American And Alaska Airlines Expand Elite Upgrades

by Gary Leff

American Airlines and Alaska Airlines have a closer relationship than just being partners in the oneworld alliance. They are working together to build out West Coast travel with Alaska bringing domestic flyers to American international services and vice versa.

Elite frequent flyers in each airline’s program have benefits like extra legroom seats, not just the usual priority check-in, baggage and boarding benefits. And for nearly two years upper tier elites have been able to upgrade when traveling on the other airline.

Now, quietly – neither airline has sent out an announcement – the upgrade benefit has been extended to more frequent flyers.

  • Alaska MVP and MVP Gold members are now eligible for American Airlines complimentary upgrades. Previously this was available only to MVP Gold 75K and 100K members.

  • American Airlines Gold and Platinum members are now eligible for Alaska Airlines complimentary upgrades. Previously this was available only to ConciergeKey, Executive Platinum, and Platinum Pro members.

American and Alaska have continued investing in their partnership, even though the buildup of Seattle as an Asia gateway for American (replacing Los Angeles) hasn’t yet really borne fruit. They had plans for Seattle – Shanghai and for Seattle – Bangalore but to date neither flight has happened.

Still, last year the two airlines made the upgrade process easier by fixing the issue where elites couldn’t upgrade when traveling on a codeshare flight (e.g. an American Airlines flight with an Alaska Airlines flight number). Their partnership progresses, while we wait for a trial verdict to see whether the federal government will hand United and Delta a win in New York and Boston by limiting American’s partnership with JetBlue.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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  2. Notice to AA management: you need to change your award upgrade policy to remain competitive. I’m new to Loyalty Points but it wasn’t until I got to 100k LPs that I realized that only Exec PL gets upgraded on award tickets. As a result of this, I cancelled a return flight on AA metal and booked a United award and was upgraded to biz despite only being a Silver member.

  4. That’s no longer true. I am fine with new rules – Plat Pro and Exec Plat getting upgraded on award tickets. Everyone else should cash in more miles if they want premium seats.

    Question I have is can I upgrade a traveling companion if in a different PNR?

  5. Gregg – what is no longer true?

    Everyone else – for the avoidance of doubt, Plat Pro does not grant you upgrades on award tickets. I think award flight upgrades should be granted at all status levels (like on United, not sure what DL does since their award pts have low value and I don’t collect them).

    And to expand on my feedback for AA mgmt: I have decided not to pause at 100k and not push for Plat Pro in the absence of upgrades on award flights.

  7. Excellent news! I see AA and AK in the West much as AA and B6 in the east. I just wish they would co-locate at more airports. Excited to have more options with AK!

  9. As long as higher status gets higher priority on the upgrade wait list this works for me and seems fair. However, I do have to say that since Alaska joined OneWorld, upgrades are tougher to get because of the AA fliers with higher status.

  10. @Greg You cannot. I have tried this on award and revenue tickets and AA has told me no. The other pax has to be on the same PNR.

  11. This may be obvious to the readers here, but I don’t think it’s explicitly mentioned: You only get the upgrade benefits afforded by the account to which you’re crediting the flight miles. If you’re an upper level elite on AA but are crediting the flight miles to Alaska in order to gain status there, your AA status won’t get you upgraded.

  12. Is there any way to improve one’s boarding position on an American Airlines award flight (booked with AA miles) so to be able to have carryon bag space? I have Ruby status with One World thru MVP with Alaska Airlines but no status whatsoever with American.

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