Intriguing: Alaska Airlines Launches $5 Monthly Subscription

Honestly if I didn’t have T-mobile I’d strongly consider signing up…

This is not bad itself but a bad sign of Alaska becoming cheapskate.

A better product to sell might be concierge check in where an agent meets you either at the light rail station or where the terminal drop off begins. An agent then accompanies you to check in, print boarding pass, and hangs around with you until boarding. When boarding, they either have you board first or board last, while saving overhead space for you. The cost would be $2500 per year. That is $25 per flight if you fly once a week and $100 per flight if you fly once a month.

LOL if you think something like that could be done profitably at $2500/year.

Curious if this would code and count towards the Amex Platinum card $200 airline credit.

For someone who knows what they're doing & flys AS, it's discounted WiFi. For everyone else that flys AS but doesn't care about the Avgeek hobby, the early sale/access may bring additional value. I'm curious if this supposed new calander feature coincides with the new ability to book multiple oneworld award partners since it says you can view by cash or miles. Maybe a way for AS to recoup some IT costs.

I buy WiFi with my Alaska Visa, I get a $1.60 (20%) discount for inflight purchases.
So I usually pay only $6.40 for WiFi.

It makes the subscription less attractive.

Weird.... how much revenue can this possibly actually drive?

I bet the raison d'etre for this service is to offer it as a freebie at one of the lower elite tier levels when AS introduces choice benefits in 2025.

Companies like subscriptions - provides a constant revenue stream (like Microsoft Office 365, Amazon PRIME, etc.). Maybe airlines will start charging a monthly fee for a frequent flyer account??

Really not liking the implications here. Maybe this is why you can't find Partner Business and First rewards anymore, because they're going to be "gated" by this subscription model. Sure, it's $5 NOW, but then the $5/month becomes the "basic" level, followed by $10, $20, and $50+ levels.

Alaska's starting to get delusions of grandeur. They're not American, Delta, or United. Acquiring Hawaiian and getting some widebodies and Pacific international slots doesn't put them in the same class to start pulling crap like this.

Looks like a terrible value for most travelers.
They will cancel it eventually.

So I just got the email inviting me (as a MVP 75k) to sign up. It is $5 per month... but you must sign up for a minimum of one year. It's a one year commitment, billed monthly. So at $60 it's roughly comparable to Spirit's $9 Fare Club (or Saver Club or whatever it is, which actually has saved me over $200 in the last year).

So it's $5 but it's really $60.

I disagree. I don't find new ideas like this synically. Just like I like EWR-RAK. New ideas gain traction in spite of old fist pointing tables.

It would be worth paying the $5 per month for unlimited WIFI on Alaska depending how often you fly. Would have to be on average once a month though...

Definetly a smart and unique concept by Alaska. I look forward to seeing if it works out.

After more thought, I think I'm wrong, and the actual raison d'etre is early access to the AS discounted mileage awards (hopefully still offered as a choice perk).

I might be wrong and I admit I'm speculating, but I'm trying to make the value proposition make sense, and that would do it if true.

Recurly as "Access Alaska" is very good at taking your monthly $5 - but has been inconsistent to non-existent in providing the monthly access codes for on-board Wi-Fi. BTW the codes expire at the end of the month - why shouldn't they remain active till you use them? Further, if you try to find the promo codes on the Access Alaska web site - no bueno. Not there. There is no way to communicate back to them except through AK Air customer service.

As far as the fares go - I have been getting the same notices from AK Airlines for years without the need for paying $5/month. TO date I have not seen a fare on Access AK that has not been email to me by AK Air

Bottom line - don't bother. As constructed you will pay out $60 in a year and get very little (if anything) in return. Will be cancelling mine.