tom911

I see Alaska finally got the e-mail out on this promo overnight, about 5 days after bloggers first posted about it.

chrisl137

I sort of disagree with this (at risk of causing a little thread divergence). I've posted it elsewhere and should probably start a thread someday, but I think most big FF programs are splitting into two programs with a common name.

There's a loyalty program for the people who actually fly the airline and used to keep them flying the same airline, even if they sometimes have to pay a slight premium. The perks from that are a better travel experience - it's things like upgrades (to PC, E+, F, etc), free drinks, chocolate bars, prioritized baggage, better IRROPS service, and for bigger airlines they start driving you around the apron to make your connection. The loyalty programs are trying to attract and keep high value flyers (where high value on AS is probably still a lot lower than on UA or DL).

Then there's what I refer to as the "S&H Green Stamp" program, that's all about amassing points that you can spend on travel (or stuff in a catalog). This is pure revenue stream - they sell points through all sorts of channels for people to collect and ideally never redeem, or redeem in ways that leave the airline ahead. It's like the old S&H green stamps, because you get them for all sorts of things unrelated to travel (get a mortgage with us, get 10K miles; buy a smoothie, get 10 miles; have your dog waxed with us, get 3K miles, etc). Lots of people who collect and use points don't fly very much and use them as a way to save up for travel that they might not otherwise do or afford. There are populations of FTers who are essentially arbitrageurs for these points.

It's often amusing on FT when people are talking about good/bad FF programs and the BIS-want-comfort-benefits and the Green Stampers talk past each other. I'm mostly in the BIS camp - I travel mostly for work or to visit people and I want to minimize the unpleasantness, but I like the miles to spend on holiday tickets that I invariably wait too late to book and would otherwise be expensive, or for other last minute high-fare tickets.

And to bring it back to specifically AS - I agree about the sweet spot, at least from a customer POV, especially if you *aren't* SEA based. They're feeling a lot like early 2000's UA (minus the network), where I didn't have to have a lot of status to get treated very well and travel pretty comfortably. There aren't any lie-flats, but for daytime flights I really don't need them and the AS F seats are pretty nice as far as domestic F seats go.

NYC Flyer

I don't think we disagree...my reference to the 80/20 rule was simply to imply that the airlines are getting better at limiting the high cost benefits (i.e., elite status) to the customers driving profits, not just taking up seats more often. At the same time, carriers are more closely matching their costs to revenues associated with the "green stampers", as you put it (well, I might add).

I'm with AS now because its route network fits my travel needs, I can access elite benefits with my travel spend, and other carriers were pushing me into their "green stamp" program.

chrisl137

That's why it was "sort of" - there's no question they're working hard to limit the expensive benefits and directly connect benefits to revenue, while collecting even more revenue without offering a lot of benefits for it. Even AS is doing revenue based benefits for BIS elites - instead of having to spend $3K or something the previous year to make MVP or MVPG, they award it based on your real miles but they do it on the back end by making you pay $15-45 extra per flight to get some of the benefits. I kind of appreciate that - you can modulate how much extra you pay to get the benefits, and save a little on flights where you don't care about getting them.

AS is working well for me, too- I have a lot of personal travel the the PNW, and was expecting to be stuck on UA for my work transcons, but AS is working pretty well for that, too.

jjmadison

One flight has posted:

SFO to BWI
total miles: 7,985
base: 2,457
bonus (as 75k): 5,528

diver858

Just returned from a round-trip SAN-EWR, earned enough miles to pay for a one-way saver award to Kona in July, upgraded on both legs of the flight. It was a last minute reservation, for a family funeral. While the Y fares were ~$450 each way, I happened to have a companion pass, total cost for my wife and I was less than $1100.
Until/unless AS follows the race to the bottom, adds a revenue requirement to elite qualification, they will continue to earn the lion share of my business, I will make a conscious effort to re-qualify for Gold - even if it means a mileage run. Good luck with that on AA, B6, DL or UA.

wolfpacktrojan

I'm glad they included SAN in this promo because I am about to earn a ton of miles with round trips to MCO, EWR, BWI, and BOS over the next 5 weeks. My flying on AS has been slow so far in 2019, but I'm looking forward to making up for it in the coming months.

beckoa

Think I finally found a way to make SFO-RDU-SFO work this fall ^

Thanks Club 49 deals! Got U class to boot both ways ^ 739's.

channa

Except that AS doesn't have people on the high end, buying $8,000 J class tickets to London or Tokyo.

The issue the Big 3 had were that the imbalance caused by these customers created an inequity in rewards vs. value. Someone dropping $10K on a SYD J ticket for work wouldn't crack Silver. But someone spending $300 on a transcon 5 times would. Meanwhile, the non-status RDMs earned for both customers was pretty similar.

AS isn't playing for that customer. What's the most expensive leg on AS metal out there? They're barely breaking 4 digits on a one way in paid F last minute. And that's not exactly their core customer. They're attracting customers with volume in economy tickets, trying to price a smidge above market and retain them. For those where the route network works, many of us get hooked and do pay a bit more to stick with them. Everything in their elite program is designed as such (minor premium to avoid Saver, min fare on GGUs, min fare on instant-upgrade, etc.).

milypan

The international long-haul flights arguably created even bigger problems at the low end, especially as competition has increased on these routes over the past decade. Now you can fly to SE Asia for $500-600 on US carriers, which, if they were still mileage based, would allow you to get most of the way to Silver with just one trip and $400 of carrier revenue. If AS had international long-haul, there's no way that MP could remain mileage based.

VegasGambler

But, you can do the same with partner flights.

Discount economy tends to earn at a lower level, but not with all partners.

On the other end of the spectrum -- it's possible to earn over 50k eqm and 100k RDM with a discounted first class round trip on BA. How much money does AS get from BA when you credit of these to AS? Because every carrier has its own chart, I assume that these are individually negotiated and the miles warned are a reflection of that.. and since the chart for BA premium cabin is so good, I assume that AS is getting a lot...

milypan

channa

Yup...and if you're only flying partner flights, then what kind of perks are you getting? You're not getting upgrades, bag waivers, change fee waivers, burning GGU's, etc.

Also, with a handful of exceptions (e.g., AA to Costa Rica, Mexico, and Canada), there is practically no overlap with partners and Alaska. So if you're flying partners, you're likely not going to somewhere AS serves anyway. AS is content to let you fly BA to London or AA to Buenos Aires, because they don't go there, and they're just a mileage bank at that point. And again, with few exceptions (e.g., BA, FI or QF lounges), AS does not have a lot of partner perks that could be costly to them. Every time an alliance Elite member (e.g., Star Gold, SkyTeam Elite Plus, etc.) enters a partner alliance lounge, that home airline is on the hook for that cost. AS is very seldom paying for this sort of thing. And by crediting AS, you're losing out on those alliance perks. So, if you're doing mostly partners, you're likely better served by crediting that partner's alliance anyway.

Flying for Fun

FJ gives 100% EQM on 12 of 15 Y buckets, the three lowest, T, N, R still earn 50%. In my experience, their fare sales still book into buckets above T. I flew SYD-NAN-LAX return last year for USD $693 and earned 14,978 EQM (4.63 cpm) & 33,702 RDM.(2.06 cpm). The RDM more than paid for my CXJ MEL-HKG.

James

VegasGambler

Back on topic... this is really a great promo. 15k+ miles for a round trip economy transcon (as Gold) is obscene.