Airline Alliances - Alaska Air

[PeterRS]

I had brunch with a young Taiwanese friend whom I have known for about ten years on Sunday. He had just returned from a week's holiday with a friend in Sicily (good timing because there was a massive eruption of Mt. Etna yesterday). He is 29, has a job with an Italian company and goes to Milan twice a year economy class for business. He also likes to take in trips to Tokyo where he has a love interest.

I was slightly surprised that the two longest of his three flights to Sicily were in business class using mileage. His trips to Tokyo are also in business class. I asked which Alliance he is in and how he is able to accrue mileage so quickly. He's in One World using the Alaska Air programme. He's never actually flown Alaska Air but said they are by far the best when it comes to free miles. All he did was sign up for their programme.

I had no idea Alaska Air was so generous. These days that of course may not last. But I'm certainly going to check it out.

[unicorn]

I sometimes fly Alaska Airlines, although I do it the other way around: as a code-share American Airlines passenger. My husband and I generally fly them when we go to Puerto Vallarta, which is almost annually, and when we've gone to Alaska or otherwise up the coast (once to Seattle, once to Victoria BC, or from Burbank to Oakland). I have to give it to them: they often upgrade us based on our OneWorld status, over their own customers with lower status. They're a good airline, but with a caveat: their best seats are domestic first-class seats, which are comfortable for up to 6 hours. There's nothing to compare with AA's business class, much less Flagship First class. 

It's an interesting strategy to join Alaska's club, but never fly their aircraft, only codeshare. I'm surprised OneWorld lets them get away with what they do--both allow full credit for flying other airlines, then allow them an apparent generous ability to fly other airlines with miles. Generally, when I fly code-share on other airlines' aircraft, there's a bit of a premium to pay. I haven't researched that the other way around (i.e. if I were to fly on American flights via the Alaska website). I do get some benefits from sticking with AA. For one, I'm now a Million Miler™ with them, which means lifetime gold, and hope to make Two Million Miler™, or lifetime Platinum with them with the next several years. Also, they give Systemwide Upgrades, which recently got me upgraded from London to LAX from Flagship Business to Flagship First on a 777, which was extraordinarily luxurious. At the Flagship First lounge, I had venison loin for lunch (how they got venison in early June is mysterious to me) with a Moet-Chandon kir royale, then for dinner on the plane a lobster salad followed by monkfish main dish, which is very expensive and difficult to find in the US. 

Alaska's network is definitely more limited:

I can definitely understand joining Alaska's program, but hardly ever flying with them. If One World cracks down on them, however, one will end up with a lot of loyalty to an airline with limited options itself. That would always make me nervous.

[PeterRS]

7 hours ago, unicorn said:

I can definitely understand joining Alaska's program, but hardly ever flying with them. If One World cracks down on them, however, one will end up with a lot of loyalty to an airline with limited options itself. That would always make me nervous.

A fair point. I do not understand the various internal rules within One World carriers. Although Cathay Pacific was my home carrier for decades, once One World started I switched to British Airways. Although the miles were the same whichever one I flew, with BA's loyalty programme based on a points system rather than actual miles, I found that with one round-the-world trip I could gain almost enough points to reach Gold status and therefore Emerald on One World. On CX I would need to fly twice as many miles to reach that status. To the fury of BA Executive Club members, BA massively reduced its perks over Christmas last year. Now miles and tier benefits are based on how much you actually pay - and you must pay a great deal more than before.

I wonder how long the million mile programmes can last. Back in the 1990s before One World, CX had a programme that if you flew 2 million kms you qualified for lifetime membership of their Marco Polo Club with access to first class lounges and other perks even when flying economy. As that was a decade when I was flying virtually every fortnight, I quickly built up those kms. Having reached 1.7 million, CX joined One World and immediately cancelled the 2 million km deal!

As @unicorn suggests, what mght happen if - or more likely when - Alaska changes its rules. I have a friend in Sydney who for many years vritually commuted to Melbourne. He preferred Ansett to Qantas and had built up a mileage bank of around 330,000 miles. Then Ansett went bust and all those miles went down the drain!