Reader S writes:
“Thanks for all your insights.
I live in Seattle and wanted to know what your thoughts are on which airline frequent flier plan I should focus on.
We travel 3-4 times a year. We mainly like to go to Hawaii, California with occasional trips to Asia (Korea) and Europe.
Thanks a bunch!”
MJ on Travel Responds:
“Thanks for your email. This is just my opinion, but I think your
location and places you want to fly fit perfectly with Alaska Airlines
Mileage Plan. They offer flights to the destinations you mention, and
for the destinations that they don’t serve, Korea and Europe, you
could fly Other airlines including AA, BA, or Delta and credit your
mileage to your Alaska account since these airlines (and others) are
partners with Alaska.
Consider the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature card as well. Not only
will you earn extra miles, the card comes with an annual $99 dollar
companion certificate valid in any class of service.
You can find details about Alaska’s mileage program, partners and
credit cards at alaskaair.com/mileageplan.”
Hi Marshall; Great tips for flying out of Seattle. I am in edmonds and it can take 2+ hours before and after Boarding to get out of town. Would you be interested in covering a novel travel resource? We are social flights – a ride sharing service for private jets. We are centered in Nashville but we are opening Travel Circles in cities all over the US – most recently we’re in Seattle. A travel circle is where communities can get together to share a private airplane somewhere – the cost goes down on a per seat basis when the costs are shared in both directions. As we all know, the airlines are pulling out of many small markets leaving millions stranded without service or driving hours to a big hub. Social Flights is a viable option for communities. I’d love to speak with you or any one of your colleagues since there are many aspects to our story. Thanks – looking forward to hearing from you – Dan http://socialflights.com Thanks again.
If you don’t care about elite status I would say it doesn’t matter – focus more on the best credit card bonuses which will naturally diversify you over many airline programs. The “butt in seat” miles from 3-4 trips per year will pale in comparison to the amount of miles you can accumulate from credit card bonuses and other promotions.
If you are going to fly enough to get status I would actually recommend DL over AS unless you plan to fly much on AA. In 2011 I flew just enough to get MVP status on AS. In hindsight I wished I had put all those miles on DL because I also got DL silver medallion status in 2011 from one of the MR transfer promotions. It would have been much better to put everything on DL and gotten gold medallion on DL.
Whatever you do, definitely sign up for the AS credit card. The only reason I got MVP status (which again could have also generated DL medallion status) was flying 3-4 trips in first class to Mexico, Hawaii, etc. on companion tickets (which you get with the AS credit card). Using companion tickets our cost to fly first class was less than $700 / person and my companion also got MVP status.
Ya’ know, you’re right. I need to write a post about that, and will start that right now. Frankly, I thought Alaska was great. I don’t know what it was about their coach seats, but they were very comfortable to me. People were very nice.
Great advice. BTW, I know you flew Alaska recently but never read a review. What did you think about their product?
Delta and now American recognizes AS elites.
Alaska Airlines has great onboard service.
Korean Air, another partner of Alaska, has nonstop flights to Seoul (ICN).