Originally Posted by
nearlysober
This is a good tip - I book awards tickets for friends when we're speculating on trips which may be cancelled, such as Rose Bowl or PAC12 championship airfare.
You don't even have to be on the same PNR, you can book their ticket completely separate. As long as you're Gold or above and you do the booking on your points with them as the traveler.
It's really useful sometimes. I was flying with a non-MVPG friend, and we needed a short hop from SEA-PSC after an AA award. The ticket was reasonable on both miles or money, but we weren't sure how the incoming flight would work out, and I needed a little bump to renew status anyway. So I paid money (getting the waiver), and booked his flight with 5k miles (getting the waiver). Ended up being the right call, because the AA award got a big schedule change that forced an overnight connection.
They could take away just about any other benefit, and I'd still want to get MVPG+ just for the fee savings. I don't really care about boarding early, I can still have a free bag with the credit card, and even on a transcon I really don't care that much about a first class seat. It's nice to have, and even better to get a big recliner or a lie flat, but in the end I'm going to do the exact same thing regardless of the seat: work, eat, read, watch videos, or sleep. Never really had a problem doing any of those things, even in a coach middle seat. So for now, most of my domestic business is safe with Alaska.