Eujeanie

Thanks jackal, more good info. The company he consults for tells him to fly F, he just thought he'd be a nice guy and save them some money, but with the restrictions it doesn't make sense for him.

baliktad

There are a lot of fare classes and it does get confusing. The MVP instant-upgrade classes are actually Y/S/B.

If you're buying your own ticket on alaskaair.com, they do make it relatively easy to choose your upgrade instrument/method and identify qualifying fares without having to deal with specific fare classes. You only really need to know fare class details if you are booking elsewhere.

jackal

Thanks for catching that.

Indeed. Just select which upgrade classification you want to look for on the main search screen and it does the work for you. I have, however, started paying more attention to fare classes now that I fly UA, where fare classes matter.

beckoa

This is breaking away from the topic at hand but one does earn a 25% bonus for Full Flex tickets now... not as good as 50% but better then nothing.

http://www.alaskaair.com/content/mil...nus-miles.aspx

Eastbay1K

Yes you do, but you may not on Y segments (booked in Y on 1 cabin planes) when you are on an F ticket. Hopefully they have fixed this issue.

HikerT

I have a companion cert that is due to be issued July 27. What do you think the odds are issuance will be delayed to Aug 1?

MsRoadwarrior

After reading through most, not all, my opinion is those who use the cc once a year to book a discounted first class flight don't have a leg to stand on. Those of us that fly regularly or often enough to attain at minimum VIP status gave a little more clout and gold or better can legitimately gripe about losing the benefit. It appears that the more frequent flyers subsidize the once a year first class and that my friends, sucks.

dgreen12

My other half has one due to be issued today. I'm keeping an eye on his account.

Eastbay1K

Why? Many of those people will be spending nearly $2K on their "once a year" flight, while some of us here will get MVPG status on a lot less than that (yet costing AS to fly said passengers on many flights).

Seattlenerd

I understand that's the case: AS actually loses money on anyone who just gets the card to use the companion certificate in First (and, I would suspect, on some coach routes) and doesn't use it to charge purchases.

While the FlyerTalk membership is hardly likely to be representative of the flying public at large, it seems that kind of use isn't rare.

bigbirdwithsilverwings

I agree FlyerTalk members are not representative but I doubt that kind of use is anything but rare. I have used my four B of A cards for the companion certificate and since I pay $300 in annual fees for them, I also charge everything in the world I can-both as a consumer and for my business-on these cards. B of A at 2.5 cents in "processing fees" for every dollar it charges (HEY! I want to have that business model as my own) it skims from sellers, is about to lose roughly $5,000 in VISA income when I close my accounts. I presume that B of A will be wiling to pay Alaska less $ for its purchase of Alaska's miles when the impact of this decision runs its course.

For a $65 annual fee, the Starwood Preferred AMEX gives me 25,000 Alaska airline miles for every 20,000 miles transferred out of it so that's where I'm going...

ChugiakAk

Exactly - the wife and I have forked out over $2,000 for a trip from Anchorage to Boston in October. Not exactly chump change. Could have gone coach for a cheaper rate but the extra spent avoids expensive bills at the chiropractor

On a regular basis, we both fly Alaska at least five times a year from Anchorage (usually on individual trips) so we truly appreciate the companion ticket perk when we have to go east to visit relative. We've also used on to upgrade my in-laws (in their 70s) on the reverse route. Makes things easier for them too.

dgreen12

Nothing was added to the account as of 5 pm today, we'll check again tomorrow.

Eujeanie

I'm not sure how you think you all know "when" your certificates are supposed to post.

We first applied for and got our card at the end of last May. Got the certificate it seemed right away (never thought it would be something I needed to remember so didn't pay a lot of attention). Edited to say I now remember applying on board, and it was around May 17, and got an answer very quickly. So I thought my renewal this year would also be at the mid-end of May. No. Then I thought it would be when my statement closed in June. No. My certificate came just a couple of weeks ago, on or about July 13 (it expires July 13 of next year), a full year and almost 2 months from the time of the one last year.

beckoa

They post the same time each year (give or take a week) for most of us- perhaps its different with your first one?