yaychemistry

So when can I start earning Mileage Plan miles (and eqm) on VX? I have some BOS-SFO flights that I need to book.

Just kidding.... but really, when?

BearX220

Plans won't combine until 2017, but any Elevate points you earn in the short term will eventually be converted to MP miles, at a rate TBD.

Jianguo Yuan

I am very curious about Virgin America's Airline partners, including Singapore, Hawaiian, Virgin Australia and Virgin Atlantic. Will they become partners of Alaska Airlines if the merge come true in the future?

3Cforme

There are lots of decisions that will be announced starting after the financial transaction has closed ~ a year from now. IMHO a partnership with Hawaiian won't be retained because of too much competitive overlap from West Coast cities to Hawaii. The others have a better chance of surviving.

Madone59

http://flyingbettertogether.com/

This is happening! I am most interested in seeing how some of VX's great partners (EY, SQ, BR....) fold into a combined FFP.

ashill

That's obviously one of the biggest questions from a customer point of view. The merger web site says nothing about that (presumably since they haven't been able to negotiate with partners about this). This is all they have to say:

That reads almost like a sales pitch to partners: Keep us!

Selfishly, I'd love it if the VA (Virgin Australia) partnership sticks around, as I have a moderate stash of orphaned VA points that would be good to be able to use on AS.

BearX220

I'm not sure British Airways and Virgin Atlantic are willing to be side-by-side partners of the new Alaska.

JamilD

This is an opportunity to combine Virgin America's beautiful cabins and design sense with Alaska's impeccable frequent flyer program.

I expect instead we'll get VX's frequent flyer program and AS's… beautiful design sense

SingaporeDon

Impeccable Frequent Flyer Program? After the recent EK fiasco, I would not call it that!

flyupfrnt

Honest Question - Have you ever even flown Alaska? Or did you just accumulate mileage plan miles via discounted sales and burn them on EQ?

felixmendelssohn

The partner slide in that deck makes it look like AS will keep existing VX partners, like SQ. Sounds too good to be true, but I'll keep my fingers crossed.

InTheShed

I saw in the presentation that China Airlines and China Eastern being their international partners in the combined airline, are they partners in the future or are they secret partners we know nothing about?

Dean1

There's many potential topics about AS and VX. How about the frequent flyer programs? What are plausible outcomes?

I would like my orphan Virgin Elevate points to be converted to Alaska Mileage Plan miles, much as it was possible to transfer US Airways Dividend Miles miles to AAdvantage even before the US name was discontinued. How might that happen?

VX doesn't have an award chart that I see so what is it? I merely see that award flights are as low as 2500 points so my guess is that it's based on fares and 2500 points are for a $39 fare. If so, then a domestic ticket might need 25000-30000 points. If that is the case, then a 1:1 VX to AS or AS to VX might do it. Hope this happens before my orphan VX points expire in a year.

BearX220

I very much doubt the announced takeover of Elevate by MP will occur before this time next year. Impossible to know what the conversion rate might be. The plans are inherently different and cannot co-exist; they are doomed to blend.

ashill

That just lists all current partners. I doubt anyone, including ASVX, knows yet whether all of the partners will remain, at least in the long term.

I am amused to see that the Delta logo is much smaller than any other airline on the slide.