Here is the official response from Alaska Air. Regardless of any misunderstanding, I thought their response was impressive-- thorough, polite, and informative. It is rare for any airline to provide such a personalized response, and timely too! There were yet more emails in this exchanged and I am very surprised, and pleased, at the level of engagement with their customers
FROM ALASKA CUSTOMER CARE: (omitted personal details)
I am sorry for the confusion as I think we are talking about two different things.
There are two things that go towards you earning status. 1-base miles flown and 2-class of service bonus. Click on this link for further information regarding which fare classes qualify when traveling on Alaska:https://www.alaskaair.com/content/mi...earn-on-alaska
You are correct that when you fly on Alaska or any of our partners, these miles flown are going towards your status. When you are flying on Alaska as an elite member, these bonus earned for having status would be credited to your spending bucket and do NOT go towards status.
When you fly on an eligible flight on any of our partners, the base miles and any class of service you earned from them, go into your elite bucket toward your status.
If you are an elite member any of your elite bonuses are earned only when you fly on Alaska and do not count towards your status. The bonus miles go into your spending bucket.
I reviewed your account again and did verify that you flew, xx,059 miles on our partners and nothing on Alaska. These miles are what made you an MVP. You would have had to have flown xx,000 miles in order to become a ;higher level'.