Alaska Airlines is the latest airline to announce status extensions, following Air Canada, Delta & United. Current status will be extended through December 31st, 2021. In addition all companion certificates that expire in 2020 will be extended until December 31st, 2020 for travel through November 26th, 2021.
Finally they extended companion passes. Good on Alaska.
has it taken effect yet? haven’t seen mine extended
I can see mine extended till end of June, don’t see end of year yet
I think they need to extend the rollover EQM to the entirety of 2020 or else they’re telling people who already have status but won’t be able to hit a higher tier to go be free agents for the rest of the year and then come back on January 1. Obviously people with status would still presumably look at Alaska first, but it’s going to be a lot easier to decide to check out the competition if you don’t like your flight time options or the price point. Example:
I have Alaska MVP. I have a wedding in Boston at the end of October that for right now I’m assuming is far enough out that it’ll still happen. The only eastbound LAX-BOS nonstop on Alaska is at 7 AM (which was true even before all the coronavirus schedule reductions started happening), which is a time I really don’t want to fly, but which I’d been considering for the EQM. But if I’m already set on maintaining MVP for next year and the EQM for that flight are going to go to waste instead of helping me requalify for MVP in 2022 (or maybe even hit MVPG next year), why would I even consider such an early flight when multiple competitors offer a spread of more reasonable flight times at similar prices? Normally the fact that the EQM I’d be earning on the competitor would be throwaway, but in this situation I wouldn’t care since the EQM I’d be earning on Alaska would also be throwaway.
I’m usually willing to be flexible and let Alaska’s schedule be the primary decider of exactly what time I fly, but if I don’t need the EQM this year and they’re not going to get me anything next year then while I’m still going to check out options on Alaska first, I’m going to be a lot quicker to checkout out their competitors if it’s a flight time or price point I’m not super stoked about.