Alaska Mileage Plan Elite Status Changes 2024

Your comment about it being more difficult to earn status on segments is interesting; I'd like to provide my perspective. When I was first starting out in consulting and was going on two work-related trips per month, the majority of folks in my office got their status from segments alone. Most of our flights were 500 miles or less, so if you earned four segments per month, that would yield ~48 per year, but only 24,000 MQM's per year. This was especially felt by the new people where one wouldn't even get the 500 minimum per flight because they had no status at all. A lot of us would go out of our way to get segments (DCA-CLT-SDF instead of flying DCA-SDF direct, for example) and that would get most of us to the second or even third status tier while still earning (much much) less than 50k MQM's. I personally am happy that most airlines have removed segment and mileage minimums and switched over to dollars spent. Now I am incentivized to take the quickest, shortest, most direct routing and usually am getting to status faster as I"m spending more on tickets.

I like the fact that in the US, you can earn OneWorld Status in two total different ways!

To an extreme, with Alaska, you can fly your way without any spending requirement to earn OneWorld Emerald status all by distance flown without BS elite qualifying dollars. (Of course, you can also put some spend on Alaska credit card without flying at all, $50,000 spent yield to Alaska MVP OW Ruby)

To another extreme, with American, you can spend your way to the top Executive Platinum (or even Concierge Key) by AA shopping, hotel, Simply Miles and Credit Card spent.

I wonder if the segment change and elimination of the AS flight requirements have something to do w/ their pending merger w/ HA.

I've never liked the name Mileage Plan. I'm hoping they come up with something that better reflects the airline.

Another potential consequence of eliminating required segments on Alaska is the floodgate opening for overseas folks who have never set foot onto an AS plane. They can easily dump their trips into AS MileagePlan instead of the lackluster Asian programs or others that do not earn status well at all, and that ranges from KE to SQ to JX. This can create a bunch of AS elites who just use their OWS or OWE for lounge hopping in Asia and will not generate AS any revenue. I personally know a few people who would easily qualify for MVPG100k with their flying pattern but now are stuck in their own program's mid-tier elites, and I bet they will not hesitate to switch and compete with regular AS flyers for award availability.

Absolutely. AS likely got rid of the segment earning because of its pending purchase of HA. A LOT of HA elite members got their status from lots of inter-island flights, which will be upsetting to many once it’s gone.

I expect AS management has a pretty good handle on this, given that they only had the AS segment requirement for ~3 years. (Before that, they just had slightly higher thresholds if partner travel was included.)

It will be a lot easier to earn top tier status with AS. The problem: "When everyone is elite, no one is." The delta status match opened the flood gates. I hear AS 75K members complaining of being 14 or 15 on the upgrade waitlist now. God only know what it will be like in 2025.

Also, I have no doubt that there will be more of us competing for partner award redemptions. It has gotten difficult enough trying to find a reasonable business class or first class redemption for oversea travel. The changes are not going to make it any easier.

As a data point, my wife (75K) was 12th on the list on Monday (SEA-DFW). I was surprised; when booking, I thought she'd be a lock. I'd probably have booked her in first had I realized her upgrade chances were as low as they were.

That said, the plural of anecdote is not data, and that's the only upgrade she hasn't gotten all year.

It has been my experience in the past 6 years or so that CC spending will get you AS status. I have achieved MVP and even MVP Gold status based on credit card spending for several years. Back when AS was partners with EK (and F awards were obtainable) - I eagerly directing spending to my Alaska cards. If I recall correctly, that in 2019 I qualified for MVP based on flying and the CC spend (most likely) boosted me to MVP Gold. Since I had a large mileage cache, I would routinely use Alaska miles to fly (on AS metal, sometimes partners), so am not sure if that played into their internal calculations. I still routinely use my business Alaska card for ~$20k per month in business spending (because I always seem to have a use for AS miles). The only catch is that there is a bit of a lag before they decide to move me to MVP, so some Januarys I am without status.

The elite qualification via Segments was a benefit for PNW regional flyers back in the day. Think SEAPDX or SEAGEG weekly kind of flyers that would never really qualify otherwise as fast since the flights were 500 min. miles.

Well with only 20,000 credits from cc purchases we will switch to a card that gives cash back

I feel like I read back in the day Alaska was super focused on segments to help out people who constantly have to take the short puddle jumper flights within Alaska

I recall a flight out of Hawaii on Alaska where 2/3 of the passengers were on the upgrade list…. Status only works when no one else has it.

Oh man, why do I feel they gonna eliminate sweet spots on partner earnings. I mean this year I got 50k EQM from just one round trip in first class in BA to South Africa around 4.5k USD. Talk about super effective with time spent and not to mention I got over 100k in redeemable miles… they gonna need this won’t they… sigh….

Now seems almost impossible to find award space in business class from SEA PDX SFO LAX to BKK. (except on StarLux for 350,000 miles -
which is crazy). Any idea if this situation will
improve?

Used to be, first class to Europe using mileage was 60 000 each way now DOUBLE that. We were saving to go. Sad, some of their changes. No longer the awards can be earned.

In the past I have gained status upgrades from segments in the PNW. I can see why AS is doing it to reduce the wasted trips just to gain segments, especially around the end of the year. I needed 20 segments in DEC2023 to maintain 75k status. I flew 10 more segments than needed to get to my destinations.
Supposedly the airports & airplanes will be less crowded.

$50,000 spend to get silver MVP is not worth it. Of course, you would fly some so maybe no spend is required for silver. Silver is good just for a free checked bag, earlier boarding, and a little earning bonus.

I’m a 100K (barely) with Alaska and look forward to the 20k credit card EQM helping me get there again in ‘24. But after that 20k, they give me no incentive to keep using the card, so back to the CSR after that. Seems silly when compared to others. Other than that the changes are manageable but the redemption changes coming up aren’t great.

By far the most underrated comment. I knew multiple people who struggled making the segments that were previously required in '23 to hit their status tier... All of them will easily hit 100k this year and will barely step foot on AS metal.
I just don't understand how this benefits Alaska Airlines in any way - would love if someone could explain.

Can you gift Gold status to anyone? I'm sure there are people willing to pay to get this gift. So it could be an opportunity to monetize this gift. Maybe we will see an eBay kind of bidding for this.

I used to be a gold and silver member depending on the year when they used to fly non-stop from Sacramento to Maui but since they discontinued due to competition from Southwest who subsequently stopped flying on a daily basis we just have Hawaiian. Anyhow I used to get upgraded to first class quite often even on silver. and most of the other times I was able to get there extra legroom seats without any issues.

Did anyone notice now that Alaska Airlines is charging up to $128 for the emergency row seat which used to be free even for non elite members. I just booked a trip from Sacramento to Maui via San Diego and the leg from San Diego to Maui is $128 if you pick row 17. This is really disappointing because it used to be free in the past.

So AS mangenent is saying you can fly on other airlines and only say one time on Ak and receive status for all your mileage on the other partner airlines. Whats in it for AK..
Doesn’t seem right to me when I earned my million miler all on Ak. flights.

I totally agreed. For those people who used miles for long hauls, it is basically useless anymore. Now I will just put all of my purchases on my debit card and the I won't ever have to pay interest. Maybe it is a win win

So - do any of these changes do anything for the pecking order of million milers?

Earning elite via segments is useful for Alaskans, where you may end up on the “milk run” flight that consists of several short segments en route to the main destination. That’s the only way I’ve made elite status I believe.

It's terrible for us Alaskans. You know, where the airline started. It's 1,440 miles to Seattle from Anchorage. So what do they do? The change in the chart has a higher rate at 1,400 miles - not 1,500. Everything else is a round number. Then the distance requirement is ridiculous to anywhere from here. Cant get a decent award. The reality is gong to be much worse than the 'starting at" number. Do it the other way. Give us the max number and have discounts on that. The article is wrong. They have been giving status, much better status, with their co branded credit card. 20,000 miles max is terrible.

This article is clearly written by someone who doesn't live in the Northwest or Alaska where it takes 2-3 "segments" to get to and from your destination.

Absolutely terrible decision for us business travelers in the NW that rely on segments to achieve status. Alaska Airlines is going downhill. Such a shame and switching to Delta.

Because Delta’s FF program is clearly superior to Alaska’s

As a 75k, it sounds like only bad news. If you earn 75k EQMs you no longer get 50k bonus miles, mileage earn rates reduced, 4 lounge passes now reduced to 1 (if you choose that benefit), 4 GGUs reduced to 2 (if you choose that benefit). All with no new benefits given.

Are all of those negatives supposedly outweighed by the updates making it easier to earn status?