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Per Alaska Airlines, Mileage Plan elites will finally receive two free bags when traveling on Virgin America starting sometime this spring. This cross-plan courtesy was notably absent when the airlines competed their merger this past December. A number of generous benefits were awarded to Virgin America Elevate elites shortly after acquisition date, but free bags to Alaska Airline Mileage Plan elites were conspicuously absent. Alaska also indicated that additional benefits would be awarded to elite Mileage Plan members later this summer, namely better seating options in the economy cabin, and the opportunity to purchase first class upgrades before non-elites.
The noticed came in an email from Alaska Airlines, as well as being published on their website.
Alaska Airlines and Virgin America have been aggressively adding cross benefits to their respective plans since the close of Alaska’s purchase of Virgin America on December 14th, 2016. Since then we have seen the following integrations take place.
Timeline of activity for Virgin America Elevate and Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan programs
On November 13, 2016 before the completion of the merger:
Virgin Atlantic will no longer be a partner of Virgin America.
And yet Virgin America still has some lounge access with Virgin Atlantic.
On December, 19th 2016 five days after the acquisition you could:
Earn reciprocal program and status miles between the Mileage Plan and Elevate programs.
Elite members of both programs received reciprocal priority check-in and boarding.
Virgin America flights can be purchased online at the Alaska Airlines website.
By the December 20th, 2016 we had also learned:
Virgin Elevate members were auto matched to the same status level for 2017 as 2016, regardless if they qualified in 2016 or not.
Virgin Elevate Silver would be auto matched to Alaska MVP. Virgin Elevate Gold would be auto matched to Alaska MVP Gold.
Virgin America Elevate miles would be able to transfer at a rate of 1 to 1.3 Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles.
On January 9th, 2017, major updates to the integration took place including:
Alaska Flyers will be able to use points to redeem Virgin America flights.
A free 10,000-mile bonus in Mileage Plan accounts.
Very generous award availability of Virgin first class online in the website booking engine of Alaska Airline for Mileage Plan members.
On January 14th, 2017 Alaska awarded free status upgrades:
Alaska Airlines upgraded members of the Mileage Plan program with complimentary MVP elite status for 2017.
On March 6th, 2017, in was announce by Alaska Airlines that:
Alaska Airline Mileage Plan elites will receive 2 free bags on Virgin America in the Spring of 2017.
In the summer of 2017 Alaska Airline Mileage Plan elites will receive:
– Access to Preferred Main Cabin seating with Virgin America.
– Main Cabin Select upgrade eligibility with Virgin America.
– Access to the advance window for first class upgrades with Virgin America.
