Alaska Mileage Plan

To earn top-tier status with Alaska Airlines a flyer is currently required to credit just 75,000 elite qualifying miles to their account. From 2022 that will no longer be the case as, in a move that was reasonably easy to predict, Alaska Airlines has just told members that it will be creating a new elite tier level next year.

At the beginning of March last year, Alaska Airlines was the first airline to introduce any kind of incentive with regards to elite status earning when it announced that it would reward flyers with 50% more elite qualifying miles on travel taken through 11 April 2020. Since then, the qualification period was extended to cover flights taken by the end of May 2020 and then extended once again to cover all flights taken by 31 December 2020. Now this promotion has been extended for the third time. 

Alaska Airlines is set to join the oneworld alliance from 31 March 2021 (it had originally hoped to join in 2020) and today has seen the airline confirm the oneworld status levels that each of Mileage Plan’s elite tiers will be receiving once the airline’s membership of oneworld is complete. Today has also seen the airline make a small (and positive) change to how elite status is earned.

With Alaska Airlines expected to join the oneworld alliance at the end of the first quarter of 2021, it's not a major surprise to find out that the two airlines plan to offer reciprocal elite benefits next year. What is surprising, however, is that both airlines say that they will go as far as offering select elite flyers from the other airline's loyalty program complimentary domestic upgrades on the flights they operate.

Back in August, Alaska ran a promotion in which it promised members the chance to buy miles with a bonus of up to 70% if they purchased miles in the promotion that was running at the time and, since the first week of this month, Alaska Airlines has been keeping its word. Now, however, you have less than 48 hours to buy Alaska Miles at the cheapest rate we have ever seen.

Eight days ago, Alaska's Mileage Plan program launched a flash sale that was scheduled to end three days ago...but it didn't. The sale was extended to 24 September (tomorrow) so there's still time to to buy miles with a bonus of up to 50% thrown in. Although this isn't the biggest bonus we've seen Alaska Airlines offer this year, the relatively low cost of miles in this sale means that there are still some fantastic deals to be had if you know where to look.

Back in 2017 American Airlines and Alaska Airlines announced some significant negative changes to their partnership and it was only October last year that American Airlines removed Alaska Airlines from its list of award partners...but that was then and this is now.

The dominos are starting to fall. Delta led the way, United quickly followed and now Alaska Airlines has become the third major US airline to announce some very positive measures for its frequent flyers and to offer hope of further positive announcements in the weeks ahead.

Now that American and Alaska are playing nicely together again both airlines are offering significantly improved reciprocal mileage earnings on each other's flights - flyers can now earn and redeem Alaska miles on all American Airlines flights and they can earn and redeem American Airlines AAdvantage miles on all Alaska Airlines flights.

Alaska Airlines and American Airlines have issued a joint statement in which they have announced a new "West Coast International Alliance" under which Alaska's West Coast network will connect up to (and feed) American's long-haul network, which will see Alaska Airlines becoming a member of the oneworld alliance in 2021 and which will see American Airlines launching a new route to Asia and a new route out of Alaska's hub in Seattle.