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Over the weekend Alaska launched a promotion its calling its “Coast To Elite Challenge” which is essentially a fast track to elite status challenge.
Alaska’s Coast To Elite challenge allows flyers to earn Alaska Mileage Plan MVP status after just two roundtrips or MVP Gold status after just four roundtrips as long as the trips are taken on ‘qualifying coast to coast flights’.
Headline Rules
- Register your Mileage Plan number on the promotion page before your first qualifying flight.
- To participate you must be a resident of California, Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, or District of Columbia.
- Between March 6 and May 31, 2019, fly nonstop on Alaska Airlines between qualifying cities and:
- You’ll earn MVP® status after 2 round trips (4 qualifying flights)
- You’ll earn MVP® Gold status after 4 round trips (8 qualifying flights)
Qualifying Flights
West Coast departures between:
- Los Angeles (LAX) and Baltimore (BWI), Boston (BOS), Fort Lauderdale (FLL), New York (JFK), Newark (EWR), Philadelphia (PHL), Washington-Dulles (IAD), or Washington-Reagan (DCA)
- San Diego (SAN) and Baltimore (BWI), Boston (BOS), Newark (EWR), or Orlando (MCO)
- San Francisco (SFO) and Baltimore (BWI), Boston (BOS), Fort Lauderdale (FLL), New York (JFK), Newark (EWR), Orlando (MCO), Philadelphia (PHL), Raleigh (RDU), Washington-Dulles (IAD), or Washington-Reagan (DCA)
- San Jose (SJC) and New York (JFK) or Newark (EWR)
East Coast departures between:
- New York (JFK) and Los Angeles (LAX), San Francisco (SFO), or San Jose (SJC)
- Newark (EWR) and Los Angeles (LAX), San Diego (SAN), San Francisco (SFO), or San Jose (SJC)
- Baltimore (BWI) and Los Angeles (LAX), San Diego (SAN), or San Francisco (SFO)
- Boston (BOS) and Los Angeles (LAX), San Diego (SAN), or San Francisco (SFO)
- Fort Lauderdale (FLL) and Los Angeles (LAX) or San Francisco (SFO)
- Orlando (MCO) and San Diego (SAN), or San Francisco (SFO)
- Philadelphia (PHL) and Los Angeles (LAX) or San Francisco (SFO)
- Washington-Dulles (IAD) and Los Angeles (LAX) or San Francisco (SFO)
- Washington-Reagan (DCA) and Los Angeles (LAX) or San Francisco (SFO)
What Does Alaska Mileage Plan Status Get You?
Alaska MVP Status
To earn this status under non-promotion conditions you would ordinarily have to….
- Earn 20,000 elite qualifying miles on Alaska Airlines or
- Earn 25,000 elite qualifying miles on a mixture of Alaska Airlines & Alaska Airlines’ eligible partners
- Fly 30 segments on Alaska Airlines and/or on Alaska Airlines’ eligible partners
The benefits of this status include:
- 50% bonus on redeemable miles when you credit flights to Mileage Plan
- Two free checked bags when you fly with Alaska
- Priority check-in and boarding
- Preferred seating on Alaska Airlines and select partner flights
- First Class upgrades at the time of booking when booking Y, S or Z fares (subject to availability).
- Premium Class upgrades at the time of booking when booking Y, S, B or Z fares (subject to availability).
- Complimentary First and Premium Class upgrades on Alaska non-qualifying fares from 48 hours before departure (subject to availability)
- 50% off Alaska Lounge membership initiation fee
- $25 off one-year Alaska Lounge membership
Alaska MVP Gold Status
To earn this status under non-promotion conditions you would ordinarily have to….
- Earn 40,000 elite qualifying miles on Alaska Airlines or
- Earn 50,000 elite qualifying miles on a mixture of Alaska Airlines & Alaska Airlines’ eligible partners
- Fly 60 segments on Alaska Airlines and/or on Alaska Airlines’ eligible partners
The benefits of this status include:
- 100% bonus on redeemable miles when you credit flights to Mileage Plan
- Two free checked bags when you fly with Alaska
- Priority check-in and boarding
- Express security line access at select airports worldwide
- Preferred seating on Alaska Airlines and select partner flights
- First Class upgrades at the time of booking when booking Y, S, B, M or Z fares (subject to availability).
- Premium Class upgrades at the time of booking when booking Y, S, B, M, H, Q, L, V, N, K, or Z* fares (subject to availability).
- Complimentary First and Premium Class upgrades on Alaska non-qualifying fares from 72 hours before departure (subject to availability)
- Companion upgrades to First Class
- Companion upgrades to Premium Class
- Four one-way First Class guest upgrades
- Complimentary premium beverage in Main Cabin
- Waived Alaska Lounge membership initiation fee
- $55 off one-year Alaska Lounge membership
Follow this link for full details of what you get with Alaska Airlines status
Three Things To Note
- Status earned will only be valid through 31 December 2019.
- Award travel doesn’t count
- if you wish to kick on to MVP Gold 75k (top-tier status) you’ll still have to earn the full elite qualifying mile requirement of that status – i.e you’ll have to credit a minimum of 75,000 elite miles to your Alaska Mileage Plan account by 31 December 2019.
Bottom Line
If Alaska status looks like it will be of use to you (and if you qualify) then this is a promotion you should be considering very closely as this is a pretty generous deal.
Essentially what Alaska has done here is halve the requirements for MVP and MVP Gold status for those prepared to travel on the routes outlined above and during the promotion period (as transcon roundtrip is generally in the region of 5,000 miles).
Personally I’m not sure I’d find much use for entry-level MVP status but MVP Gold looks like it may be quite good…..and don’t forget that only Alaska Mileage Plan Elites can now buy as many miles as they like in the airline’s frequent (and very useful) sales.
Any readers planning on taking up this challenge?
One reason I steer clear of Alaska Airlines is while it flies out of my local (STL) airport, the flight is going to the Northwest initially. Then one must wait hours to fly to Denver or Las Vegas. If one is flying out of the Midwest, it’s a flight to the west coast. Starting from an east coast, again it’s a long flight to the west coast.