Spot the scammers: Alaska Airlines doesn’t charge change fees

Our guests can enjoy total peace of mind when their travel plans change, as we’ve eliminated change fees. Unfortunately, some third party “travel” websites are not offering the same friendly service—instead they’re taking advantage of travelers.

We’re here to help everyone enjoy travel and hopefully the following information will help our guests avoid getting scammed.

Here’s what can happen:

Scam travel websites pay to show up when you search “Alaska Airlines”

The most common way scams occur is a scamming site will pay internet search engines to have their website appear in the top search results. So when someone goes to search “Alaska Airlines,” one or more of these websites could pop up.

The safest way to book or manage travel is by using alaskaair.com or a trusted travel agency. Alaska partners with reputable and legitimate travel agencies and booking tools, such as Expedia, Priceline, Google Flights, Kayak and others. To guests considering not using our website, we recommend doing some research to make sure the website or tool you use is legitimate. Trusted websites should properly disclose if they plan to charge any fee(s) and label them as their own fees — versus labeling them as Alaska’s fees. Learn more about our change fee policy.

Scammers will use Alaska logos or pose as Alaska travel agents.

Scamming websites will often use Alaska’s logo without permission and offer extraordinarily low (and often fake) Alaska fares. If a deal seems too good to be true and can’t be replicated by booking directly on our website or with a reputable travel agency, it’s probably a scam.

Some sites also mislead callers by posing as actual Alaska Airlines Reservation agents—but unless the caller ID is 1 (800) 252-7522 or 1-800-ALASKAAIR you are NOT actually speaking with one of our agents. For assistance with all things related to Alaska Airlines reservations, baggage, cargo, flying with pets or Mileage Plan and more please visit our official help center at alaskaair.com/content/about-us/help-contact.

We never ask for guests’ personal information (such as password credentials).

If a guest desires to make a change/cancellation/booking but ends up speaking with a scammer, the guest will likely be asked to share their personal and payment information — like their Alaska Account email + password, credit or debit card number associated with their account — and will ultimately be charged an inflated fee for the purported “service.”

Even worse, the scammer could change the email linked to the guest’s Alaska Airlines account and continue to use their account/saved payment for travel without the guest ever knowing—unless they closely watch their bank statements every month.

In some cases, the scammer does complete the transaction on the guest’s behalf (using our website or calling our Reservations center by posing as the guest) but keeps any refund or credit that is due back to the guest.

In other cases, the scammer does nothing for the guest and simply keeps the guest’s money. We’ve even heard of cases in which the scammer sends the guest a fake confirmation email, so the guest believes their transaction has actually been completed. If a guest used alaskaair.com, they should see any change processed by Alaska Airlines in their Alaska account by clicking “manage.”

If you’ve been scammed, take action.

We encourage anyone who believes they’ve been a victim of scamming travel sites to contact their bank to dispute the charges and take steps to protect their identity (such as alerting credit reporting agencies, and monitoring their accounts for unusual activity), and report the incident to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

The simplest way to avoid scams.

The simplest way to avoid these scams is to work directly with us by visiting the Alaska Airlines website at alaskaair.com or calling our Reservations center at 1-800-252-7522, or a trusted travel agency or booking tool like those mentioned above.

If you’ve experienced fraud, report it.