Maybe they should make it where if you enter a non-MVP/G phone number, you get a message saying, "We're sorry, but you are attempting to reach a special secured line for our premium customers only. We are disconnecting your call and adding your number to a blacklist that can never reach this number again. Thank you for being a value-less customer of Alaska Airlines!"

I'd be happy to save Alaska the cost of me calling their 800 number by using the local number they used to publish in the Anchorage phone book (it was published as "flight arrivals and departures," but it just went to the main company phone tree where the main 800 number goes), but a year or so ago they disconnected that number. Of course, a high-volume company like AS probably gets charged all of half a cent or so per minute for incoming 800 calls, so it's probably not a big deal...

For those of you who are holding for 15 minutes, you should be able to tell whether you are reaching the MVP/G line by the opening greeting.

The first thing you should hear when calling the main line should be, "Welcome. We are glad you called Alaska Airlines. Para continuar en español, por favor presione el número dos."

The elite line should greet you with, "Thank you for calling the Alaska Airlines MVP desk."

If you get the former, you know you're calling a non-elite number.