Ask Randy: Does Alaska Airlines have the best frequent-flier program?

— -- These are tumultuous times for frequent fliers, as struggling airlines continue to add new fees and restrictions to their loyalty programs. So we've invited frequent-flier expert Randy Petersen to take your queries and offer advice on how to make the most of your miles. Here are some recent queries; join him in his ongoing forum to post one of your own or help answer a question from a fellow reader.

Reader DLTRAVELER: Hi Randy, About 4 years ago, the conventional wisdom seemed to be that Alaska Airlines was *the* frequent flier program to join even if you never flew Alaska Airlines. The reason was that Alaska partnered with every US legacy domestic airline, & one could use AK miles to book a partner award. But, I've heard nothing about it in the last few years. I checked AK's website, & they still partner with most of the legacy carriers. Going forward, do you still recommend signing up with them? I know I wouldn't be able to combine miles from the legacy programs, but should I add AK to my portfolio of travel rewards programs? Do they offer international travel awards on legacy carriers?

Randy Petersen:Good question, and actually that conventional wisdom (well, truthfully it is not so conventional since most travelers I've given the advice to over the years continue to think you actually have to have all your travel on the airline program you belong to) is still alive and doing well. Alaska Mileage Plan is NOT the same program it was four years ago, they have made some upward changes in award charts and made a few smaller tactical errors in their program, owing likely to the pressures of the most recent oil crisis for airlines, but all in all they have managed to retain the backbone for the same reasons that have been outlined previously — they retain excellent partner opportunities in the largest non-alliance domestic program in North America, they have one of the better credit card benefit sets going and to your question, yes, they do offer international travel on legacy carriers. Their recent renewal and expansion of partnership with Delta bears that out.

And, of course there is the little-known secret of the Alaska legacy carrier chart for international travel. I'll give you some highlights:

In the Alaska Mileage Plan award chart, Europe is 50K for coach and 100K for BusinessFirst on partner CO; 50K coach and 90K for BusinessElite on partner DL and 40K and 60K for coach and 90K for business class on partner AA. What's cool is the off-peak and peak for coach travel to Europe on partner AA, just like the AA program itself.