cashmoney1

With each tier, you earn the additional 50%, 100%, and 125% bonus miles for each tier. Are these bonuses retroactive? TPG states that if you fly 24,000 miles in a year, you'll earn an extra 12,000 miles. I would assume if you started from scratch, you would only earn 50% on the 4,000 miles past the 20,000 requirement.

Also, how do these bonus tiers work in conjunction with different fare? As an MVP Gold 75k, you earn 125% bonus miles on the base mileage. Let's say you book a fare with 50% bonus and this flight is 2,000 miles. Am I right to assume you would earn 2,000 base miles, 2,500 bonus miles from status, and 1,000 miles from fare bonus for a total of 5,500 miles earned?

Lastly, do these bonuses work the same on partner airlines? An MVP Gold 75K would earn the base miles according to the partner fare rules, the 125% bonus of this, and any extra premium fare bonuses?

Appreciate the help!

be_rettSEA

1. Bonuses are not retroactive, so your assumption is correct, bonus miles only kick in after meeting the requirement when starting from scratch. If you already have status, you of course get the bonus of your current level as you requalify for the next year's status, though.

2. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the bonuses stack in case of class of service, so you'd earn your elite bonus on top of the base/class of service bonus miles. Other promotional bonuses (EQM bonus going on now, additional various) would not typically stack, however.

3. Unless something has changed recently, yes, you'd earn the bonus at the same rates as you would on AS, but based on the miles received per the earnings chart for the fare class booked.

pcoll

Cashmoney1 WELCOME TO FLYERTALK!
And welcome to the Alaska Airlines forum, as well

Eurynom0s

EQM stacks. I just had to deal with making sure I had everything right because I was in the boat of booking a flight back in January for May and having to get the 75% vs 50% class of service bonus resolved.

I'm MVP, was flying in paid first, and the 1.5x EQM promo for Alaska metal flights was in effect. So for LAX-EWR I got

2454*[class of service = 1.75]*[EQM promo = 1.5] = 6455 EQM (by math it should have been 6442 rounded up from 6441.75, not sure where the extra 3 EQM came form)

2454 + 2454*[class of service = 75%] + 2454*[MVP bonus = 50%] = 5522 RDM

When everything originally posted with the new 50% class of service bonus applied it was the same math, just with 1.5 EQM/50% RDM instead of 1.75 EQM/75% RDM.

djp98374

ive bern mvp for years

you only earn bonus once status is met. When status is met you can get upgrades to premium or first. Bag checks are free

you ear 500 miles on every leg at minimum. Pdx-sea is 129 air miles but 500 earned miles for ststus. Bonus miles does not go to ststus unless the bonus come with paid ticket fares like buying a FC ticket.

like during this Covid period ive done some direct FC purchase at a fare gibing me 150% of miles that count. Through end June therr is an added 50% on top of that that count to status.

part er fare rules...with going to one world I’m unsure on all the changes. Previously there was a difference in mikes earned if you booked an AS flight through AS site vs thru AA site and put in AS FF number

djp98374

This year I flew DCA-SEA-PDX
Ike’s 3821
during Covid 50% bonus made it 4232
booking FC 150% class made it around 6350.

from my experience, it’s difficult to near impossible get FC upgrade into SEA as an MVP. Flying out you might have better luck.
if I book a flight to HI I look at flying from/to CA and get upgraded.

I fly at least 3 times a year to SEA/PDX area. To get to 20K i need 7 east-west coast 1 ways. if I’m not doing a HI/AK trip I will look at doing HI leg from WC is equivalent to one of these 7 one ways. An occasionalFC ticket to bump up miles or doing some back/ forth bookings to bump up miles.

if I do east-Pdx/sea-HI and back count as 4 of these 7 one ways I need.

I also fly AA in the east. I can get some miles there.

one year for statusI did it by leg count instead of miles.

2 west cost 3 leg each way=12 legs ( East-LAX-bay area-Sea/Pdx )
3 2 leg Each way RT=12 legs
3 RT direct=6 legs

wt_fresca

First time posting in AS forum although I post from time-to-time on UA forums.

(Note in advance, I'm not a big fan of the search feature on FT)
Contemplating doing an elite match/challenge on AS while I'm still a UA Silver.
With each passing month UA just keeps disappointing me, both with items I take time to discuss on the forum (those following my MilePlay situation in the UA forums know what I mean), as well as other stuff I don't readily talk about (like UA quitting PAE in several weeks, etc.)

After moving from the LA area to metro Seattle, I stuck with UA because of lifetime miles and because UA still had a pretty decent "focus city lite" presence in SEA. Adding service to PAE pre-CoVID was a band-aid for the stuff that was slowly disappointing me about UA. And as of this writing, my UA lifetime is 870+K.

So after that rambling bit above (Sorry!), want to know if there are any FTers that have done the switch from UA Silver to AS MVP and their thoughts on that switch. I've been considering it but should I go forward with it?

I haven't necessarily jumped aboard the AS matuch/challenge yet because from what I gather there are quite a few differences.
These I consider "downgrade" for me: 1) companions on same res/locator would not be able to use priority security lane with me, 2) no priority baggage handling, 3) no free same-day flight changes even when same fare available;
Unknown but sounds like "downgrade": 1) no free companion preferred seating,
"Upgrades" for me: 1) miles-based instead of dollar-based considering I don't fly on a lot of the upper fare classes, 2) two checked bags free instead of one;
Unknown: space available elite upgrades

Knock on wood going on a trip to the east coast in the fall so sounds like I can clear the challenge portion with that trip alone, although I think there might be another west coast trip as well.
If you've read to the end...sorry for the rambling post, though I do look forward to your opinions!

rxgeek

Use Google search such as, "flyertalk Alaska MVP upgrade".

kirker

I just completed a status challenge from AA Platinum to AS MVP Gold – after previously changing from UA Premier 1K to AA EXP 5-6 years ago. While the biggest impetus for my switch was AS joining Oneworld (I mostly fly BA on non-domestic trips since I have family in the UK, but their Avios program is a joke and their harsh rebooking penalties are borderline farce), I'd say it handily tops either UA or AA in several important areas:

1. Way more elite-upgrade availability. While I rarely had problems getting upgraded on UA's or AA's top tier, in both cases my likelihood of snagging one plummeted once I started failing to reach that level – a direct result of both of them adding minimum-spend requirements for every elite level. Even on AS's mid-level tier – and even with the recent resurgence in travel – I've been consistently upgraded to F about 80% of the time. Most impressively, I've even snagged upgrades on transcons! Even when I was an AA EXP & UA Premier 1K I rarely succeeded on that front, given their much larger numbers of revenue pax in both J & F (though to be fair AS is at a definite disadvantage there given its lack of lie-flat seating).
2. Much broader array of elite mileage-earning opportunities on other carriers. I've been flying deep-discount QR flights in J for years now, in large part as de facto mileage runs for continued elite status. AA made this nearly impossible to achieve when they switched from basing EQD levels on actual miles flown (on partner airlines) to the same EQDs they use everywhere else. AS admittedly has lower EQM allowances for QR vs. AA (125% on AS, 150% on AA), but OTOH you only need 75K miles for AS's top tier vs. 100K (plus a minimum $15K spend) for AA EXP.
3. Lots of partnerships with non-Oneworld carriers. I know UA has plenty as well, but ... well, to be blunt, how often does anyone actually fly the likes of Air Dolomiti or Aeromar? (even during non-pandemic times) AS's best non-Oneworld partnership is definitely Singapore IMO, as is UA's (my favorite airline for 20+ years now, even though I sadly can't fly it for the time being), but I definitely plan to take advantage of it once Asian countries start reopening. Same goes for Korean Air & Hainan, which aren't partnered with UA, and I already have a ticket booked on Icelandair next month.

As for using the priority lane: is there some reason you don't have your whole family signed up for TSA Pre? Especially nowadays that's proven to be an absolute godsend, given the absurdly long lines at many TSA checkpoints, and IMO well worth the expense. Just last week there were probably 80-100 people in the main TSA lines at both SEA & DCA, and fewer than a half-dozen in the Pre line. Also, same-day flight changes on AS are free – for you as well as your traveling companions – if you're at least an MVP Gold. Ditto upgrades for companions: they're available for MVP Gold & 75K.

Finally, even if you can't status-match into MVP Gold, you only need 40K miles to reach that point, and AS has been running a 50% EQM bonus on nearly all tickets for most of the pandemic, so hitting that point may be a lot easier than you think! It's currently scheduled to expire at the end of September, but most of the much more experienced AS flyers here are certain the airline will extend it once again (after already doing so multiple times) given the all-but-certain slowdown in air traffic this fall, once kids are back in school (and with business-travel levels still likely remaining low for some time to come, in part due to the Delta variant).

Nevsky

I would just like to confirm that this is still the case on partner/Oneworld flights (of course, with 150% for MVPGold100K).

So if, for example, I were to fly BA First "A" class, I would get 600% miles?

Flying for Fun

Yes, 600% RDM for a 100K on an BA F(A) fare; 650% RDM on a BA F(F) fare.

James