How to Search and Monitor Alaska Airlines Award Availability

Overview

If you've got an ExpertFlyer Basic subscription or above, you can search and monitor Alaska Airlines awards, including most partner availability, in a uniquely powerful way. From quickly locating award space to finding the exact seat you want on the plane, you won't find a more customizable tool for searching and monitoring Alaska Airlines award availability.

How to Search for Alaska Airlines awards

Finding Alaska Airlines award availability is relatively straightforward with ExpertFlyer. Click the "Awards & Upgrades" tab on the left side of the screen, and you'll be brought to a page that lets you enter the specifics of your trip, think departing and arriving airports, departure date, and class of award travel.

You'll also need to enter your desired airline. When searching for Alaska award availability, remember to enter the carrier you'd like to fly, not the award program you're using (in this case, Alaska Airlines).

To search for Alaska Airlines award availability, you'll enter:

• Alaska Airlines, if you're traveling on Alaska metal, or
• Whichever partner you plan to travel with

Let’s take a look at how to use Alaska Airlines Atmos points to fly to Hawaii.

Determine the specific route and date to fly

The screenshot below shows a search for awards between Salt Lake City (SLC) and Honolulu (HNL).

With a Premium ExpertFlyer subscription, you can search for one week at a time thanks to the “+/- 3 days” drop-down menu. If your travel dates are rigid, keep it to “Exact Date.”

Search the list of dates for award space

After telling ExpertFlyer the specific route you’re looking for, it’ll return results for each day you request, and share the number of available seats for that specified award class. As you can see under the “Availability” column, there’s just one available business class award on May 24, 2027.

If we jump over to the Alaska Airlines website, we can in fact one seat bookable with Alaska Airlines Atmos points.

How to create a flight alert

On the search results page, you'll notice a bell icon in the "Actions" column farthest to the right. If the seats you want aren't available, you can click the bell to create an alert that'll be emailed to you as soon as your specific needs become available.

After you click the bell, you'll see a pop-up confirming your unique parameters. As an example, let's say I need to book four seats. Because there are currently only three bookable award tickets, I can stipulate in the flight alert that I'd only like to be notified if four seats become available.

How to use ExpertFlyer's Seat Map feature to find the perfect award

Not all award seats are equal, even in the same class of service, and on the same plane. For example, depending on the airline, the quality of a business class seat can vary dramatically by:

• Location in the cabin. Some business class seats are preferable depending on your travel style, from more legroom to improved privacy.
• Aircraft you're flying. An airline may operate multiple aircraft along the same route, which can mean different cabin layouts and quality of seats.

This is where ExpertFlyer's Seat Map comes in handy. It'll help you find the exact award seat that suits your upcoming travel.

To find it, simply click the seat icon next to any flight with the specific award availability you're after.

You’ll then be taken to a seat map of the aircraft that serves your route. You can select the specific seat you’d like, and ExpertFlyer will tap you on the shoulder as soon as it becomes available.

That's the magic of ExpertFlyer Seat Map alerts.

Bottom line

ExpertFlyer makes it easy to find not just the Alaska Airlines award inventory you need, but the specific seat you want on a specific aircraft. That’s a huge perk when planning the absolute perfect trip.

With just a few clicks, you can set alerts that will email you as soon as the award space you need opens up. That gives you a WAY better shot at grabbing the seats you need than the vast majority of travelers who monitor those flights manually.

Have questions or suggestions for this article? Please reach out to support@expertflyer.com