA, but I’m not sure I want to do that…
I could also transfer miles to book it with Qantas (supposedly) for 82,000 miles plus about $230 in taxes, but I really don’t want to pay MORE miles and MORE taxes.
Update
If I’m able to fix the problem of Alaska giving a partner error saying “We’re sorry, we aren’t able to confirm space on these partner flights”, or if anyone has any suggestions in the comments that work, I will post an update here.
The Bottom Line
I am trying to book an Alaska partner flight using miles to fly American Airlines and getting an error saying “We’re sorry, we aren’t able to confirm space on these partner flights”. Even though it shows up on other partners (BA, Qantas), I can’t seem to book it using Alaska Airlines miles.
Anyone else ever gotten this Alaska Airlines partner error? Have any solutions to fixing it? Leave your thoughts in the comments below
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Alaska frequently is allocated 1 less seat than other OW programs. Your best best is to use one of the other OW currencies to book while that seat is still available.
Hmm that’s interesting. So if it shows up as “1 seat available” on British Airways, that would mean that Alaska couldn’t see it? But on flights where there was more than 1 seat showing up on BA or QF, then Alaska could see it? That could make sense with what the agent was saying about which flights were available.
EDIT: I checked BA again and even on a connecting flight where BA shows 3 seats available in business, I’m getting this same Alaska partner error
Do you have a source / link for that “1 seat less” rule?
Are you trying to book them without using your Alaska number in the reservation?
I had a similar problem before
Hmm that’s an interesting thought – I am booking it with my wife’s miles, so she is logged into her Alaska account of course. The passenger is my dad, and he doesn’t have (or I don’t know) his Alaska account number, so I was leaving that field blank in the passenger information section. That seems like a strange reason to get this error, but it’s also very believable that the answer would be something so dumb…
Have you been able to resolve this? I’m having the same problem. 🙁
The only way I solved it was by booking a different connecting flight (in my case, from Houston to Dallas). Eventually, after checking every day, I was able to do a free change to the flight I actually wanted. As far as I could find out (and I asked a few people), if you get this Alaska partner error, there’s nothing much you can do other than keep banging your head and trying again
I was wondering about trying that avenue… Thank you for your reply (and intel)!