Eastbay1K

Third Quarter Earnings Announcement Expected: ALK has confirmed that earnings will be announced 10/22/2009. With 7 analysts covering ALK, the consensus EPS estimate is $2.03, and the high and low estimates are $2.36 and $1.20, respectively.

I also suppose they have determined that the elite ranks are full enough for 2010.

beckoa

If they aren't full enough... historically AS has another feather in their cap, by running the fly 4/8 flights on AS in 2 months, keep your status promo... no clue if this is the case with the DEQM earlier in the year though...

OverThereTooMuch

That doesn't help the people that don't have status yet, so another +1 begging for a DEQM promo ^

thegeneral

I'm begging for no DEQM promo. It's already extremely easy to get status on this airline. I don't need more people taking upgrades and the exits. Why not people actually earn their status? If you don't fly enough for MPG, that's only 40k, then it's not that big a deal for you to have it. Almost every other airline requires 50k miles.

tbau

+1
They already ran the promotion this year. Why not just say 20k qualifies for gold? Or run the DEQM for 12 months? Let's have the tiers actually mean something.

tusphotog

While I certainly don't fly AS with the regularity that many of the posters here do, I have never had a problem booking an exit row aisle or window on any of my AS flights this year. I usually book pretty close in and on almost all of the flights there has been U space. I just don't think there are as many people flying this year. Same goes for WN too, but that's a totally different story.

eponymous_coward

Right, because you can always fly AS roundtrip to SYD to get 15K of your 40K.

Also, I wonder- is wishing that AS would loosen up transcon U as similarly selfish as wanting DEQM like the other airlines? I mean, F tickets are usually easy to come by. People must not really want to sit in an F seat that bad if they won't pay for it.

I've also had zero problem booking exits, and I've regularly snagged U space on standby to the Bay Area OR Greater LA.

Finally: If I don't get DEQM, I get what I paid for. And it's fine with me, in the end. I like the extra miles that showed up last time, personally, so I don't see why OH NOES DEQM IS EVIL. I seriously doubt AS is really trying to inflate their elite ranks- more like keeping them stable.

beckoa

There are certain routes and times of years that exit rows are difficult at best to get... Spring Break I was stuck in the back on an award... [I don't blame AS... it just was too much of a squeeze]

tusphotog

But the same could be said for any airline. There are times when flights will be super full. If at all possible I try and avoid flying on those days, like Jul 3, day before Thanksgiving and the Sunday from Hell after Thanksgiving.

Generally speaking, air travel is down this year and I suspect you're going to see fewer elites qualify this year than last year. Even with the DEQM promo.

CDKing

I just realized that I didn't need the DEQM after all. I only received 10K extra EQM. I will be at least 12K over the 75K (including the 10K DEQM) point by mid November

beckoa

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9000/4.6.0.167 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102)

But it was good for AS as they got you hooked that much faster

I fell guilty too, but that's ok

Waitlisted

After 10 years in a row as a Gold this year I hit MVP just now based on Alaska/Horizon only miles (40k). Now I have to fly to spain from Portland for a family issue in 2 weeks and going on an elite partner (AA,NWA,DL,AF) will cost me about $1600 and going on USAirways will only cost about $585 RT so I think I will do that, its 12000 miles R/T BTW but wont be enough by itself to get me to Gold.

I am doing this assuming that there wont be a DEQM on Alaska again this year ( I do have a trip to LAS, SAN and PSP planned on Alaska this season, and with some good luck wherever the Ducks play in a bowl game), but I AM assuming there will be a 4/8 segment and requal next spring. Any educated guesses on whether this will happen? I have never done that before. How do they announce it ?

jackal

I think eligible people usually get it announced in an email, but (as always) the best info comes from right here! So check on FT around mid-January.

IJK

Check the previous DEQM deal to see if only Alaska and Horizon
metal will qualify for DEQM.

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