heymon

Ever since Alaska and AA partnered up, as a 75k I noticed this one benefit on the Alaska website:

"Mileage Plan elite members have complimentary access to select extra legroom seats – known as Main Cabin Extra seating – on American Airlines flights.

• MVP® Gold and MVP Gold 75K members can access these seats at the time of booking. Seats can be selected during the booking process on aa dotcom, or via the “My trips” section of aa dotcom." immediately after booking."

As a result, I try to book a flight on AA. Every time I do, it is charging me an extra amount (between $60-$80) for a MCE seat.

So.. the question is: How do you link your AS status with AA and get this MCE benefit? I don't see anywhere on the AA account settings that allows you to link your AS status.. Or do we have to call in to AA?

Any advice welcomed.. thanks for reading!

RAD_PDX

When you enter the passenger info during checkout, there is an option to change the frequent flyer program. If you are logged in, it will show your AAdvantage by default, so you just change that to Alaska and enter your Mileage Plan number.

Flying for Fun

Booking on AA, if you have an AAdvantage account and want to use your AS FF#, is a little cumbersome. By default, your AA# is attached to your itinerary. If you try to change it, all your information that was auto-filled will be deleted.

Once you fill in all your information and move to the next page, AA will validate your AS# and see that you are MVPG75K/OWE. From that point, preferred & MCE seats can be selected with a $0 fee. No dollar amounts will display on the seat maps.

Once purchased, the itinerary won't show in Your trips since it isn't associated to you AA# but you can add it manually with your name & record locator.

James

AndyKehn

I send this to AA twitter: Hello, please help me change the frequent flyer number on an existing reservation from American Airlines to Alaksa Airlines. The locator is XXXXXX and the passenger name is Jane Doe. Flight is from XXX to XXX on DD/MM. My Alaska number is XXXXXXXXX. Thanks!

PDXPremier

In the not too distant past they were cracking down on this with award tickets....I had purchased an award with Alaska miles but it included an AA flight and since I had the AA credit card, I knew I would get a free bag if my AA # was on the reservation but they refused to add my AA # since I had used AS miles for the ticket. The relatively easy go-around if I recall was to have an AS agent remove my frequent flyer number and then I could go in an add my AA #.

AndyKehn

I only use this for flights booked with AA miles (which is OP's scenario here) since I dont have status with AA but have loads of miles with them due to cc. For flights booked with avios/qantas miles/AS miles I use the finnair trick instead. AA won't be able to change your FF number on a flight booked using partner's miles.

heymon

Andy - I will admit - I didn't think about booking with AA miles but instead booking a AA flight with cash because they have direct flights where AS would force me to do a layover somewhere (yet still being able to accrue AS mileage).

To the posters above - thanks for the tips. I literally spent hours trying to figure this out..

Often1

Double check that your KTN is properly populated if you do this. It is the easiest of the minor tech glitches and the one that matters.

PlowJockey

Can you possibly say more about this? I ask in the context of my frustrating experience for a PHX-SEA flight today on AA.

I had been hoping to be offered an upgrade at check-in per this notice: https://www.alaskaair.com/content/mi...elite-benefits

When I checked in online yesterday, I was not offered an upgrade, despite five remaining seats in first (EF confirmed). I called American, was even transferred to the Plat Pro desk at one point - they had never heard of this benefit and were unable to add me to the wait list using my MVPG75 credentials. I gamely tried again at the gate this morning - same issue.

I had entered my Alaska MVP# when booking, with the manual data entry (ugh!) after removing my AAdvantage pre-saved info. I was able to pick MCE seats no problem.

Any insight on

• What could I have done differently to get on the upgrade list?
• Failing that, has anyone found info on aa.com we can point AAgents to?

Obviously upgrades are a perk, not an entitlement, so I suffered silently with no drinks (boo!) in MCE and napped to SeaTac. The leg room was nice. But it was frustrating to be seemingly so close to a win and still watch the good seats slip out of reach.

mixmastermark

Flying AA last night with my AS75K number attached to the reservation, I was automatically upgraded to F at the gate. I could not see myself on the AA upgrade list in the app, but the AA gate agent called me up before I even had a chance to ask.

tomtaylor23

As a 75K if I don’t get an upgrade at check in, do I get placed on the upgrade list?

PDXpress

As an AS MVP/Ruby I booked a future AA flight. When I qualify for MVPGold/Sapphire in a few weeks, will I then be able to go into my AA booking and select MCE seats? Can I also select MCE seats for companions on the same reservation who are not Sapphire?

PlowJockey

From my experience yesterday, no. Others have had more success.

PDXPremier

AS 75Ks are currently the only AS elites that qualify for first class upgrades on AA, but it's kinda like you're flying non-rev and hoping there is an extra F seat at the gate--you're not actually on the "list", but they can see you're a 75K and seat you in F after their own upgrade list is cleared. This is similar to the upgrade situation back in the day when AS and DL were partners....you're chances of getting upgraded on DL were VERY low, but there were of course multiple reports of unicorns appearing and AS elites getting upgraded so don't give up hope on AA!

tomtaylor23

Has anyone ever received upgrades on award travel?