If you still intend to fly Alaska occasionally, you might want to look at NW instead of CO if NW will comp you. For each elite tier on NW, you'd get the same benefits flying on CO metal as if you had that elite status on CO (and vice versa). There are some EQM penalties for certain discounted fare bases though. In addition, if you're Gold of Platinum on NW, NW will give you (you have to ask) 8 space available upgrade certs for Alaska flights. I have see a lot of NW elites complain about not being able to use these, but I've been able to use them on all but 1 segment of my last 5 Alaska round trips. This is also on $100 r.t. fares! This beats the pants off the upgrade success ratio I've ever seen on CO.