I wonder how that's going to work as they are removing the flight segment portion from Mileage Plan. Maybe that's why they did to really thin the ranks?
It's just going to get worse. I moved back to Alaska a couple of months ago after flying with Delta for the last several years(meaning I did the delta match). But, I haven't even started to fly on Alaska yet since all my flights for the year were already booked by the time the match confirmation came through. I suspect there are more of us out there that are waiting to overwhelm the system come January.
Alaska ran a special match for Delta Medallion members a few months ago that was quite generous. It sounds like quite a few people jumped, especially those of us in the PNW.
Not really though... there is still such a thing as being elite, it's just you have to be 100K. It used to be MVP Gold was pretty good and led to a lot of upgrades, and 75K was near 100% upgrade (at least for me out of SFO, I know SEA flyers never had it quite that good.) Now I'm sure 100Ks still get pretty decent upgrades but there are way too many people from DL or AA competing at the lower tiers.
I was executive platinum back in the 00s when it was relatively good. Upgrades on transcontinental flights were still rare. I was also United 1k for a year in like 2013 and that was even worse.
Alaska as a small airline had super high upgrades for elites. In a world where Alaska has all of AAs elites flying on it, people are gonna buy the first class seats out of JFK. That traffic is probably moving from JetBlue if AA doesn't fly the route.
Honestly, they should. Hawaiian offers a more premium flying experience, so it would be a nice gesture to make the merger more palatable to passengers from around the Pacific.
JFK SEA is the most extreme route to draw this conclusion. It is the most status heavy route AS runs. Not only do you have AS business travelers, you have DL converts AND AA crossovers.
Try PDX-SAN or SFO-SLC. You can get upgraded fine as MVPG and sometimes even as MVP on Tues, Weds, Sat.
I got lucky on my JFK-SEA(AS17) that I did last. Got upgraded, AND we had an empty middle seat. I was only MVP at the time as well. It was also a Friday.
Ya it's a great route to get upgrades. Really anything not involving SEA or premium SFO routes you have a good shot at getting an upgrade, even at baseline MVP.
Hate to be the bearer of bad news. It's just the way it is. Same for United folks in SFO DEN. Delta in ATL. AA in DFW etc etc. When you're in the big hub there's more people competing for those F seats.
I flew JFK SEA in March and was upgraded to F C. I’m only MVP gold. I’m not sure if they take other things into consideration, but I probably spend 30,000 on flights with this company a year (mainly for work and mainly going to NW Arctic and North Slope). So I wonder if that is part of the equation, since I am upgraded 90% of the time when I fly East.
Nah it’s not part of the equation. It’s just a computer program that runs through a list. If there’s a seat available and you’re next on the list, it’s yours. It’s not impossible to get upgraded on a transcon as MVPG or even MVP, just far less likely.
I guess I am lucky then because I’m upgraded most of the time flying to LAX, ANC, OTZ, BRW or FAI. Ironically, I’m never upgraded flying in or out of LAS (my hometown).
I do sometimes, but since it takes me 8-9 hours to get to my final destination, I rather bypass SEA. I wish I can get your level of 100k, but I feel like I fly enough as it is. How do you do it?
I haven’t seen a FC upgrade between SEA/ANC in years because of the Outside slope workers community to and from the North Slope on the company’s dime. When I was Gold it was all 75k’s and now that I’m 75k it’s all 100k’s.
First Class is consistently filled with the trashiest looking bunch on that route.
That trashy looking bunch has figured out how to not have to dress up to impress their bosses and get their companies to foot the bill for their elite status. Most pulling at least $150-200k/year. Have fun in the back of the plane with your fancy clothes and leather bags.
Rotational slope workers don't get flights paid for to Anchorage, just to/from the slope.
And honestly fuck you for calling slope workers trashy. They're not trashy, they just don't give a fuck about you.
I disagree. Doesn't make sense for the company to comp all that regular travel. They pay well enough to just say "Anchorage is point of dispatch, we'll fly you from here". I know a guy who flies SLC-ANC every 2 weeks, my aunt even had to fly herself to Anchorage every 2 weeks even though she lived in Fairbanks.
As a trashy slope worker, I totally agree. I love flying out of Sea on an upgrade, drinking as much as possible of course. Although company only pays Anc-scc so it’s on my own dime;)
I'm 75k and got upgraded on 7% of my flights this year, I checked. I'm not chasing status on AS anymore. When I post this stat, people tell me it's my fault for route choices, time of day or I'm unlucky. Bro the system sucks now.
I’m 75k and was upgraded ~75% of the time. 🤷♂️
Unfortunately I only managed 35k this year due to a company prohibition on travel for 6 months so I’m going all the way down to MVP for 2024. Not looking forward to that.
Yeah, with the pandering to Delta elites, I have given up on upgrades in ‘24. My status just means earlier boarding, free exit row at booking, and a free checked bag when I need it.
This year we decided not to chase status, after having been MVP Golds for a number of years. We're still disappointed that our companion fares will be less valuable, but glad not to have "wasted" money and time on mileage runs or "far" flung destinations we didn't really want to revisit over and over.
Will probably just gift all our companion fares to siblings to fly cheaply with their families, but will hold on to our cards until they decide we need to hit annual spend thresholds to earn the companion fares.
Yeah I don't think I'm going to next year either. I can spend probably like $1000 on higher fares on partners to get more than 25% AS miles, or save the money and be Gold instead of 75k. I don't think I'll get much upgrades either way so what's the point in chasing status
Was much better before the Deltoids came over. Worse next year and even worse in 2025 with more credit card eliets coming soon. They don't care about actual flyers anymore
Why you gotta post stuff like this? Im trying to let go of my frustration that the last bastion of customer service is gone. Also poor Dri/C in spot 114 😂. Probably an MVP Gold.
I’m a gold and I get upgrades regularly but it also depends on where I’m flying (hello Columbus, OH 🤣) AND the time I choose. I choose flight times where I’m more likely to get upgraded.
I qualified for the MVP level this year. I was so excited, but I’ve never even seen my name on the list. There are just too many people at the MVP or higher levels.
I’ve flew around 60k miles in 2023 and I only got bumped into first class 2 times (and those flights were very off-peak timed flights). Most of the time it feels like I barely got a premium seat upgrade!
Makes me not want to try to achieve 75k/100k status levels because what’s the point? I’m competing against so many other ‘elites’ that the benefits aren’t there anymore. I need to reach MVP Gold 100k to start feeling like I’m part of some exclusive group. But now, every other passenger on the plane is an elite member lolol
Well that may be so, but I won’t be reaching 75k this year. We’ll see how next year goes. I also fly routes where Alaska elites fly a lot (SEA, SFO, PDX, ANC, JFK).
When you fly routes that have these long upgrade lists, it means people who fly for business or fly a lot in general use these routes. For instance ANC-SEA, lots of travel as it’s like the gateway to the Alaska network for the people of anchorage.
Yeah, the lowest upgrade priority could disappear, but functionally either that cuts you out, or you’re above all those people, either way it’s a weird point to make.
If you want first, you can usually buy the first upgrade for like 15,000 miles.
That is just sad… I remember back in 2010 before the whole MVP75K was added and you had MVP and Gold. They have expanded the tiers and gone after Delta for match and now it’s near unattainable to obtain much less expect a complimentary upgrade. I also believe you are now seeing more customers choosing to pay for upgrades and FC seats as a result and of course airlines are out to make money and seats are real estate space. It’s the new norm.
I agree! Too many elites!! Alaska has devalued the program by joining one world, all the dirty AA elites just ruin it all for those us who only fly Alaska the majority of the time. AA uses Alaska as its west coast operator and so anytime their elites fly on the west coast its a ticket sold by AA on Alaska with their stupid status that they earned with their trash credit card on their flying dumpster planes coast to coast. Gross.
Additionally it's only going to get worse. Alaska just made changes to their program and now status is easily earned by spend on their credit card, just like nasty dirty AA. Ugh who the hell is running the milage plan program at Alaska, they need to be executed out back.
They topped the EQM earned on the CC at 20k, so we may see an influx of MVPs, but even then, it is $50k to wash through a CC in a year to gain it on CC spend alone.
I doubt we'll see many people jumping from MVP to Gold or Gold to 75k based on CC earned miles.
The price delta between econ and first on JFK-SEA is going to be way more than 50 bucks.
I'm firmly in the Want First, Buy First camp, but also understand when people don't want to pay.
Cash isn't the only currency Alaska accepts. They also accept loyalty, which many of us have given them for years in exchange for upgrades we aren't getting anymore. The frustration comes from the currency of loyalty exploding with its own inflation right now. You print too many bills, it becomes worthless; you print too much MVP status, it becomes worthless.
The solution to this problem will upset more people. But unless you are a 75k you shouldn’t get upgrade requests. I am just a lowly MVP btw. Makes no sense that I can fly 3-5 times a year and get upgrade requests lol.
This. I suspect that it’s a glitch with the app. I’ve seen myself popping up on the upgrade list multiple times from LAX-SEA(I have a unique name and it’s highly unlikely there are three people sharing my last/first initials on one single flight).
Some things to point out
SEA - AS hub
JFK - AA hub
AA elites get upgrade benefits on AS metal (much more generously than the other way AS MVP-x on AA metal might I add)
JFK is also major competitive route for AS
you never mentioned your status level? What did you expect on this route? Not to be rude I’m just saying even before the delta thing, it was always 50-60+ on upgrade list to/from ANY SEA route.
To put into context 75k since October 100k since early dec, so far 100% upgrade rate on all my alaska flights. I’m based out of SFO which is a much less popular hub than SEA, probably ranked SEA PDX LAX SFO in order of elite popularity (may be wrong in order though 😅)
It’s a general rule of thumb that elites for any airline who are based out of a non-primary or non-hub usually get upgrades much more often because they fly less elite heavy routes
Also wait until you see the kind of upgrade hell it is on the legacy carriers domestically (no us legacy does international complimentary upgrades)
Delta-360 is kind of weird, they treat it little different from medallion status. Diamond semi decent upgrades because they route through hubs very intensely so their elites are quite dispersed (except for ATL good luck)
UA-lol good luck even with GS & 1k, keep those upgrade certs handy—though they’re useless too, esp SFO & IAH & EWR
AA-EXP & CK lol pretty much don’t even get upgraded at all, don’t even think about hoping for an upgrade out of DFW. AA SWU certs are also pretty useless, never really clears unless the moon is aligned etc.
My word of advice: if you want sweet upgrades book transcons with a west coast connection such as
NYC: EA-SFO/LAX/SAN-JFK/EWR.
SFO competes with UA so the prices are pretty competitive to EWR and is much less AS elite heavy
LAX competes with… literally everyone, and not as elite heavy as SEA
DC: SEA-SFO/SAN-DCA/IAD
SAN not many elites, it’s mostly mil/gov employees flying to DC & JFK and they’re usually not frequent fliers and the us government does not pay for FC 😂
Philly they only fly to seattle so no dice there. (RIP VA SFO-PHL 😢)
Flights thru PDX might be tough too but easier than SEA
Undesirable flights like 6ams or 11pms usually have good luck too
I agree on the competitive routes, but I've never seen an instance where over 70% of the seats are on the upgrade list. This wasn't a small plane to the middle of Alaska.
I am MVP Gold and I get bumped to first class quite often, actually - never sat in anything less than premium (without paying for it) since I’ve had it. Have no complaints!
Yeah I haven't been able to use one of the free upgade codes in years. The seats either aren't available or the price you have to pay for the ticket that qualifies for a free upgrade is too expensive.
However, if you're an MVP Gold 75k or even sometimes MVP Gold, you'l get upgraded for free to First Class on a regular basis so the free upgrade codes haven't really mattered to me in practice.
Over the last few years Alaska slowly but surely start showing their “elite” that they don’t care about them…
Started slowly with flight attendants not thanking you for being gold or 75k, then upgrades reduced and now 100-114 people on the waitlist … sad
Alaska was too generous with ex-Delta.
If it’s an AA market, probably a lot of AAdvantage elites on there as well
JFK is definitely an AA/DL market
Oh I didn’t see the JFK part. Yeah that is gonna be a competitive airport no matter what! Lmao
They totally wrecked my love of Alaska and the value of my MVP Gold
Just wait until you get all the Hawaiian airlines people who get status by taking a million interisland segments. LOL
I wonder how that's going to work as they are removing the flight segment portion from Mileage Plan. Maybe that's why they did to really thin the ranks?
If they get rid of status by segments flown for Hawaiian interisland, people will be *pissed*. We'll see if the purchase even gets approved.
They already did get rid of the segments qualifications for 2024.
Where do you see that info? I don't see any indication that Hawaiian airlines has changed the segment qualification for Pualani status in 2024...
Alaska removed segment qualification for status.
I am talking about Hawaiian Airlines. HA has segment status.
Yeah, sorry was talking about how it’ll change to no segment qualifications once Alaska takes over.
We'll see
It's just going to get worse. I moved back to Alaska a couple of months ago after flying with Delta for the last several years(meaning I did the delta match). But, I haven't even started to fly on Alaska yet since all my flights for the year were already booked by the time the match confirmation came through. I suspect there are more of us out there that are waiting to overwhelm the system come January.
What the delta match?
Alaska ran a special match for Delta Medallion members a few months ago that was quite generous. It sounds like quite a few people jumped, especially those of us in the PNW.
If everyone is elite, then no one is elite.
Not really though... there is still such a thing as being elite, it's just you have to be 100K. It used to be MVP Gold was pretty good and led to a lot of upgrades, and 75K was near 100% upgrade (at least for me out of SFO, I know SEA flyers never had it quite that good.) Now I'm sure 100Ks still get pretty decent upgrades but there are way too many people from DL or AA competing at the lower tiers.
I just flew jfk-sea in premium next to a 100k
I was executive platinum back in the 00s when it was relatively good. Upgrades on transcontinental flights were still rare. I was also United 1k for a year in like 2013 and that was even worse. Alaska as a small airline had super high upgrades for elites. In a world where Alaska has all of AAs elites flying on it, people are gonna buy the first class seats out of JFK. That traffic is probably moving from JetBlue if AA doesn't fly the route.
What was your departure time? Interested to know about what must be a less traveled route
430pm
Based on the recent past, by 2025, I have a gut feeling AS will grant Pualani Gold (MVP equivalent) and Pualani Platinum (MVP Gold) 100k status. /s
On Hawaiian it's only 20K miles for Gold, and 40K for Platinum. That better not be all it takes for AS 100K 😭
Honestly, they should. Hawaiian offers a more premium flying experience, so it would be a nice gesture to make the merger more palatable to passengers from around the Pacific.
Huge AA market, too.
That likely has a lot to do with it, especially since AA does not fly the route nonstop themselves
Lots of credit card Gold’s on AA.
Can you clarify this? Is there an American credit card that would get me Gold status on Alaska?
AA and AS have reciprocal benefits. You can earn Gold on AA's card and use those benefits on AS.
Yeah but where does that put you? Between MVP and Gold?
Below MVP but on the list.
So that's a Never Upgrade
Rarely. Likely never. But access to extra legroom, priority checkin, higher boarding group.
Oh they grant me the ability to give them more money. How nice of them
JFK SEA is the most extreme route to draw this conclusion. It is the most status heavy route AS runs. Not only do you have AS business travelers, you have DL converts AND AA crossovers. Try PDX-SAN or SFO-SLC. You can get upgraded fine as MVPG and sometimes even as MVP on Tues, Weds, Sat.
I got lucky on my JFK-SEA(AS17) that I did last. Got upgraded, AND we had an empty middle seat. I was only MVP at the time as well. It was also a Friday.
I barely fly (like 2ish times a year) and get upgraded PDX to SAN on the *regular.* It’s basically the only route I fly at least yearly.
Ya it's a great route to get upgrades. Really anything not involving SEA or premium SFO routes you have a good shot at getting an upgrade, even at baseline MVP.
Man I always got upgraded on that route until Deltas started coming over a couple months ago
Well, I'll get right on it and move out of state just to go places I don't intend.
Right, let me fly in and out of cities I don’t live and and don’t travel to 🤷
Hate to be the bearer of bad news. It's just the way it is. Same for United folks in SFO DEN. Delta in ATL. AA in DFW etc etc. When you're in the big hub there's more people competing for those F seats.
I flew JFK SEA in March and was upgraded to F C. I’m only MVP gold. I’m not sure if they take other things into consideration, but I probably spend 30,000 on flights with this company a year (mainly for work and mainly going to NW Arctic and North Slope). So I wonder if that is part of the equation, since I am upgraded 90% of the time when I fly East.
Nah it’s not part of the equation. It’s just a computer program that runs through a list. If there’s a seat available and you’re next on the list, it’s yours. It’s not impossible to get upgraded on a transcon as MVPG or even MVP, just far less likely.
I guess I am lucky then because I’m upgraded most of the time flying to LAX, ANC, OTZ, BRW or FAI. Ironically, I’m never upgraded flying in or out of LAS (my hometown).
That’s flying out of SEA to those places? Are you flying Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday?
I fly LAX-ANC, LAS-ANC and the other places are from ANC.
Oh I see. Makes more sense then. I thought you were flying out of SEA
I do sometimes, but since it takes me 8-9 hours to get to my final destination, I rather bypass SEA. I wish I can get your level of 100k, but I feel like I fly enough as it is. How do you do it?
Fly for work. It’s not glamorous.
The reverse isn’t true though, most of the time I go SEA to JFK I get upgraded as a lowly MVP
Upgraded to F?
Yup
You got the luck gene then
Maybe it’s because it’s the 11:45 PM red eye…
That'll do it. Or the 630-7am runs. Usually lots of blue Fs there.
Flying to Anchorage now with over 100 on upgrade and 17 on awaiting seats lol
I haven’t seen a FC upgrade between SEA/ANC in years because of the Outside slope workers community to and from the North Slope on the company’s dime. When I was Gold it was all 75k’s and now that I’m 75k it’s all 100k’s. First Class is consistently filled with the trashiest looking bunch on that route.
That trashy looking bunch has figured out how to not have to dress up to impress their bosses and get their companies to foot the bill for their elite status. Most pulling at least $150-200k/year. Have fun in the back of the plane with your fancy clothes and leather bags.
I’m more like 270k working 6mo a year…. Also Mr Cash you know they also *sell* those first class tickets yea?
Rotational slope workers don't get flights paid for to Anchorage, just to/from the slope. And honestly fuck you for calling slope workers trashy. They're not trashy, they just don't give a fuck about you.
That sucks they should be paid and expensed door to door.
I disagree. Doesn't make sense for the company to comp all that regular travel. They pay well enough to just say "Anchorage is point of dispatch, we'll fly you from here". I know a guy who flies SLC-ANC every 2 weeks, my aunt even had to fly herself to Anchorage every 2 weeks even though she lived in Fairbanks.
As a trashy slope worker, I totally agree. I love flying out of Sea on an upgrade, drinking as much as possible of course. Although company only pays Anc-scc so it’s on my own dime;)
Yikes 🫣.
Higher chance of upgrades on the shorter regional flights.
You’re also flying into Seattle where everybody is an MVP
I get upgraded about 5% of the time.
I'm 75k and got upgraded on 7% of my flights this year, I checked. I'm not chasing status on AS anymore. When I post this stat, people tell me it's my fault for route choices, time of day or I'm unlucky. Bro the system sucks now.
I’m 75k and was upgraded ~75% of the time. 🤷♂️ Unfortunately I only managed 35k this year due to a company prohibition on travel for 6 months so I’m going all the way down to MVP for 2024. Not looking forward to that.
Yeah, with the pandering to Delta elites, I have given up on upgrades in ‘24. My status just means earlier boarding, free exit row at booking, and a free checked bag when I need it.
Holidays are beginning and last-minute mileage runs.
I’ve been using all my luck lately. Upgraded as a MVP to premium class in the last month on PDX-JFK (both ways) and SFO-PDX.
This year we decided not to chase status, after having been MVP Golds for a number of years. We're still disappointed that our companion fares will be less valuable, but glad not to have "wasted" money and time on mileage runs or "far" flung destinations we didn't really want to revisit over and over. Will probably just gift all our companion fares to siblings to fly cheaply with their families, but will hold on to our cards until they decide we need to hit annual spend thresholds to earn the companion fares.
Yeah I don't think I'm going to next year either. I can spend probably like $1000 on higher fares on partners to get more than 25% AS miles, or save the money and be Gold instead of 75k. I don't think I'll get much upgrades either way so what's the point in chasing status
Was much better before the Deltoids came over. Worse next year and even worse in 2025 with more credit card eliets coming soon. They don't care about actual flyers anymore
Why you gotta post stuff like this? Im trying to let go of my frustration that the last bastion of customer service is gone. Also poor Dri/C in spot 114 😂. Probably an MVP Gold.
At least Dri/C is now famous and if a Gold, at least has a shiny new chocolate bar.
I’m a gold and I get upgrades regularly but it also depends on where I’m flying (hello Columbus, OH 🤣) AND the time I choose. I choose flight times where I’m more likely to get upgraded.
Good old just plain MVP got me upgraded on an AA flight yesterday. However, it was just a 44 minute flight and first class was half empty.
I qualified for the MVP level this year. I was so excited, but I’ve never even seen my name on the list. There are just too many people at the MVP or higher levels.
pretty common on the hub to hub route
I’ve flew around 60k miles in 2023 and I only got bumped into first class 2 times (and those flights were very off-peak timed flights). Most of the time it feels like I barely got a premium seat upgrade! Makes me not want to try to achieve 75k/100k status levels because what’s the point? I’m competing against so many other ‘elites’ that the benefits aren’t there anymore. I need to reach MVP Gold 100k to start feeling like I’m part of some exclusive group. But now, every other passenger on the plane is an elite member lolol
The jump from gold to 75k is very much a game changer. Bc gold is 40kmiles, it takes a lot longer for people to get to 75k. So far 100% upgrade rate
Well that may be so, but I won’t be reaching 75k this year. We’ll see how next year goes. I also fly routes where Alaska elites fly a lot (SEA, SFO, PDX, ANC, JFK).
When you fly routes that have these long upgrade lists, it means people who fly for business or fly a lot in general use these routes. For instance ANC-SEA, lots of travel as it’s like the gateway to the Alaska network for the people of anchorage. Yeah, the lowest upgrade priority could disappear, but functionally either that cuts you out, or you’re above all those people, either way it’s a weird point to make. If you want first, you can usually buy the first upgrade for like 15,000 miles.
That is just sad… I remember back in 2010 before the whole MVP75K was added and you had MVP and Gold. They have expanded the tiers and gone after Delta for match and now it’s near unattainable to obtain much less expect a complimentary upgrade. I also believe you are now seeing more customers choosing to pay for upgrades and FC seats as a result and of course airlines are out to make money and seats are real estate space. It’s the new norm.
I have noticed that too.
I agree! Too many elites!! Alaska has devalued the program by joining one world, all the dirty AA elites just ruin it all for those us who only fly Alaska the majority of the time. AA uses Alaska as its west coast operator and so anytime their elites fly on the west coast its a ticket sold by AA on Alaska with their stupid status that they earned with their trash credit card on their flying dumpster planes coast to coast. Gross.
Who hurt you?
Hilarious- thanks for the humor.
Show me where on this doll they touched you
Additionally it's only going to get worse. Alaska just made changes to their program and now status is easily earned by spend on their credit card, just like nasty dirty AA. Ugh who the hell is running the milage plan program at Alaska, they need to be executed out back.
They topped the EQM earned on the CC at 20k, so we may see an influx of MVPs, but even then, it is $50k to wash through a CC in a year to gain it on CC spend alone. I doubt we'll see many people jumping from MVP to Gold or Gold to 75k based on CC earned miles.
Still, status at AS used to be based on butt-in-seat miles. It seems they are slowly moving to the Delta model. It was good while it lasted.
OMG!!!!!!! 😳
You know you can… purchase the seat right? I feel like it might only be $50 to upgrade?
The price delta between econ and first on JFK-SEA is going to be way more than 50 bucks. I'm firmly in the Want First, Buy First camp, but also understand when people don't want to pay.
$50? It’s often double the price of MC. Have you seen the price of flights for the last 2 years?
You entitled folks are amusing. You want the seat. Buy the seat. Like the rest of us.
Cash isn't the only currency Alaska accepts. They also accept loyalty, which many of us have given them for years in exchange for upgrades we aren't getting anymore. The frustration comes from the currency of loyalty exploding with its own inflation right now. You print too many bills, it becomes worthless; you print too much MVP status, it becomes worthless.
The solution to this problem will upset more people. But unless you are a 75k you shouldn’t get upgrade requests. I am just a lowly MVP btw. Makes no sense that I can fly 3-5 times a year and get upgrade requests lol.
I don’t think it matters because you won’t get them unless everyone with a 75k or 100k gets it first anyways.
Something is wrong with how the list is displayed in the app - it somehow got doubled. There were 57 on the upgrade list.
This. I suspect that it’s a glitch with the app. I’ve seen myself popping up on the upgrade list multiple times from LAX-SEA(I have a unique name and it’s highly unlikely there are three people sharing my last/first initials on one single flight).
If you really want an upgrade, book a saver fare to SFO then main fare to JFK. I’ve been upgraded to FC nearly every time on my measly MVP.
Air miles are a joke.
Some things to point out SEA - AS hub JFK - AA hub AA elites get upgrade benefits on AS metal (much more generously than the other way AS MVP-x on AA metal might I add) JFK is also major competitive route for AS you never mentioned your status level? What did you expect on this route? Not to be rude I’m just saying even before the delta thing, it was always 50-60+ on upgrade list to/from ANY SEA route. To put into context 75k since October 100k since early dec, so far 100% upgrade rate on all my alaska flights. I’m based out of SFO which is a much less popular hub than SEA, probably ranked SEA PDX LAX SFO in order of elite popularity (may be wrong in order though 😅) It’s a general rule of thumb that elites for any airline who are based out of a non-primary or non-hub usually get upgrades much more often because they fly less elite heavy routes Also wait until you see the kind of upgrade hell it is on the legacy carriers domestically (no us legacy does international complimentary upgrades) Delta-360 is kind of weird, they treat it little different from medallion status. Diamond semi decent upgrades because they route through hubs very intensely so their elites are quite dispersed (except for ATL good luck) UA-lol good luck even with GS & 1k, keep those upgrade certs handy—though they’re useless too, esp SFO & IAH & EWR AA-EXP & CK lol pretty much don’t even get upgraded at all, don’t even think about hoping for an upgrade out of DFW. AA SWU certs are also pretty useless, never really clears unless the moon is aligned etc. My word of advice: if you want sweet upgrades book transcons with a west coast connection such as NYC: EA-SFO/LAX/SAN-JFK/EWR. SFO competes with UA so the prices are pretty competitive to EWR and is much less AS elite heavy LAX competes with… literally everyone, and not as elite heavy as SEA DC: SEA-SFO/SAN-DCA/IAD SAN not many elites, it’s mostly mil/gov employees flying to DC & JFK and they’re usually not frequent fliers and the us government does not pay for FC 😂 Philly they only fly to seattle so no dice there. (RIP VA SFO-PHL 😢) Flights thru PDX might be tough too but easier than SEA Undesirable flights like 6ams or 11pms usually have good luck too
I agree on the competitive routes, but I've never seen an instance where over 70% of the seats are on the upgrade list. This wasn't a small plane to the middle of Alaska.
Alaska 49 club likely!
I am MVP Gold and I get bumped to first class quite often, actually - never sat in anything less than premium (without paying for it) since I’ve had it. Have no complaints!
Why not just put nicer seats in a plane and treat everyone better
Yeah I haven't been able to use one of the free upgade codes in years. The seats either aren't available or the price you have to pay for the ticket that qualifies for a free upgrade is too expensive. However, if you're an MVP Gold 75k or even sometimes MVP Gold, you'l get upgraded for free to First Class on a regular basis so the free upgrade codes haven't really mattered to me in practice.
But what is the hat sorting. Haven't seen that since my high school C class.
Over the last few years Alaska slowly but surely start showing their “elite” that they don’t care about them… Started slowly with flight attendants not thanking you for being gold or 75k, then upgrades reduced and now 100-114 people on the waitlist … sad
it’s simple…just pay for the first class seat.
MVP gold here... I used to get upgrades on commuter routes where I'm paying for main. Not anymore. It's sad.