Alaska Airlines

Alaska Airlines has recent history of bolstering its presence in California and that presence is soon going to be bolstered even further when the airline introduces three new SoCal routes later this year.

Alaska Airlines Flight Pass is a subscription based service offered by Alaska Airlines for flights covering select cities in California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah (with a very heavy bias in favor of California).

Alongside the SLH targeted offer we wrote about earlier, we've also seen American Express launch a new targeted offer for Alaska Airlines spending this morning, and this is an offer in which select cardholders can earn a discount of $40 on just $200 of spending.

Alaska Airlines is probably best known for being a West Coast carrier specializing in flights out of the Pacific Northwest, but it has some transcontinental routes too and starting this winter, two new coast to coast routes will be added to the airline's schedules.

Alaska Airlines has just announced what it's calling "a significant, multi-million dollar renovation and expansion of [its] most popular Lounges" which will see select lounges in Seattle and Portland get a short-term makeover before, longer-term, they're moved to new locations within their respective airports.

Alaska Airlines has been busy announcing new routes for most of this year with Mexico, California, Montana, Chicago, and Austin all benefiting from the airline's expansion. Its latest service announcement is probably its biggest of the year with Alaska Airline confirming that it will return to Miami for the first time in over 10 years with a non-stop service between Seattle and Miami next year.

Bay Area residents rejoice. Alaska Airlines has today announced that it's adding three new routes to Mexico for Winter 2021/22 and all three routes will be originating in San Francisco. Alaska Airlines already boasts more non-stop flights between the West Coast and Mexico than any other airline and this news just shores up that lead.

In the past three months, Alaska Airlines has announced new routes out the Pacific Northwest, new routes to California's wine country, and new routes between California and a number of National Parks in Montana. Now the airline is back with news that it will be launching four new winter routes out of three of the West Coast cities that it serves.

At the beginning of last month, Alaska Airlines announced four new seasonal routes out of California's three biggest airports and now the airline has announced that it's about to offer more services to the very heart of wine country from a variety of airports in Southern California.

It was less than a week ago that Alaska Airlines announced four new routes out of California and today the airline is back again with another announcement of new routes that should please travelers based in the Pacific Northwest.

Qatar Airways has confirmed that it plans to operate flights between Doha and Seattle from the first quarter of next year taking its tally of US destinations up to 11. The airline has also said that it also plans to enter into a frequent flyer partnership with Alaska Airlines (headquartered in Seattle) ahead of that airline's entry into the oneworld alliance.

In the past few days the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lifted its ban on Boeing's 737 MAX aircraft (other jurisdictions have yet to follow suit) and we're already seeing airlines lining up to give support to the beleaguered aircraft. Alaska Airlines is the latest US carrier to provide a show of faith to the MAX as the airline confirms that it is swapping a number of its Airbus A320 aircraft for new Boeing 737-9 MAX aircraft.

Originally it was meant to happen by the end of this year, but when Alaska Airlines realized just how complicated joining a global airline alliance can be, the date for it to join oneworld was pushed back to "not before the end of the first quarter" of 2021. Well, as vague deadlines go, that one turned out to be remarkably accurate because Alaska Airlines has now announced that it will join the oneworld alliance on 31 March 2020.

Alaska Airlines is continuing to build on its new friendship with American Airlines by adding a number of routes out of Los Angeles and Palm Springs as well as increasing the frequencies on a further three routes that it already operates out of LAX. Coming on top of the airline's previously announced expansion at LAX, this is another big bit of positive news for travelers based in Southern California.

When the news that Alaska Airlines was planning to join the oneworld alliance broke last February, it was news that very few people had expected to hear. The airline followed up that surprise with another one when, earlier this summer, it suggested that its membership of the oneworld alliance may be complete before the end of this year. Sadly, that's a target that the airline no longer expects to meet.

Well, this has certainly been a good start to the week for US flyers. First, we have United Airlines announcing that it would eliminate most domestic change fees, then Delta followed suit, and American Airlines rounded off the news from the "Big 3" by improving upon United's change fee announcement and improving its Basic Economy fares too. Now Alaska Airlines has joined in by confirming that has eliminated all change fees on most domestic and international bookings.

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.

Alaska Airlines has recently unveiled the refurbished interiors of its Airbus aircraft that it eventually plans to roll out across its entire fleet and the airline is keen to show off what passengers can expect onboard.

The oneworld alliance has scheduled a meeting for 5 December at which, it is said, that a new full member of the alliance will be unveiled (the first new member in over six years) and at which Alaska Airlines is rumored to be unveiled as the second airline to become a "oneworld connect" partner. We don't know for sure which airline will be joining oneworld as a full partner (it looks like it will either be Royal Air Maroc or Philippine Airlines and neither see particularly exciting) but the more interesting story may be the one which suggests that Alaska Airlines will become a oneworld connect partner.