Last week, Alaska Airlines hosted its annual Loyalty Event. Unlike previous years, this event was not broadcast as a webinar. I picked up on some big changes to the million miler status from the Facebook Alaska Airlines 100K user group. There are two big changes: status accelerator and status sharing.
Million Miler Status
Reaching million miler status on Alaska Airlines requires exactly that, flying one million base miles. Bonus miles such as fare code multipliers and other bonus miles do not count. Flying on partner airlines do not count either. It must be one million base miles on Alaska Airlines-operated flights only.
Status Accelerator
One of the perks of million miler status is that you are granted MVP Gold (tier 3) status for life. Alaska Airlines wants to keep these high-value customers in the air. If you are a million-miler and you want tier 4 to tier 5 status, you have to earn it like everybody else. Each year, tier status depends on the qualifying each year. The qualifying year is January 1 through December 31. Your status at the end of the year will determine your elite benefits for the next year. The Status Accelerator gives million-milers a head start by issuing 20,000 elite qualifying miles (EQM) each year.
With the 20,000 EQM head start each year, your annual requalification just got easier.
If you have two-million miler status, you get MVP Gold 75 K (Tier 4) status for life and your status accelerator is 40,000 miles.
The first round of status accelerator EQMs was posted to those accounts on May 16, 2023.
Status Sharing
The status-sharing benefit allows million-milers to share the higher of either lifetime status or a higher earned status with someone in your household. This is a benefit for life.
For million-milers that have reduced their flying with MVP Gold (tier 3) status, they can share tier 3 status. Those million-milers with earned MVP Gold 75K (tier 4) or MVP Gold 100K (tier 5) status can share the higher status.
Trust But Verify
There is nothing on the Alaska Airlines website that has any information on these new million-miler benefits. I reached out to Alaska Airlines customer care to verify the contents of this post. The customer care agent hadn’t heard about these benefits either. The agent told me that she would escalate my question and send me an email response.
Final Thoughts
This is big. Alaska Airlines made a bold move to keep their best customers motivated to keep them flying on Alaska Airlines. I have a ways to go to earn million-miler status but I am excited by these changes to hit my goal: million-miler status.
