In late 2023, Alaska Airlines and Porter Airlines announced plans to collaborate. The partnership has been very slow to ramp up. In early 2025, we finally saw the carriers introduce reciprocal mileage earning opportunities, and now we’ve seen the companies introduce reciprocal mileage redemption opportunities. Let’s cover all the details.
In this post:
Alaska Mileage Plan & Porter partnership details
Alaska Airlines and Porter Airlines have a partnership, intended to take advantage of Porter’s strong presence across Eastern Canada, and Alaska’s US West Coast links, to provide passengers more flight options between coasts.
For context, Porter has historically operated De Havilland Dash 8-400 turboprops out of Toronto Billy Bishop Airport (YTZ), though has lately taken on a new strategy, as the airline is now competing across North America out of Toronto Pearson Airport (YYZ), thanks to new Embraer E195-E2s. Porter has launched flights across the United States, including to Alaska gateways like Los Angeles and San Francisco.
In late 2023, this partnership initially kicked off as an interline agreement, so that passengers could purchase itineraries that include travel on both airlines through the Alaska or Porter websites, or through online travel agencies. However, over time, we’ve seen this partnership improved, with reciprocal opportunities to earn and redeem miles.
Earn Alaska miles for travel on Porter
As of January 2025, it’s possible to earn Alaska Mileage Plan miles for all Porter flights, regardless of whether you book through the websites of Alaska or Porter. You can also earn VIPorter rewards for all Alaska flights, though I think the Mileage Plan angle is probably more interesting for the OMAAT community.
For those looking to earn Mileage Plan miles, the earnings rates differ based on whether you book through Alaska’s website or Porter’s website. Below is the mileage earning chart for partner flights booked through the Alaska site (PorterClassic fares earn 100% elite qualifying miles, while PorterReserve fares earn 150% elite qualifying miles).
Below is the mileage earning chart for partner flights booked through partner sites (PorterClassic fares earn 50% elite qualifying miles, while PorterReserve fares earn 100% elite qualifying miles).
The catch is that you won’t necessarily find the same fares on the websites of the two airlines. Porter sells a lot more discounted fare bundles directly, which aren’t bookable through Alaska. Furthermore, Porter frequently has promo codes for flights, and they are only valid if booking directly through Porter.
So everyone will want to compare options directly, but in most situations, you’re probably better off booking direct with Porter, at least if you’re simply looking for the best price.
There are some advantages to booking through Alaska. Obviously you’d get better mileage earning. On top of that, you could use Alaska Wallet funds to pay for a Porter flight when booking that way. Similarly, if you needed to cancel, you could get Alaska Wallet funds for the cancelation. So for some people, booking through Alaska might be worth it, even if it’s more expensive.
Redeem Alaska miles for travel on Porter
New as of July 2025, Alaska Mileage Plan has rolled out award redemptions for Porter flights. Pricing follows the standard Alaska Mileage Plan award chart, which you’ll find below.
PorterClassic tickets follow the economy chart, while PorterReserve tickets follow the premium economy chart. Note that this is just “starting at” pricing, so in some cases there might not be saver level award availability, but there are awards at higher (dynamic) costs.
The redemption values here are potentially awesome, especially when you consider what a nice experience Porter offers. For example, you could fly from Tampa (TPA) to Toronto for 7,500 miles in economy, or 10,000 miles in premium economy.
That’s a solid value, and I think this is a redemption option that will come in handy for many!
My take on the Alaska & Porter partnership
I’m thrilled to see this partnership, mainly because Porter now partners with a major frequent flyer program, with reciprocal earning and redemption options. I’ve been curious to fly with Porter, but Porter hasn’t had any major airline partners prior to Alaska. Therefore I’d consider this to be a huge value-add.
That being said, in terms of commercial cooperation, I’d say this partnership is better than nothing, but not exactly a match made in heaven. When you look at the Canadian airline industry, Air Canada belongs to Star Alliance (and partners with United), and WestJet partners with Delta, and that doesn’t leave a whole lot for Alaska, American, and the oneworld alliance.
As Porter continues to grow, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the airline eventually either join the oneworld alliance, or cooperate more closely with American as well. I feel like this might be the first step in that direction.
Bottom line
In late 2023, Alaska Airlines and Porter Airlines launched a partnership. Initially this just consisted of an interline agreement, though we’ve increasingly seen reciprocity rolled out. Earlier this year, reciprocal mileage earning opportunities were introduced, and now we’ve seen reciprocal mileage redemption opportunities made available.
Given that Air Canada and WestJet already have partnerships with major US airlines, and also given the pace at which Porter is growing, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is all the first step toward closer oneworld cooperation.
What do you make of the Alaska & Porter partnership?
Porter really would make a great OneWorld (OW+IAG partner) airline. They'd automatically get the ability to let their passengers fly to LHR and DUB (on BA & EI) via their major hub in Toronto. And Porter is already significantly larger in Toronto than WestJet.
not to mention the connectivity BA and EI could use in Canada
Ben said "I think the Mileage Plan angle is probably more interesting [than the VIPorter angle] for the OMAAT community." He's right.
- most of OMAAT community are US residents
- Most of OMAAT community can't easily get Canadian credit cards, VIPorter points
But if the two points don't apply to you and you have access to both Alaska Mileage Plan and VIPorter, do your homework. There's another reason for porter fliers to focus...
Ben said "I think the Mileage Plan angle is probably more interesting [than the VIPorter angle] for the OMAAT community." He's right.
- most of OMAAT community are US residents
- Most of OMAAT community can't easily get Canadian credit cards, VIPorter points
But if the two points don't apply to you and you have access to both Alaska Mileage Plan and VIPorter, do your homework. There's another reason for porter fliers to focus on AS points and not VIPorter points: award pricing. My anecdotal, nonscientific perusal of last-minute YYZ-LAS showed me porteReserve (Premium Economy) for 17,500 Alaska points, 89,000 VIPorter points. And in case any Americans are jealous, suspecting we have a sneaky Canadian advantage on your home-grown airline...
porter points are more expensive to earn than Alaska miles. The best VIPorter credit card (issued by BMO in Canada) earns one point for USD$0.68 on unbonused spend.
20k Bonus earned if CAD$5k spent in 3 mos
20k added if CAD$9k total spent in 6 mos (bonus witheld until 180 days after account opening, regardless of when Spend is achieved)
30k added if CAD$18k total spent in 12 months (witheld until 365 days after account opening, regardless of when Spend is achieved).
If you've read this far, I bet you're liking your BoA Alaska VISA and Alaska's Mileage Plan.
Why is it so much worse in Canada? We have an expression: "Because Canada."
A few mistakes in the article.
The FF earn partnership starting in January 2024; with the promise of burn in 2024. This eventually came to fruition on July 1, 2025 (Canada Day ironically).
Remember, with booking through AS, you can cancel for free and redeposit to your wallet...what you showed was a Basic fare with porter. I do agree Porter can be very much cheaper; but a stack of fees come into play....
A few mistakes in the article.
The FF earn partnership starting in January 2024; with the promise of burn in 2024. This eventually came to fruition on July 1, 2025 (Canada Day ironically).
Remember, with booking through AS, you can cancel for free and redeposit to your wallet...what you showed was a Basic fare with porter. I do agree Porter can be very much cheaper; but a stack of fees come into play. Hence why AS is more expensive generally. But I say check both just in case. Booking through AS does give more MP earning of course....so theres that extra too.
Remember, when you burn miles with AS on Porter - You get EQM of the distance flown.
**having flown PD several times in the past week on AS mileage ticket....it posted as revenue....so a 22.5k ticket in PorterReserve only cost me 17k.....get it while the loophole still exists.
I've only had a couple of flights on Porter and a couple on Alaska, and all of them involved Dash-8s by some cosmic coincidence. Good experiences on both, so if they're cooperating (and I can charge my Alaska miles to AAdvantage), there may be more flights in the future. I don't think that an ORD-YYZ-SFO flight is too outrageous a backtrack to try out the E195-E2, an aircraft that I feel positively about.
Ben, I confess I used to chuckle every time I read you kvetch about individual air nozzles and then yesterday I plopped down into my J seat on AF's older A350 and reached up for the nozzle, found nothing...a felt such disappointment
They also fly out of Montreal to EWR and some other cities, and have plans to build a terminal at a smaller air field close to downtown Montreal.
American Airlines is very weak to Canada....seems like a missed opportunity for AA to not engage Porter. Maybe this is a precursor to Porter getting into Oneworld.
American Airlines is weak to anywhere that isn't Phoenix, Dallas, or Charlotte lmfao
I love both Alaska and Porter Airlines.
Canada is great, Toronto especially. What an incredible city most American cities can only dream of being.
Any avgeeks here who get a chance to fly into Billy Bishop (YTZ), do it! Do it as quickly as you'd retain a Paul, Weiss lawyer for any serious matter.
I regularly fly between Orlando and Toronto for work (once weekly), on Porter, booked via Alaska Airlines (75k here). When I originally started flying, I was getting the 100% mileage credit, but the last two months, the Alaska system only credits the 50% and you have to call in to get it corrected. Agents say they deal with it every day, so make sure you keep a close eye on the earnings after a flight!
Canada doesn’t have a One World airline so it would make sense. WestJet is getting close with Delta and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were fully let into SkyTeam sometime soon.