Alaska Airlines Introduces New MVP Gold 100K Top Elite Level

by Gary Leff

Alaska Airlines has introduced a new top elite tier beginning ‘end of January’ 2022 as expected: MVP Gold 100K.

This new level requires flying 100,000 qualifying miles or 140 segments in a year, and in either case including a minimum of 24 Alaska Airlines flights.

Key benefits:

  • 150% elite mileage bonus
  • Upgrades clear starting 120 hours prior to departure (like MVP Gold 75Ks) but with higher priority
  • Two one-way international upgrade certificates on American Airlines (MVP Gold 75Ks get one, announced back in March)
  • Complimentary snack and drink in coach (MVP Gold 75K just gets a drink)
  • All of the other benefits of the 75K elite tier

Honestly the details of this level are a bit underwhelming. They could have allowed MVP Gold 100Ks to nominate someone to MVP Gold or designate someone with status for a day. MVP Gold 75Ks receive 50,000 bonus miles upon qualification, there’s no additional threshold bonus for reaching top tier. Lounge membership isn’t comped. It’s really just higher priority than 75Ks, a few more miles for flying, and an extra American Airlines confirmed international upgrade and we haven’t seen whether those will work like the ones given to American’s top elites yet (American is extremely stingy with confirmed inventory).

Alaska, however, says there will be additional benefits for the 2023 program year.

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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Comments

  1. Just FYI, if your address is NOT inside of US, your AS status will be extended to the end of 2022. However, your status would only be extended to April 2022.

    Discriminating US citizens is the most popular business action for US corporations nowadays.

  4. What’s up with the segments? That seems high, and it’s already tougher to qualify on segments vs miles. I’m not familiar with AS’s charts but wouldn’t 100 or 120 be sufficiently high?

  5. It’s obvious that AS was not actually interested in offering a new, higher level with better benefits. Rather, this just allows them to have a “top tier” elite that they can prioritize with EXP on the shared upgrade list. 75Ks are the new Platinum Pros of AS. Honestly, the distinction between EXP and PP is not much different than 100K and 75K…

    To me, the question is indeed whether the upgrades will be the equivalent of SWUs, or have restrictions similar to this year’s that only were good on certain flights through AS hubs.

    I’m impressed they’ve held off on a revenue requirement, and presume they’ve run the numbers and decided 24 AS segments is enough to target a similar audience.

  6. Erasmus, depending on the EQM-efficiency of one’s routes, a business / first type traveler might average 4 to 8 EQMs for every dollar spent. (Emphasize “average.”) For 100k EQMs, this puts revenue in the range of $12.5k to $20k. For Alaska — or any carrier — it might simply say “close enough.”

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