dave1013

From an email received from AS this morning:

Alaska Airlines Offers Club 49 Members Double Miles Anywhere the Carrier Flies

4/10/2013 6:45:02 AM

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA — Alaska Airlines is offering Club 49 members double miles on all flights everywhere the carrier flies between May 17 and Sept. 3, 2013. Club 49 benefits are available to all Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan members who are Alaska state residents. Residents can join the complimentary program by visiting www.alaskaair.com/Club 49.

"Membership in Club 49 is making travel more affordable. Last year the program saved Alaskans nearly $20 million in free checked bags and discounted travel, and double miles this summer will make earning miles for award travel even easier," said Marilyn Romano, Alaska Airlines' regional vice president of the state of Alaska. "This exclusive offer is one of the best promotions we've launched since the inception of Alaska Airlines' Mileage Plan more than three decades ago and it's fitting to make it available to our loyal Club 49 members."

Romano said a Club 49 member flying roundtrip this summer between Anchorage and Chicago would earn enough miles with the double miles offer to qualify for a one-way intra-Alaska award ticket, which requires 7,500 miles.

Sample double miles earned
Anchorage-Chicago

5,692 miles roundtrip
11,384 with double miles
Anchorage-Denver 4,810 miles roundtrip 9,620 with double miles
Anchorage-Honolulu 5,552 miles roundtrip 11,104 with double miles
Anchorage-Los Angeles 4,690 miles roundtrip 9,380 with double miles
Anchorage-Seattle 2,896 miles roundtrip 5,792 with double miles
Fairbanks-Seattle 3,066 miles roundtrip 6,132 with double miles
Sitka-Seattle-Philadelphia 6,480 miles roundtrip 12,960 with double miles

Enrollment in Club 49 is the only registration required to participate in the offer. For complete rules and exceptions, visit www.alaskaair.com/Club 49.

Launched in 2011, Club 49™ offers Alaska residents special perks, including free checked baggage, last-minute travel discounts and exclusive emails featuring weekly fare sales.

Exclusive Club 49 member benefits include:
1. Two free checked bags. Club 49 members traveling to or from the state of Alaska entirely on Alaska Airlines flights can check two bags at no cost. This represents an $80 savings each way for a family of four checking one bag each. Customers traveling solely within the state of Alaska can continue to check three bags at no cost.

2. Two one-way "Travel Now" discounts. Club 49 members receive two one-way certificates every year valid for 30 percent off full flex Y base fares. The discounts can be used to purchase tickets on Alaska Airlines flights within four days before the day of departure for destinations to, from or within Alaska.

3. Weekly fare sales. Club 49 members receive exclusive weekly emails featuring new deals on flights within Alaska and to destinations Outside.

One-way award shopping made easier
"In addition to our double miles promotion for Club 49 members, all Mileage Plan members now have an easier time finding and booking award travel on Alaska Airlines and on our two largest travel partners thanks to our new one-way award calendar shopping," said Romano.

Booking award travel on Alaska Airlines improved significantly last month when the carrier launched one-way award calendar shopping on Alaska Airlines, American Airlines and Delta Air Lines. Customers can now mix and match award shopping in a variety of ways including shopping for one-way or roundtrip award travel; shopping the award calendars for all three airlines; and combining airlines in one reservation using two types of awards. Alaska will expand one-way awards to include additional partner airlines this summer.

Alaska Airlines, a subsidiary of Alaska Air Group (NYSE: ALK), together with its partner regional airlines, serves 95 cities through an expansive network in Alaska, the Lower 48, Hawaii, Canada and Mexico. Alaska Airlines has ranked "Highest in Customer Satisfaction Among Traditional Network Carriers" in the J.D. Power and Associates North America Airline Satisfaction StudySM for five consecutive years from 2008 to 2012. For reservations, visit www.alaskaair.com. For more news and information, visit the Alaska Airlines Newsroom at www.alaskaair.com/newsroom.

Terms and conditions for Alaska Airlines' Mileage Plan double miles: To qualify for double miles, membership in Club 49 is required prior to the first qualifying flight. The double miles offer is valid on qualifying nonstop flights operated and marketed by Alaska Airlines. Miles must be credited to a valid Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan account in order to earn double miles. All travel must be completed between May 17 and Sept. 3, 2013. Offer is not valid for award travel and the miles do not count toward elite status. The offer cannot be combined with any other promotion. Allow four to six weeks for travel and bonus miles to be credited. Other rules and restrictions apply to double mile promotions. Visit www.alaskaair.com/Club 49 for complete details.

golfingboy

You can thank the competition for that. AS's advance booking is obviously taking a hit

Nonetheless, pretty ridiculous that it is limited to Club 49 as in the summer months most of the fliers are not based in Alaska.

dave1013

One man's ridiculous is another man's gratefulness.

With the confiscatory fees AS extracts from Alaska residents, esp. those of us not residing in larger urban, road-connected areas, any kind of bone that gets thrown our way is a good thing. I'd love to see lower air fares but that is not likely to happen anytime soon, certainly not in SE AK. With this promotion, at least my summer trips will net double miles. Might help me accrue more award travel opportunities. And for that, I am thankful.

golfingboy

No doubt, and I am not questioning that. Obviously AS sees that the profit margin per passenger ex-AK [especially those not based in ANC/FAI] is immensely higher than the average profit margin per passenger systemwide. So, the trade-offs of giving free bags and double miles to those passengers are negligible when looking at the bigger picture.

I just think that all trips to/from AK [including former/subsequent legs in the itinerary] should count irregardless of where one is based. Some members are Club 49 members and they don't live in AK anymore, but keeps a friend/relative's address on file to enjoy such benefit. This is where I think this promotion is a little backwards.

But, yes ^ for those who are Club 49 members based in AK, you guys definitely deserve a break here and there [not just with the airlines].

dave1013

And I agree with you on this.

jackal

I don't know if it's ridiculous. It actually kinda makes sense. The people coming up in the summer are usually one-off flyers. Most of them likely don't even have a Mileage Plan number. They don't care who they fly; they probably go on Expedia, pick whomever's cheapest and/or works the best with their schedule or where they're coming from, and go with that. They don't have loyalty to AS that is being threatened by the emergence of new carriers serving ANC with good fares.

AS wants to ensure that its loyal flyers based in AK are not going to jump ship from Mileage Plan. I see this as a reactionary move on AS's part because they feel threatened. They don't want Alaskans--those who are their bread and butter, as you mentioned--to wander away from AS. Nothing wrong with it from a business perspective, and it's good for everyone involved (the company and Mileage Plan members); I just think it's kind of funny how desperate it makes AS look.

beckoa

Wirelessly posted (beckoa's PWP wondrousdevice3.0: Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9810; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.11+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.1.0.694 Mobile Safari/534.11+)

I'm shocked AS is doing this. Unfortunatey AS doesn't seem to have the best of fares this summer and I'm sure loads are hurting. One can fly to NYC, BOS or DCA for about $350 on DL, UA, AA, F9, & B6.

Heck B6 has the lowest fare between ANC-SEA at $96 OW AI early summer...

Its great to get more miles but want cheaper flights too...

missydarlin

I'd say its the ethics of the cheaters that are backwards ... not the promotion.

Eastbay1K

I'd bet the "early loads" may be a bit low, and the bargain hunters and/or early planners will get the cheap fares on other carriers, and once they are gone, they are gone. I would be very surprised if AS didn't go out with 90%+ load factors at higher average fares this summer. AS probably has a fair chunk of bulk fares with cruise operators (although I have no personal knowledge of this).

kwl747

Maybe AS just has a lot of extra miles to give out after axing the visa 1,000 mile booking bonus.

Eastbay1K

But, you see, the extra miles they are giving out to Club 49 are actually miles that are not revenue losses. I'm sure that there were plenty of 1,000 mile bonuses given out on $79 tickets that were booked as 2 one-ways, costing them 2000 miles for $158 RTs, plus the regular earnings. Believe me, I miss the bonus. But, for the Club 49 bonus, the analysis for flyers becomes "I could try that other bakery to see if their bargain cake is moist and delicious, but I know that Alaska Bakery makes cake that is good enough, and besides, the other bakery is going to charge me extra for the box."

golfingboy

Perhaps, but why is AS so set on excluding those in the Lower 48 lately? Some do travel often to Alaska to visit family or for personal reasons and their wallets takes a big hit as well.

Why can't all itineraries involving AK be included in such promotion?

While I agree with Jackal's comment about the business rationale behind this promotion above, we all know that most of the "expedia" customers or those buying airfares through packages with cruise operators either do not hold a frequent flyer account with AS or bother to ensure they get the miles for the trip.

Many of us have jumped ship from AS or split our travel between two programs and this would be something that would entice us to stick with AS or increase our AS flying.

evoG

this email certainly warmed the cockles of my heart more than the typical 3G powered infusion of news and emails can on my early AM, near-zero trip to the [overshare redacted]

I'm grateful for the promo, but doubt it will change my booking behavior given the fare differences others have noted. It's nice that no registration is required apart from the club 49 enrollment.

FAI saw some good summer fares a couple of weeks ago but isn't getting this level of love.

wheresdg

Double miles (route) + double miles (AK49) + MVP bonus + $89ow fare sale going on (until 6/27)... made me a happy guy; too bad I couldn't make a SEA/BOS/SAN routing work out...

ANC

The 2013 giving of miles out like candy at a parade continues