Wear Ugly Sweater, Get Priority Boarding On Alaska

Here’s a cute promotion, for anyone flying with Alaska Airlines later this week…

Alaska Airlines ugly sweater promotion

Friday, December 15, 2023, is National Ugly Holiday Sweater Day (apparently?). To celebrate, Alaska Airlines is offering priority boarding to those who wear ugly holiday sweaters on that day.

This ugly sweater promo is valid across all Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air flights, and eligible passengers will be able to board early, after first class passengers and elite members (following Group B). So this is only useful for non-premium passengers, but then again, you can always wear an ugly sweater just to get in the spirit. 😉

For six years straight, Alaska Airlines has come out with its own branded ugly sweater annually, so you may see some employees wearing these at airports. This year’s sweater has a new twist on Alaska’s classic snow planes, and the sweaters are made from 70% recycled post-consumer polyester. These can be purchased by members of the public through the Alaska Airlines company store.

This isn’t the first time that Alaska Airlines has offered this promo

As mentioned above, Alaska Airlines has been running this promotion for several years now. In the past we’ve even seen Alaska sometimes offer priority boarding to those with Starbucks drinks, though I imagine that won’t be offered again, given that Alaska has switched to Stumptown Coffee. 😉

This is a cute concept. While the time around the holidays is very busy for airlines, the concentration of elite members isn’t necessarily that high, so there should be no issues offering priority boarding to the few people who may wear these. Furthermore, this won’t even impact first class flyers or elite members, since those with ugly sweaters board after them.

This promotion might just be enough to encourage some people to wear ugly sweaters, since priority boarding can be valuable on a day where all planes are going to be full, and many people will no doubt have to gate check their bags.

Bottom line

This Friday, Alaska Airlines will offer priority boarding to anyone wearing an ugly sweater. This is a fun promotion, regardless of whether or not you have anything to gain here. And if you like Alaska’s ugly sweaters, you can even buy your own.

Would you wear an ugly sweater to get priority boarding, if you weren’t otherwise eligible?