Alaska Airlines has rolled out some major changes to its Mileage Plan program as of 2025. In this post I’d like to discuss the details of my single favorite change, which is that you can now qualify for elite status with award flights. If you ask me, this is a pretty revolutionary development.
In this post:
Alaska credits elite qualifying miles on all award flights
As of January 1, 2025, the Alaska Mileage Plan program has started awarding elite qualifying miles (EQMs) for award tickets, when redeeming Mileage Plan miles:
- You earn one elite qualifying mile per mile flown on an award ticket, regardless of the cabin you’re traveling in
- While all travel as of January 1, 2025, qualifies, elite qualifying miles will only start to post as of the spring of 2025
- You need to be redeeming through Alaska Mileage Plan, so you can’t redeem miles through partner frequent flyer programs and earn elite qualifying miles with Mileage Plan
- You must have your Alaska Mileage Plan number on the reservation at the time of travel, and the person traveling gets credited the elite qualifying miles
Alaska Mileage Plan is the second major loyalty program to start awarding elite qualifying miles for all award flights, with Delta SkyMiles being the first (and several other airlines awarding elite credit for award flights on their own metal). However, redeeming SkyMiles on partner airlines isn’t exactly a good deal, which is why I’m so excited by this development at Alaska.
Alaska Mileage Plan has over two dozen airline partners, which don’t just include all oneworld airlines, but also other global partners.
As a reminder, Alaska Mileage Plan has four elite tiers, with the following annual elite qualification requirements:
- MVP status requires 20,000 EQMs
- MVP Gold status requires 40,000 EQMs
- MVP Gold 75K status requires 75,000 EQMs
- MVP Gold 100K status requires 100,000 EQMs
This is one of only several new ways that Alaska Mileage Plan is letting members qualify for elite status in non-traditional ways. In addition to the above change, plus being able to earn EQMs through revenue flying on Alaska and its global airline partners:
- Alaska Mileage Plan is counting credit card spending toward status, at the rate of one EQM per $3 spent on the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® credit card (review) and Alaska Airlines Visa® Business card (review); members can earn up to 30,000 EQMs this way annually
- Alaska Mileage Plan is letting members earn 1,000 EQMs for every 3,000 miles earned with eligible everyday and travel partners, like on ridesharing, shopping portals, and more
- Alaska Mileage Plan is letting those who earn 85,000 EQMs in a year select 10,000 rollover EQMs as a milestone perks reward, though that’s not necessarily a great deal
How significant is earning elite status with award flights?
As someone who isn’t loyal to any one particular airline, I have to say that I find Alaska Mileage Plan crediting elite miles for award flights to be a very tempting opportunity.
For one, Alaska Mileage Plan has reasonable elite requirements, with no specific revenue requirement. MVP Gold status gets you oneworld Sapphire status, while MVP Gold 75K status and above gets you oneworld Emerald status.
For someone who redeems a lot of miles for award travel, I’d say that going all-in on Mileage Plan could make a lot of sense. The way I view it, there are only a few downsides and considerations:
- Alaska Mileage Plan has great partner airline revenue mileage earning rates if booking through Alaska, though if booking directly through the partner, rates aren’t nearly as good; this is worth noting if you’re considering an overall strategy of crediting miles to the program
- While Alaska now partly counts credit card spending toward status, you’re capped at 30,000 elite qualifying miles, and the earnings rates are quite low
- Alaska Mileage Plan miles can be hard to accrue, since the program doesn’t partner with most major transferable points currencies; however, the program does often sell miles at a reasonable cost
I’ve written about my airline elite status strategy, and about how I’ve had American AAdvantage Executive Platinum status, but likely won’t requalify. I must admit, I’m mighty tempted to make the switch to Alaska Mileage Plan, even though the carrier’s network is small at my home airport of Miami:
- Mileage Plan has excellent award redemption rates on American, so a lot of my domestic American flights are award flights with Mileage Plan miles
- Alaska and American offer reciprocal elite perks beyond just standard oneworld benefits, so I’d receive many similar rewards
The way I view it, if you’re a super redeemer who books a significant amount of award travel through Mileage Plan, this has the potential to be a game changer. Meanwhile if you’re someone who mostly earns elite status through credit card spending or revenue flying, then it’s probably not the exclusive reason to be loyal to the program, since you won’t earn elite status as fast with Mileage Plan credit card spending.
Bottom line
As of 2025, Alaska Mileage Plan is starting to award one elite qualifying mile for every award mile flown, regardless of the cabin or partner airline you’re traveling on. This applies as long as you are redeeming Mileage Plan miles, and have your Mileage Plan number on the reservation.
We’ve never seen a lucrative loyalty program be quite this generous when it comes to rewarding award travel. Given Alaska’s huge array of airline partners, I can’t help but be very tempted by this opportunity.
Is your airline loyalty being impacted by Alaska awarding elite status with award flights?
Not pleased with Alaska bought first class ticket at the tail end of a 3 segment flight. They stated my flight from Seattle to Dallas was too short for lounge access.
Darn so for partner award business class we only earn 1EQM per mile. No bonus?
@ Kevin -- That's correct, and I'd say that's pretty great.
Haha I’m not trying to complain. But I was wishing
@Ben ---> Any time I book on AA, I credit the mileage to AS. If I can book the ticket thru AS (codeshare), I earn the same number of miles I would if I were on AS metal. If I book via AA, depending upon the fare bucket, it can be close.
Contrary to what @yoloswag420 has said, I find it's easier than ever to maintain my MVP Gold status, and perhaps (this year)...
@Ben ---> Any time I book on AA, I credit the mileage to AS. If I can book the ticket thru AS (codeshare), I earn the same number of miles I would if I were on AS metal. If I book via AA, depending upon the fare bucket, it can be close.
Contrary to what @yoloswag420 has said, I find it's easier than ever to maintain my MVP Gold status, and perhaps (this year) beyond.
This coming year, I'm earning 8k+ miles flying from Hawai'i to Japan on JAL using AS miles and booking thru AS. That's miles I would previously never received, and means I'll re-qualify as MVP Gold by the end of May, and puts MVP Gold 75k within reach...
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
@OT ---> I cannot comment on the availability of award tickets on SQ or KE; I've never tried to book tix on those carriers. But I will say that personally, as long as I'm flexible in my planning, I have never had a problem finding two tickets in J for my wife and I to travel to ______________.
Do we know if an award booked through Mileage Plan but from someone else’s account in your name would still credit? Or does the redemption have to originate in your own account?
same question
Sadly, Alaska is showing no award availability on SQ or KE, two of the potentially useful carriers for this benefit. So it all seems a bit hypothetical.
You can forget about sq. They are useless for redemption booking.. it is very rare it every shows up
Honestly, it's become harder than ever to earn Alaska status.
Partner business class bookings were the best way to earn EQM, but now the earnings have been slashed in half unless you book directly on Alaska.
And booking on Alaska can be hard since it doesn't even necessarily offer the itinerary you want and even if it does, it's often heavily marked up by thousands of dollars.
Perhaps it's a bit of unconscious bias from...
Honestly, it's become harder than ever to earn Alaska status.
Partner business class bookings were the best way to earn EQM, but now the earnings have been slashed in half unless you book directly on Alaska.
And booking on Alaska can be hard since it doesn't even necessarily offer the itinerary you want and even if it does, it's often heavily marked up by thousands of dollars.
Perhaps it's a bit of unconscious bias from the author, but Delta's MQDs for award flights is actually better still since you earn proportional to the cost of the award.
On Alaska, you only earn EQM proportional to the distance meaning a 37.5k Starlux economy award earns the same as a 75k Starlux business award, despite the latter costing 2x and being much more difficult to book.
Realistically, Alaska MVP status has been downgraded a lot for premium cabin travelers.
Not worth it. I have OW Emerald with AA and want that number attached to the reservation. Too valuable for AA and (comically) AS upgrades, and also overseas OW security and lounges.
It is really not as big a deal as many bloggers are swooning, and that includes your initial article, Ben. And this is not game changer, even for big spender. Let's do some math.
If you are a big spender, I personally believe 10RDM will translate to 1EQM for "good" value J redemptions:
-70k for LAX-FRA-PRG on DE which is about 6000 miles, 1EQM=11.5RDM
-15k for ADD-DOH-KWI on QR which is 1750...
It is really not as big a deal as many bloggers are swooning, and that includes your initial article, Ben. And this is not game changer, even for big spender. Let's do some math.
If you are a big spender, I personally believe 10RDM will translate to 1EQM for "good" value J redemptions:
-70k for LAX-FRA-PRG on DE which is about 6000 miles, 1EQM=11.5RDM
-15k for ADD-DOH-KWI on QR which is 1750 miles (the max distance you can get in the 1500 mile band for QR F lounge because AS is buggy), 1EQM=8.5RDM
So around 1EQM=10RDM. This means to qualify for MVP Gold75K, with 80% through redemption, you need to redeem 600k miles. If you already have half a million miles through spending on a card, you will get top status with any airline in US. If you can transfer to HA and then to AS that many miles, you already have enough AMEX points to fly comfortable every single time anyway.
So even for big spenders, this is not really anywhere near a good deal. The only "good deal" scenario I can see is someone with unbelievable amount of time, an iron body, and a huge stash of AMEX points can speculatively transfer millions into AS and fly on Y all the time.
Oh, the best part? both examples I showed above are not bookable because AS's redemption system is completely broken. Neither of these are bookable even if you call in. Why? Who knows? It refuses to combine certain shorthaul awards to long hauls such as in DE. And QR regional first is recognized as J if you combine them with long haul J, or another regional first, but if you try to connect with regional J, it refuses to do that. So for many routes that is the backbone of QR routings, you can only get Y.
Many other "quirks" exist that it rivals AV. Want to do HKG-TPE-OKA on JX J with stopover? Sorry that automatically pushes the buggy system to the highest tier, 130k instead of 15k. Want to get some unique routes through HU? sorry all awards are blocked for almost a year now. Ready to redeem some JL longhaul J? Sorry it is all phantom, try again. Sadly nobody talks about them and how they significantly affect the value proposition.
While AS is moving toward allowing people to earn status easier with flying, BA is moving in the exact opposite direction. I guess that must have something to do with the lack of competition in London.
This is a great chance, at least for me. San Diego is a focus city for AS and I'm currently MVP Gold. American will start flying out of Carlsbad (CLD) to Phoenix. I live in Carlsbad and have a home in Scottsdale. 4500 Alaska miles gets me a one way flight and I don't have to deal with San Diego traffic.
You can transfer Amex points to Hawaiian and then transfer those miles to Alaska at the moment. When the programs merge it will be interesting to see if Alaska replaces Hawaiian as an Amex transfer partner or not.
https://www.hawaiianairlines.com/about-us/alaska#:~:text=You%20now%20have%20the%20ability,or%20Alaska%20Airlines%20partner%20flights.
Delta or United have devalued their miles so much that earning a few elite qualifying miles on top means very little (at least to me). By comparison, Alaska miles have been much more useful and valuable, even with its most recent devaluation. For Oneworld elite status, I'm going to switch to Alaska, even though Alaska operates only a few flights from here on the East Coast.
Surprised to see so much negativity on the comments section. This is a very positive update. The fact that Delta and United already offer it doesn't detract from the significance of this.
Nice!
Upcoming DOH-SIN Q suite award flight credited to Alaska!
The premium card they teased will likely have a better earning rate and a higher spending cap
Any idea if award travel on Hawaiian can be credited toward Alaska status? Have an upcoming HNL>SYD award flight that would be great to earn EQMs on.
Even though AS gives EQMs for partner awards and that is new, you should probably also mention out of the big 3, only United awards PQPs for award flights on their own metal.
That was rather unique when they first introduced it.
My bad Delta does it too.
@ Pete -- Yeah, at this point American is the outlier by not offering this in some form.
Wrong, Ben. Delta has allowed status earn on ALL award since January 1, 2024. Give credit where it is due even if you don't care for their program. Clearly AS just stole a page from their book.
@ Captain Bo -- Totally fair, I keep forgetting Delta, since partner award redemptions aren't exactly a great deal. I updated the post to reflect that, though... thanks!
This big issue here is the variable pricing they have introduced on their partner awards - the fact that discounted J awards made open to alliance partners prices at exorbitant prices now. Look at Aer Lingus or Starlux - there isn't a single seat ever available at the appropriate price. It's taken the value of Alaska miles way down.
Would be curious your take, for someone who flies a mix of paid Alaska and American...
This big issue here is the variable pricing they have introduced on their partner awards - the fact that discounted J awards made open to alliance partners prices at exorbitant prices now. Look at Aer Lingus or Starlux - there isn't a single seat ever available at the appropriate price. It's taken the value of Alaska miles way down.
Would be curious your take, for someone who flies a mix of paid Alaska and American domestically, which airline program should be your primary for status. I used to carry top tier on both before shifting all to AA with Alaska joining OneWorld, as I'm primarily AA metal, but still about 20% of my flights on AS.
@ Sam -- I hear you about the variable pricing, though I also think it's important to acknowledge that this is really just rule-buster pricing in situations where there's not saver level award availability (and most other partners would have no options on those carriers in those situations).
You're absolutely right that saver availability on those airline is very difficult to come by, and that's super frustrating. In fairness, though, the lack of partner award...
@ Sam -- I hear you about the variable pricing, though I also think it's important to acknowledge that this is really just rule-buster pricing in situations where there's not saver level award availability (and most other partners would have no options on those carriers in those situations).
You're absolutely right that saver availability on those airline is very difficult to come by, and that's super frustrating. In fairness, though, the lack of partner award availability is really an issue across so many airlines nowadays.
I mean, just look at American availability on carriers like CX, EY, QF, QR, etc. It's not American's fault the partners aren't releasing award space. But I also wouldn't view it as a negative that Alaska simply makes more seats available at a higher cost.
Seems to me that it doesn't help that alot of oneworld airlines outside of the states allows 360 days out booking award seats and alaska and , American it's 330 days out so right away your at a disadvantage and it's not like these airlines release 5 or 6 business class seats like pre covid was always the case on cathay or jal..
One reason considering switching to qatar mileage plus they let you pool miles onto one if your a family which is great IMO aswell
One of the best things Alaska could do for awards would be to shift their calendar to 366 days out...
Another issue is the practice of mileage brokers grabbing all the premium seats and reselling them to their clients. I really thought this article was going to announce that redemption of award flights would FIRST go to elite members and then to non-flyers (mileage brokers). Now that would be a fantastic enhancement that rewards AS most loyal customers.