As of June 1, 2018, you need to be AS MVP GOLD for this trick to work since now they are charging change fees on flights 60+ days out. Jetblue should still work though.
Introduction
This post is pertinent for you frequent Alaska or Jetblue flyers. A while back I wrote that I had gotten my wife a BOA Merrill + card that has a 50K signon bonus. I finally got around to banking the 50K points and decided to redeem the points. The quick and easy way is to cash out the 50K points as $500, but you know I like to max out things. If you cash it out as travel, you can redeem 25K points for a flight up to $500. The reason why this is pertinent for Alaska or Jetblue flyers is because those programs let you cancel flights to a “bank” which you can then use for other cheaper flights. Since I’m based out of Seattle and fly Alaska quite often, I’ll show you that example.
Step 1 – Find a $500 flight
Go to http://flights.google.com and filter on just Alaska flights. Play around with the destination and dates until you get as close to $500 as possible. If you are doing this with Alaska, MAKE SURE YOU PICK A DATE 60 DAYS OUT; else you’ll get hit with a change fee! In the screenshot below, I found a SEA-TPA in June for $499. Perfect!
I was able to confirm the flight on the Alaska site:
Step #2 – Feed it into the Merrill travel site
Feed the itinerary into the Merrill site. Notice how there’s an even better United flight, but that won’t work since they charge a cancellation fee and will just refund the points back to your Merrill account. Book the Alaska flight as you normally would.
Step #3 – Wait 24 hours and then cancel
The next step is to give it 24 hours. Then you should be able to pull up the itinerary on Alaskaair.com. Don’t do it before 24 hours or else it’ll just be cancelled and you’ll get the 25K points back into your Merrill account. Once it’s on alaskaair.com, cancel the flight and choose to credit the airfare back to your “Travel Wallet.” You will then have 365 days from the date of the booking or it’ll expire so don’t go nuts. Now I can just spend down my balance as I see fit.
Note my cancellation was for a different flight and not the example above.
Jetblue
While the Merrill site says “Air Rewards start at 25,000 Merrill Points for flights on the following carriers: American Airlines, Delta Airlines, United Airlines and British Airways…” it does work for Alaska as well as Jetblue. I’m not too familiar with the Jetblue program; I believer there is a slight cancellation fee with them, but it may still be worth it to do this trick.
Conclusion
This does NOT WORK FOR SOUTHWEST since the ML travel site can’t book SW flights! If you live in an Alaska or Jetblue area, the Merrill + Visa card is a must get for the sign-on bonus (about $1,000 in flights.) Add it to your next BoA AoR.
Apparently Alaska no longer has the 60 day policy for not charging a fee ($125). You have to their MVP gold status or above to get the fee waived or purchase a refundable first class ticket. I think I”ll try getting one of the refundable first class tickets and hopefully that’ll work.
Right. Let me edit post. I don’t think refundable works because they’ll just refund you back the points.
Hello Christian, does your way work? I thought the same, to buy a refundable first-class AS ticket and then cancel after 24 hours to get a voucher. Thanks!
Yeah, I tried but it didn’t work. They refund the amount BofA uses to pay for the ticket…. And then it’s a PITA to get the points back
Thanks for the information. You mean they refund BofA the money but you have to contact BofA to get your points back? That is so bad.
I know….LATE to the party…been saving this post though. Just booked SEA to MCO and back in July… 504.99! Giving it a couple days to bake and then back into the travel wallet.
In a couple months I’ll do the other 25K points.
I’ve saved more $$ because of your blog than any other I read. That’s the facts!
Can an Alaska flight purchased through a partner website (American in this case) be canceled and deposited in Alaska My Wallet this same way? I have an American GC I won’t use and would love to get credit with Alaska by doing this….
My guess is NO but I’ve never tried.
Any idea if this would work when redeeming travel points from the City National Visa? Thanks.
Pretty sure it would.
Will this AS Wallet trick work for CSR $300 annual travel credit?
Should
Vinh. I’m trying this for the Amex offer spend $250 get 5000 mr. So I bought a fully refundable ticket for flight 6 months from now, waited 24hrs and about to cancel and it’s giving me 2 option to cancel
1.Refund to original form of payment. •You are eligible for a refund.
2.Email the canceled ticket numbers and use later to retrieve the value. •Pay nothing today. If you exchange your ticket for a new one on or after May 6, 2018, a per person change fee of $125 USD may apply, plus any difference in fare and taxes.
•Save the ticket numbers you receive by email. You may use the value toward travel completed by July 4, 2019.
Obviously I should choose the second one if I want to deposit in wallet?
No, #2 will charge you with a $125 fee. Pick option #1. You needed to have bought a NON-REFUNDABLE TICKET and you should see the wallet option.
Ah I see, thanks!
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3104f560c9a6975763f00297837cad8c91d2b08f3c4fee173eeac8f3fe548a06.png As a short FYI, you can do flights that are slightly more expensive than $500. The inflection point seems to be at $505
Right. Another commenter above mentioned the same thing.
My wife and I both have Alaska cards with companion passes. Only I have Merrill. If I buy her a ticket with my Merrill points and cancel will the credit end up in her Alaska account so she can use her companion certificate? I’m hoping to use my 53k merrill and each of our companion passes to get 4 round trip tickets.
Yes just make sure you book it out past 60 days so you get the free cancel
Thank you! I guess this will also work with thankyou /UR/MR points?
It SHOULD but I have not personally tried.
Tried with FlexPerks points and it worked!
Delete.
Anyone done this lately? I booked 2 Alaska flights 4 days ago on the ML rewards portal and pulled it up on alaskaair.com and it gave me these 3 options. Any hints would be great, because I don’t want to spend $250 to get this credit.
Select cancellation option
Deposit the value of the tickets as credit into My Wallet.
Pay $125 USD per person cancellation fee now, and receive credit in My Wallet. Credit may be used for eligible flight purchases.
Credit expires June 6, 2018. Email the ticket value as credit.
Pay $125 USD
per person cancellation fee now, and receive credit certificates by
email. Credit may be used for eligible flight purchases.
Credit expires June 6, 2018. Email the canceled ticket numbers and use later to retrieve the value.
Pay
nothing today. At the time your ticket is exchanged for a new one, a per
person change fee of $125 USD may apply, plus any difference in fare
and taxes. Save the ticket numbers you receive by email. You may use the value toward travel completed by July 21, 2018.
What date did you book the flight? Have you waited 24 hrs?
I booked it on Wednesday.
No what day is the flight?
I’m stupid. Didn’t read that part. Didn’t quite get 60 days. Thanks a lot.
I know your sample used $499 for 25k, but this would work for $998 for the full 50k, right? Any specific reason to keep 25k parked in ML+ and the other $499 in Alaska credit?
It should. I think it’s bec it was harder to find a $999 ticket that is out in the future, so best to do $499 twice. plus it may be hard to spend $999 within a year.