Alaska MVP Elite! Now what?

In October, my wife and I applied for the Alaska Airlines status match that was targeted to Delta elite members.  We were each matched to MVP Gold 75K Status and as long as we each pick up an Alaska card before the end of the year (which we intend to do), our statuses will be bumped up to top-tier MVP Gold 100K and extended throughout 2024.  Awesome!  But… now what?  What cool things can we do with our newfound eliteness?  I’ve never before paid much attention to Alaska’s elite benefits, but now it’s time!  Let’s dig in…

Alaska Airlines Elite Status Overview

Without a status match, Alaska’s elite requirements are as follows:

• MVP: 20,000 miles or 30 total eligible segments (2 Alaska segments min.)
• MVP Gold: 40,000 miles or 60 total eligible segments (6 Alaska segments min.)
• MVP Gold 75K: 75,000 miles or 90 total eligible segments (12 Alaska segments min.)
• MVP Gold 100K: 100,000 miles or 120 total eligible segments (24 Alaska segments min.)

And here are the key elite benefits:

Additional Alaska elite status benefits earned when reaching new elite tiers:

• MVP Gold
  • Four First Class Guest Upgrades
• MVP Gold 75K
  • 50,000 redeemable miles
  • Gift one person MVP status
  • 1 one-way international American Airlines upgrade certificate
  • Four Alaska Lounge Passes
• MVP Gold 100K 
  • Additional one-way international American Airlines upgrade certificate
  • One choice benefit:
    • 50,000 redeemable miles
    • Alaska Lounge+ Membership
    • Gifting MVP Gold Status
    • Free Wi-Fi on all flights
    • Complimentary Clear Plus membership

Status Match Benefits

Alaska’s elite program includes benefits that are available to anyone with status as well as benefits that are usually earned only when moving from one elite tier to the next.  The former benefits are automatically available to anyone who receives a status match, but the latter benefits aren’t necessarily available.  The terms of the status match spell out the following:

• Gold Guest Upgrades, Lounge Day Passes, and MVP Gold 75K MVP nominations will be available after the member has met the flight requirement during the initial 90-day period for the respective elite status. [Since I don’t plan to mee the flight requirement, this doesn’t apply to me].
• Members who receive MVP Gold 75K status as part of this offer are not eligible for the 50,000 bonus miles or American Airlines System-Wide Upgrades associated with qualifying for MVP Gold 75K status
• Members who receive MVP Gold 100K status as part of this offer are not eligible for the Choice Benefits or American Airlines System-Wide Upgrades associated with qualifying for MVP Gold 100K status.

To summarize, if I understand things correctly, my wife and I will not get any of these benefits:

• Gold Guest Upgrades
• Lounge Day Passes
• MVP Gold 75K nominations
• 50,000 bonus miles
• AA system-wide upgrades
• Choice Benefits

In other words, we should qualify for all of the benefits shown in the table above, but none of the benefits listed below the table in bullet points.

Which status-matched benefits are valuable?

Elite Bonus Miles

Unlike most other airlines, Alaska Airlines still awards miles based on the distance flown.  Bonus miles are earned based on class of service and elite status.  With MVP 100K status, my wife and I will earn a 150% elite bonus.  Here’s an example of how it could work when flying an Alaska partner (using AA as an example):

• Assume flying 10,000 miles distance
• If flying AA discounted first class, Alaska offers a 50% class of service bonus
• MVP Gold 100K gets a 150% bonus
• Total miles earned = 10,000 base + 5,000 class of service + 15,000 elite bonus = 30,000 redeemable miles

Earning is even better with British Airways:

• Assume flying 10,000 miles distance
• If flying BA discounted business class, Alaska offers a 150% class of service bonus
• MVP Gold 100K gets a 150% bonus
• Total miles earned = 10,000 base + 15,000 class of service + 15,000 elite bonus = 40,000 redeemable miles

While I don’t usually pay cash for many flights, I recently found and booked good deals on paid premium class flights with both AA and British Airways.  By crediting these flights to Alaska Airlines, I’ll earn a huge number of miles with these flights!

Is it valuable? Yes.  If I continue to find and book paid fares with Alaska and its partners, I’ll earn a great number of miles through flying.

OneWorld Elite Status

MVP 75K and 100K status offers OneWorld Emerald status.  This means that when flying a OneWorld carrier, even in economy, we’ll get access to OneWorld lounges, including first class lounges when available.  This will only matter when we’re flying internationally, and since we usually fly business class internationally (which includes access to business class lounges), it will only really matter when a first class lounge is available.  So, the chance of us making much use of this benefit is slim.  That said, first class lounges are often much nicer than business class lounges and so it can be great if circumstances align.

Is it valuable? Yes, it can be, depending upon where we fly (and with which carriers) over the next year.

Premium Class Upgrades at Booking

Alaska’s Premium Class is similar to AA’s Main Cabin Extra.  It’s basically the same as economy, but with extra leg room and “free beer, wine, and cocktails on most flights over 350 miles.”  We will similarly be eligible for free upgrades on AA to Main Cabin Extra at the time of booking.

Is it valuable? Yes, I’ll take the extra legroom as a consolation prize if my first class upgrade doesn’t clear.

Complimentary First and Premium Class upgrades

When flying Alaska economy, my wife and I will be eligible for first class upgrades beginning 120 hours before departure.  And when flying AA economy, we’ll be eligible for first class upgrades beginning 72 hours before departure.  For the latter, we’ll be prioritized right behind AAdvantage Platinum Pro members.  Not bad!

Is it valuable? Yes. While we don’t often fly Alaska Airlines, we fly AA enough that this ought to be useful.

Complimentary Companion Upgrades

Here’s how Alaska Airlines describes this benefit:

MVP Gold, Gold 75K, and Gold 100K members may upgrade one companion traveling with them on the same flight, in the same reservation and in the same class of service. If a reservation includes more than one companion, it will not be eligible for complimentary upgrades. If you have a companion in your reservation and there is only one available upgrade, the process will move to the next passenger on the waitlist.

Is it valuable?  For many people, definitely.  For us, probably not.  Since my wife and I usually travel together and rarely with anyone else and since we’ll both have the same elite status, this benefit won’t apply to us.

Complimentary Same-day flight changes

This feature applies to both Alaska Airlines and American Airlines flights.  While I don’t use this often, it can be great under the right circumstances.  For example, with some airlines it’s common for early morning or red-eye flights to be significantly cheaper than mid-day flights and so it’s possible to book the cheaper flight and then within 24 hours of the flight to same-day change to a better flight.  It’s risky, of course, since the better flight may fill up, but it can save a lot of money.  It’s also a way (when it works out) to sometimes book first class for the price of economy (i.e. the first class price at a terrible time may be the same price as economy during a good time).

Is it valuable?  It can be.  I don’t necessarily expect to use this feature with AA or Alaska flights, but it’s good to have this option.

Complimentary Standby on Full Flights

This applies when the desired same-day flight change is unavailable because the desired flight is full.  When this happens you can get on the standby list for the desired flight.  It’s pretty common for people to have last minute change of plans and/or to miss connections and so some people often make it onto full flights from the standby list.  Additionally, elite status means being put higher on the standby list.

Is it valuable?  It can be.  This is one of those things that you hope never to have to use, but it can be a lifesaver under the right circumstances.

Benefits when flying Alaska economy class

A number of benefits are mostly useful only when flying Alaska Airlines economy class:

• Priority Check-In & Boarding
• Preferred Seating
• Free Checked Bags
• Complimentary Premium Beverage in Main Cabin
• Complimentary Meal in Main Cabin

Since there is only a single Alaska Airlines route (Detroit to Seattle) out of my local airport, I don’t expect to need these benefits often.  In a convoluted way, though, these benefits can make Complimentary First Class upgrades more valuable: Let’s say that I really want to fly first class to Seattle but the first class price is too high and premium upgrades at the time of booking aren’t available or the required fare is too expensive.  In that case, I can buy economy and hope for complementary upgrades to clear between 120 hours before departure and time of boarding.  If my complementary upgrades don’t clear, then these perks may help lessen the sting.

Are these perks valuable?  Yes.

How I expect to use these perks

Companion pass flights

In order to qualify for a full year of status, my wife and I will each apply for an Alaska Airline’s credit card before the end of the year.  Assuming both are approved, we’ll have two companion passes.  While I’m not 100% sure of this, I think it’s likely that we’ll use one pass to fly round-trip to Hawaii with a stop-over in Seattle.  And maybe we’ll use the other to fly round-trip to California (or somewhere else on the west coast), again with a stop-over in Seattle.  On these trips, we’ll get time-of-booking upgrades to Premium Class and we’ll hope for our complementary first class upgrades to clear.

Partner flights

When booking with Alaska partners, we’ll credit our flights to Alaska.  This way we’ll have OneWorld Emerald benefits during our travel, and we’ll earn tons of Alaska miles on paid flights.  When flying AA we’ll also get many of the same elite benefits that high level AA elites get.  At the moment, I expect to only qualify for AA Gold status for 2024 (I currently have Platinum).  But compared to AA Gold or AA Platinum, my chances for first class upgrades on AA should be better with my Alaska MVP Gold 100K status (since MVP 75K and 100K upgrades should be processed after AA Platinum Pro).

Should I consider requalifying?

As things stand now (once we get our Alaska cards), our Alaska elite status will end at the end of 2024.  However, an interesting outcome both of using the Alaska companion passes and crediting paid partner flights to Alaska, is that we’ll earn elite qualifying miles from all of that flying.  And while I think that earning MVP 100K status that way is unlikely, MVP 75K status may not be entirely out of reach:

• MVP Gold 75K: 75,000 miles or 90 total eligible segments (12 Alaska segments min.)

Imagine that we end up flying enough to earn the 75K miles required for 75K status.  We’d still have a significant hurdle: we would have to fly a minimum of 12 Alaska segments.  Now assume that we used the companion passes to fly round-trip to Hawaii and to the west coast as I described above.  Each round-trip would involve 4 segments, for a total of 8.  We’d be only 4 segments away from meeting the minimum required for 75K status.  One more big trip would get us there.  Alternatively, we could use one or both of the companion passes to do big 6+ segment mileage runs to earn both miles and segments and still visit the places we want to go.

In reality, I don’t think we’re likely to fly enough paid travel to qualify for 75K status.  Reaching base level MVP Gold, though, is pretty likely, especially since our two companion pass trips will be enough to satisfy the minimum Alaska segments required:

• MVP Gold: 40,000 miles or 60 total eligible segments (6 Alaska segments min.)

If that happens, the next question will be whether we should continue to pursue Alaska elite status (is MVP Gold any good?), move back to acquiring AA elite status (which can be done entirely from home), or forget about status altogether.  The latter is probably the smartest move, but to me this is all part of the fun of the game.  Even when it doesn’t necessarily make financial sense to pursue status, I like the game of figuring out how best to get there with minimal expense and effort.

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