I have spoken at length before about Alaska Airlines and their excellent customer service but this one just tops the cake.
If you weren’t aware, Alaska purchased Virgin America a while back but as of January 9th, 2017, you could begin transferring Virgin Elevate Points to Alaska at a ratio of 1:1.3. I wrote about the arbitrage opportunity because of this but if you didn’t/couldn’t take advantage of this, you may get a surprise in your Mileage Plan account as many people have been reporting that they have received 10,000 Alaska Miles out of the blue on the 8th.
Many were left wondering why they did not receive the miles, myself included. Yesterday, Alaska released the following statement:
We understand that many Mileage Plan members have questions about a surprise 10,000 mile gift that started appearing in some accounts last night, and we wanted to help put some of the mystery to rest. We can’t wait to show members of both programs what more to love looks like with Alaska Mileage Plan, and decided to kick things off with a 10,000 mile bonus award to thank our guests who have been loyal members of both Elevate and Mileage Plan. The gift process is expected to be completed over the course of next couple of days, and eligible members — which includes guests who were active in both Elevate and Mileage Plan as of December 5, 2016 — should look for an email from Mileage Plan later this week. Elevate members who don’t have a Mileage Plan account will be invited to activate one, along with details about their own special welcome offer, how to convert points, and status matching. For now, please sit tight, and we’ll be sharing more information about what members have to look forward to in the next couple of days.
So basically, if you had both an Alaska Mileage Plan and a Virgin Elevate account as of December 5th, 2016, you should receive the 10,000 mile bonus!
I called to confirm with Alaska that I would be eligible and the representative told me that she saw a pending “Special Services” credit on my account and that I should see the bonus in the next couple of days.
I would recommend calling into Alaska at 1-800-252-7522 to confirm that they have linked your Alaska account and your Virgin account and that you are eligible for the free 10,000 miles.
If the wait time is too long, Alaska has also created a webpage to link accounts, though I am always of fan of getting confirmation from a real person. For those that want to give the form a shot, you can find it at https://www.alaskaair.com/elevatemember/activate.
If you haven’t already signed up for the Alaska Airlines World Elite Mastercard, take a read through my review and find out how you can get 25,000 miles for $15.
With Alaska’s new route redemption rules, you really can go to a lot of places for those miles.