Alaska Airlines
Photograph ©2013 by Brian Cohen.
Brian Cohen·
2019 Novel Coronavirus
··10 min read

Alaska Airlines Extends Status and Benefits For Everyone: 2019 Novel Coronavirus Pandemic

“Other frequent travel loyalty programs which have not yet implemented similar relaxed extension policies — such as Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan and IHG Rewards Club — should follow suit.”

Alaska Airlines Extends Status and Benefits For Everyone: 2019 Novel Coronavirus Pandemic

The paragraph you just read was from this article at The Gate pertaining to United Airlines extending Premier elite level status and benefits for everyone due to the impact on travel by the 2019 Novel Coronavirus pandemic; and Alaska Airlines has announced similar policies, according to this article of frequently asked questions at Alaska Airlines Blog.

The latest information from Alaska Airlines pertains to updates with regards to the extensions of elite level status and benefits for everyone — but although elite tier qualification requirements are not being adjusted at this time, look for upcoming additional information on ways you can earn additional elite-qualifying miles this year.

Status of Benefits of Elite Level Status

Your benefits are automatically being extended with no effort or input required on your part as a member of the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan frequent flier loyalty program — including:

  • Your current Mileage Plan elite level status will be extended through Friday, December 31, 2021. That elite level status will unlock even more benefits as Alaska Airlines inches closer to its oneworld launch sometime during the summer of 2021.
  • All status benefits will apply — with the exception of the 50,000 bonus miles associated with earned 75K elite level status. More details will be available within a few weeks with information on how 75K members can earn additional bonus miles for travel this year.
  • All companion certificates set to expire in 2020 will now be extended through Thursday, December 31, 2020 to purchase new travel through Friday, November 26, 2021.
  • Members who enrolled in a status match challenge between Sunday, December 1, 2019 and Tuesday, March 31, 2020 will have their trial status extended through the end of 2021.

Flexibility in Reservations and Travel

The ways with which reservations and travel are currently more flexible with Alaska Airlines include:

  • Taking advantage of your options to change or cancellation your tickets and reaching out to the reservations team of Alaska Airlines only if you need assistance with a reservation which cannot be serviced online.
  • Providing you a replacement certificate within seven business days with an expiration date of Thursday, December 31, 2020 if you cancel your reservations entirely which included a companion certificate. To purchase a ticket with your replacement code, you must use an Alaska Airlines credit card.
  • If you used Mileage Plan miles to purchase your ticket for travel through Sunday, May 31, 2020, you can:
    • Change your ticket with no change fee, or
    • Cancel your ticket and have your miles deposited back into your Mileage Plan membership account within 48 hours — and the taxes which you were charged will even be refunded to you.
  • You may change without fee or, cancel your trip and deposit the funds into your My Account wallet or credit certificate via e-mail message if you purchased a nonrefundable First Class, main, or award ticket for travel which falls within one of the flexible travel policies of Alaska Airlines.
  • You may cancel your trip and deposit the funds into your My Account wallet or credit certificate via e-mail message if you purchased a Saver fare which falls within the flexible travel policy of Alaska Airlines.
  • If you were recently charged a fee for a trip which was changed or cancelled that now falls under one of the flexible travel policies of Alaska Airlines, please contact the reservations team of Alaska Airlines, which will take care of the change fee to your original form of payment.
  • If you purchased your tickets through a third party — such as Expedia, another travel agency or another airline — contact them directly for assistance.
  • For tickets purchased on or before Wednesday, February 26, 2020, the flexible travel policy of Alaska Airlines only applies to travel through Sunday, May 31, 2020. Alaska Airlines will continue to evaluate the situation and may implement adjustments as warranted.

Status of Airport Lounges

The current status of the airport lounge network of Alaska Airlines is as follows:

  • All active members as of Wednesday, April 1, 2020 will be extended by six months.
  • All airport lounges of Alaska Airlines are currently closed temporarily, with the exception of the location at Seattle-Tacoma Airport in the D Concourse — check here for current operating hours — and each location is limited to a maximum capacity of 50 percent.

Summary

As with recent announcements from such frequent travel loyalty programs as Hilton Honors, World of Hyatt, Delta Air Lines SkyMiles, and United Airlines MileagePlus, the team members of Alaska Airlines seem to be doing whatever they can to provide maximum flexibility to you and other customers — as well as members of the Mileage Plan frequent flier loyalty program…

…but is all of this enough to retain your loyalty to the aforementioned membership programs?

See also

This article is the latest in a series pertaining to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus — which is also known as COVID-19 or 2019-nCoV or SARS-CoV-2 — pandemic in an effort to get the facts out with information derived from reliable sources…

…as well as attempt to maintain a reasoned and sensible ongoing discussion towards how to resolve this pandemic.

Other articles at The Gate which pertain to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus include:

Photograph ©2013 by Brian Cohen.

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