I Managed to Cancel a Partner Award Booking with Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan on Twitter in 5 Minutes
With the spread of COVID-19 virus as well as the introduction of new countries and regions to the Stay-Home Notice (SHN) requirement in Singapore, most travellers have chosen to cancel their non-essential travel (i.e. holidays) in the months ahead. Singapore Airlines has an online form where customers can submit their change requests as well as other COVID-19 related inquiries on. However, they do take quite a while to respond and the snaking queues at Singapore Airlines' Service Centre at ION Orchard are not particularly encouraging as well.
I was initially supposed to head back to Tokyo in a few weeks for the cherry blossom season (and have actually made comprehensive plans in terms of arranging hotels and trips) but since Japan is now on the list of countries where Singapore residents as well as long-term pass holders will be served with a 14-day SHN upon return, I have decided to cancel my trip. My flight from Singapore to Tokyo was booked on Japan Airlines in Business Class (using just 25,000 Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan Miles each way) and it actually included a stopover in Japan before heading to Shanghai. Now, intra-Asia stopovers are no longer allowed on Mileage Plan but I have actually booked this before the announcement.
Alaska Airlines has a pretty generous change policy regarding travel that has been affected by the COVID-19 virus. Since my booking was made before 26 February 2020, I was able to cancel my trip without incurring a fee (despite it being an award ticket on a partner airline). In fact, I could do it entirely online but since I was not quite sure where the fees and taxes will be refunded into, I decided to contact Alaska Airlines on Twitter and as usual, their support team resolved my concerns within minutes - the booking was cancelled on my behalf, the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan Miles were immediately returned back into my account, and all the applicable fees and taxes will be refunded back into my credit card (sans the partner award booking fee of USD 12.50).
Business Class passengers now enjoy complimentary inflight Wi-Fi when traveling on Cathay Pacific.