Many travel loyalty programs offer the ability to earn lifetime elite status. Ordinarily elite status has to be earned on an annual basis, so it sure is nice to be able to not worry about requalifying for status anymore.
In this post, I want to take a look at how Alaska Mileage Plan lifetime status works. While Alaska isn’t as global as the “big three” US carriers, the airline is in the oneworld alliance, and a compelling lifetime recognition program.
Separately, I’ve written about lifetime elite status with American AAdvantage, Delta SkyMiles, and United MileagePlus. On the hotel front, I’ve also written about lifetime elite status with Hilton Honors, Marriott Bonvoy, and World of Hyatt.
In this post:
How to earn Alaska Mileage Plan lifetime status
Alaska Mileage Plan’s million miler program is rewarding, though earning lifetime status can be challenging. That’s because only “butt-in-seat” revenue miles on Alaska Airlines count toward lifetime status, so this requires a lot of commitment and loyalty. Alaska Airlines has two lifetime status thresholds, so let’s go over the details of those.
Lifetime Alaska MVP Gold status (one million miler)
Those who earn one million miler status with Alaska Airlines receive MVP Gold status for life, and will also receive status for a companion. MVP Gold is one of Alaska’s mid-tier elite status thresholds, so that’s pretty valuable, especially since it also offers oneworld Sapphire status. Note that million milers receive upgrade priority over those in the same elite tier and fare class who aren’t million milers.
In addition to the status, you’ll be able to select a one-time gift from a custom catalog, which will be emailed to you upon earning the status.
Lifetime Alaska MVP Gold 75K status (two million miler)
Those who earn two million miler status with Alaska Airlines receive MVP Gold 75K status for life, and will also receive status for a companion. This is Alaska’s second highest elite tier, after MVP Gold 100K status. Alaska MVP Gold 75K status comes with oneworld Emerald status, which is my favorite alliance elite tier. Note that million milers receive upgrade priority over those in the same elite tier and fare class who aren’t million milers.
Alaska’s million miler elite qualifying miles boost
Alaska Airlines also gives million milers a status boost of elite qualifying miles every year. Those who earn one million miler status receive 20,000 bonus elite qualifying miles annually, while those who earn two million miler status receive 40,000 bonus elite qualifying miles annually.
This can hugely come in handy if you’re trying to achieve an elite tier that’s higher than that of your lifetime status, or if you want to unlock milestone perks. In other words, if you’re a two million miler, you’d only need to accrue 60,000 additional elite qualifying miles to earn MVP Gold 100K status, after factoring in your boost of 40,000 elite qualifying miles.
Alaska’s million miler companion benefit
Alaska Airlines million milers are able to share status with someone in their household. They can share the higher of their lifetime elite status, or their earned status in a particular year. In other words, if you earned MVP Gold 100K status in a particular year, you could share that with a companion. The companion benefit can be requested at this link, and will automatically renew every January.
Alaska Mileage Plan lifetime status FAQs
While the above covers the basics of Alaska’s million miler program, let me answer some of the questions people may have about the program.
What counts toward Alaska million miler status?
Only paid, “butt-in-seat” miles on Alaska Airlines count toward million miler status. Flights on partner airlines, class of service bonuses, award flights, etc., all don’t count toward lifetime status.
Can you earn lifetime Alaska status with credit card spending?
Nope, you can earn lifetime status exclusively through how many miles you fly on Alaska Airlines. While spending on Alaska’s co-branded credit cards can earn you elite qualifying miles, this doesn’t count toward lifetime status.
How can you track your Alaska million miler status progress?
When you log into your Mileage Plan account just scroll down, and you’ll see a section that shows your lifetime Alaska miles, which would be the miles that count toward million miler status.
Do Alaska million miler miles expire?
Miles toward million miler status will continue to accrue over the lifetime of your account. Unlike elite qualifying miles, they don’t reset each calendar year.
Also keep in mind that miles toward million miler status are completely separate from redeemable miles, as you can’t use million miler miles toward anything. It’s simply a tally of how many total miles you’ve flown on Alaska Airlines over the years.
Can you earn lifetime MVP Gold 100K status?
While Alaska Airlines lets members earn top-tier MVP Gold 100K status on an annual basis, there’s no way to earn lifetime MVP Gold 100K status. That could certainly be added in the future, but isn’t available yet.
What are the benefits of Alaska MVP Gold & MVP Gold 75K status?
What are the benefits of Alaska Airlines elite status? Some of the most popular benefits of Alaska MVP Gold status include:
- Complimentary upgrades to first class up to 72 hours before departure, including for companions
- Complimentary upgrades to Premium Class up to 72 hours before departure, including for companions
- Priority check-in, boarding, and security
- Two complimentary checked bags
- A 50% mileage bonus
- oneworld Sapphire status
Some of the most popular benefits of Alaska MVP Gold 75K status include:
- Complimentary upgrades to first class up to 120 hours before departure, including for companions
- Complimentary upgrades to Premium Class at time of booking, including for companions
- Priority check-in, boarding, and security
- Three complimentary checked bags
- A 100% mileage bonus
- oneworld Emerald status
Bottom line
Alaska Airlines offers a lifetime status program, whereby you can receive MVP Gold status for flying one million miles on Alaska, and MVP Gold 75K status for flying two million miles on Alaska. You can even nominate a companion in your household to receive the same status, which is awesome. The Mileage Plan lifetime status program is both rewarding and difficult to earn, given that the only metric for qualifying is miles flown on Alaska.
Are any OMAAT readers Alaska Airlines million mile flyers?
So, I just passed 2 million actual "butt-seat" miles with AS after 33 years of flying with them.
The confusion is that the AS profile clearly shows mileage accumulation and Lifetime Mile accumulation but they have NOT updated to show EQM accumulation....
Also, one big perk (and I boycotted AS Lounges for 15 years when they dropped Priority Pass and also started charging ridiculous annual fee for very few lounges) that I received as...
So, I just passed 2 million actual "butt-seat" miles with AS after 33 years of flying with them.
The confusion is that the AS profile clearly shows mileage accumulation and Lifetime Mile accumulation but they have NOT updated to show EQM accumulation....
Also, one big perk (and I boycotted AS Lounges for 15 years when they dropped Priority Pass and also started charging ridiculous annual fee for very few lounges) that I received as 2 Million Miler is a Lifetime Lounge+ membership.
As I understand it, Award miles will count as EQMs, not at redeemable, and not as MMQMs. I haven't seen anything to the contrary, nor has there been an explicit statement that Award miles will definitively count as MMQMs.
If Award miles will count to MMQMs, I expect it will only be Alaska metal, but I'm suspecting that they won't count. It really doesn't make sense from an incentive perspective to make them count,...
As I understand it, Award miles will count as EQMs, not at redeemable, and not as MMQMs. I haven't seen anything to the contrary, nor has there been an explicit statement that Award miles will definitively count as MMQMs.
If Award miles will count to MMQMs, I expect it will only be Alaska metal, but I'm suspecting that they won't count. It really doesn't make sense from an incentive perspective to make them count, unless it's part of the move to drain high-balance accounts.
Of course, we'll have the answer as soon as the credits start posting.
What counts toward Alaska million miler status?
Only paid, “butt-in-seat” miles on Alaska Airlines count toward million miler status.
@Ben - You are correct and TP Man is wrong. Here is the verbiage from the Alaska Airlines website: Award travel Starting January 1, 2025, earn 1 EQM for every mile flown on award-travel—including travel on our Global Partners. (EQMs earned will post in the Spring.)
What am I missing ? Does flying...
What counts toward Alaska million miler status?
Only paid, “butt-in-seat” miles on Alaska Airlines count toward million miler status.
@Ben - You are correct and TP Man is wrong. Here is the verbiage from the Alaska Airlines website: Award travel Starting January 1, 2025, earn 1 EQM for every mile flown on award-travel—including travel on our Global Partners. (EQMs earned will post in the Spring.)
What am I missing ? Does flying Global Partners Award travel count toward million miler status?
@Dan
The Alaska website states: "Bonus miles and partner mileage activity do not count toward the accumulation of 1,000,000 miles."
does this mean that award flights on Alaska now count towards million miler status?
@Ben: Alaska said in a blog post that 3 million lifetime miles will confer lifetime MVP Gold 100K. (Apparently the first person to achieve this did it this past October.)
https://news.alaskaair.com/mileage-plan/record-breaking-loyalty-3-million-miler-sets-record-flying-alaska-airlines/
Sat next to him SEA-JFK in F a few weeks ago, he files weekly, sometimes in the back. The horror.
I’m not certain that as bis award flights will count but prior to the new plan updates, they certainly did not.
MM Household, both 100ks
Ben, 1 small correction.
As of 2025, award redemptions do count towards both Alaska status and Alaska million-milers.
You even had an article a couple months ago, talking about this. So I'd update that in the "what counts" section of this post...
@ Toilet Paper Man -- So I know that award flights now count as EQMs, but I've seen no official update that they count toward MM status. Did I miss something, or should I follow-up with an AS spokesperson to confirm?
Whichever is the answer, a fundamental disconnect is most loyalty programs are the differing metrics for annual tier status qualification and lifetime tier status qualification. We've seen annual qualification include some revenue channels (but not others). But, lifetime qualification remains with physical miles (or a multiple thereof) . . . not motivating the long-term customer to spend in any revenue channel other that airfare.
@Ben - You are correct and TP Man is wrong. Here is the verbiage from the Alaska Airlines website:
Award travel
Starting January 1, 2025, earn 1 EQM for every mile flown on award-travel—including travel on our Global Partners. (EQMs earned will post in the Spring.)