Flying for Fun

Are you 75K? Selecting that will show the lowest fare available for MVPG75K and if 2U is available on your selected flight, you and your companion will get a complimentary upgrade into the F cabin after purchasing the upgradable fare. You can select your seats in F after the purchase. No GGU required.

75K get complimentary upgrades with available U space can be upgrades with Y, S, B, M & H fares, MVPG can be upgraded with Y, S, B & M fares and MVP can be upgraded with Y & S fares. With the exception of H fares, all others receive a COS bonus for the primary passenger. Y & S fares receive a 50% COS while B & M fares receive 25%.

If you want to apply GGUs, select Gold Guest Upgrade. The lowest GGU upgradeable fare available will be shown. The lowest far that can be upgraded is K class. With 2U available, you will be able to apply the GGUs after purchase.

Distance is not necessarily a factor in getting value from your companion certificate. One-way is a waste, return is better but multi-city, multi-segment, multi-country itineraries is where I focus for best value. If U space is available on multi-segment itineraries with a connection time of 4h or less all can be upgraded with a single GGU.

James

allset2travel

James, thanks for the quick reply. Are you still in SYD?

Yes, I am 75K and so is my flying partner. How do I know if there is U space available on AS web site? {I do have EF subscription}.

How do I find them (Y, S, B, M & H etc…)? Is there a way to force certain fare code during the booking process?

About applying GGU for multi-country itineraries: do you mean Companion Fare can be used on Partner Airlines? I thought it must be on AS metal only, and as such AS doesn’t fly to too many countries other than Mexico, Central America & Canada?

Thanks again!

jinglish

1/2) Select the 75K upgrade type when searching for fares on the AS site (if you're already looking at results, it's in the sidebar on the left). You'll get more additional columns with the lowest available qualifying fare, and you can see whether there's U space in the quantity you're searching for with an F icon in the results--blue background if there's enough U, white background if no.

3) Companion fare doesn't work on partners. You just said it yourself that Canada, Mexico, and Costa Rica are other countries.

Flying for Fun

Thanks for the input. OP, Yes I am back in Sydney for three more nights then New Zealand followed by 12 nights in Tahiti. I was on a train after posting so thank you @jinglish for the follow up. The 70 mile train ride & two stops on the subway was a shocking AUD $2.70. Too bad everything here wasn't that cheap.

Indeed, those are the international countries that I was referring to served by AS metal. I have used a companion pass to visit all four countries on an itinerary. Personally, I would never burn a companion certificate for a simple transcon when main fares can be had for $130 for a net savings of $185 after the $75 annual fee. As a 75K with a 75K partner, upgrades happen more often than not. Where they don't, we still have our Premium seats that we confirm at booking.

I like to use my companion certificates for a combination of a mini vacation and EQM mileage accrual. My last itinerary covered over 16K miles and saved $1100. No upgrades were available to apply GGUs but 6 of the 9 flights were upgraded to F.

James in Sydney.

747jetter

Hi, is there any way to get status match or at least challenge from ST E+ (Flying Blue), OW Sapphire (BA), OW Emerald (LA) or Star Gold (A3)? I am based in Europe and as far as I know status match is granted only if you have FFP of some US based airline, Aeromexico and you must be US/Canada resident. Has anyone got status matched from EU with non-US FFP elite tier?

CDKing

Only stories of denials. AS is pretty clear what they will match. No challenges available for anyone.

The list of eligible programs. Also the form to fill out only has the airlines and statuses that are referred to here:

https://www.alaskaair.com/content/de...us-match-offer

747jetter

thanks for the reply. I somehow expected this. At least another 6 hours at JED will be for looking how to get Alaska status easily and cheaply

allset2travel

jinglish,
Thank you so much. The bolded sentences answered the core of my questions!
Thanks for clarifying (3).

allset2travel

James in Sydney.

Appreciate taking time from travel to post. Safe trips!

allset2travel

@Sharice SB,
I must have missed your informative post until now. So sorry.
Thank you so much for sharing.
I will following the link and check it out later. Thanks again!

747jetter

Could anyone please confirm? I am a newbie. As European there is no minimum spend or my to get elite status. I am starting with zero points as I just registered.

Upcoming flights: EWR-SIN-EWR (D) - 24k miles and HKG-YVR-HKG (A) 44k miles = total 68k miles. Does this mean I am MVP Gold after this or I first need to collect 25k miles on partners, than another 50k on partners (so total 75k from the registration in a year) to gain MVP Gold?

Is there still a bonus 50k miles once I get to MVP Gold 75k?

Thank you

writetorich

Even though , I am a newbie , I think I can answer this question, I though about it myself. ( after all sometime a fare bucket jump is only $25 bucks more and the next $35 bucks. So if you can go up two fare buckets for a mere $60 on muti flights , I mean muti segments ( hey it's late ) or two buckets on a transcon or near trans con , a call to reservations could be in order. ( unless you hate talking on the phone. The agents are super nice especically to elites and I think Alaska unlike other carriers does NOT charge for phone agent purchases? Am I right? If so , call and you can be honest and upfront about your motive and desired outcome. It's within the rules and I think Alaska would actually like that you are paying more than minimum.
I think as a mid tier elite that two buckets can be meaningful and greatly increase chances of upgrade.

writetorich

If confirmed at time of booking in Premium Class Upgrade, and there is no all blue F to use a quest upgrade, is it easy to clear into F as a upgrade?

Intuitively seems to make sense.

a mid tier gold , has to essentially leap frog two requested upgrade/ wait list
first to premium class and then to First.
Is it easier to get into first if you only need one upgrade request type to clear?

Flying for Fun

There is no revenue component to attaining status with AS as is there no requirement to fly any segments on AS Metal. To attain MVPG, you require either 40K EQM flying exclusively on AS metal or 50K EQM on a combination of AS and/or Partners. Again, no requirement to fly any segments on AS so Partner EQM totalling at least 50K will get you MVPG.

EQM is Elite Qualifying Miles. Those are the base miles flown. If you look at the award charts for AS Partners here you will see three colums. Base miles (actual flown), COS bonus (class of service) and additional bonus. Only the sum of the first two colums is EQM while the additional bonus is RDM or redeamable miles only.

SIN-EWR-SIN is 19,070 miles (9535 each way) D class on SQ does not earn a COS bonus so EQM is 19,070 and RDM is 38,140 Mileage Plan Miles.

HKG-YVR-HKG is 12,784 miles (6,392 each way) A class on CX accrues 100% base miles + 50% COS, 150% EQM or 12,784 × 1.5 = 19,176, additional bonus is 12,784 x 2.0 = 25,568. RDM = 44,474.

If we total your two trips:
EQM is 19,070+25,568 = 44,638, 5,362 miles short of MVPG.
RDM is 38,140+44,474=86,614 for award redemptions.

You will be 5,362 miles short of the 50K requirement for MVPG. To attain MVPG75K and receive the 50K bonus you will need an additional 45,362 EQM to reach the 90K threshold requirement for AS+Partners.

James

cragAK

Quick question in regards to cancellation of a ticket purchased with miles (MVP if that matters).

Do I get the miles back in my account? The cancellation option show "Refund to original form of payment. You are eligible for a refund." But will that just refund the amount I paid to cover the various fees or do I get the miles back?

Alternatively, can I contact support and convert a ticket purchased with miles into a ticket paid in full? Or is cancelling and rebooking the best route to take? I want to book the same flights and seats I already have, but with this weeks Club49 deal there is no need for me to use miles to do it any longer. That's what I guess for trying to book things early.

Thanks!

Nevermind, went back on my desktop and clicked through. Saw I would get the miles back, but the $125 cancellation fee means I won't bother. Guess I should have waited until the dates fell outside of the possible Club49 dates.