Alaska Airlines is offering elite status to everyone flying to Australia and New Zealand this year.

• Fly roundtrip from the continental U.S. to Sydney or Auckland on Alaska Airlines or Hawaiian Airlines by the end of 2025.
  
• Earn MVP status through end of 2026.
  
• Must purchase tickets at alaskaair.com or hawaiianairlines.com and include an Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan number at time of booking.

Alaska acquired Hawaiian Airlines and they’re promoting Hawaiian’s Honolulu to Sydney and Auckland flights as great ways to travel across the Pacific, noting that it’s pretty much a direct route from Seattle (‘4 extra miles to Sydney compared to non-stop’ and there’s no non-stop).

Sydney service is five-times weekly, and Auckland service is seasonal three times a week until April 30, and then starting again November 16.

If you’re going to travel economy, breaking up the trip in and stretching your legs in Honolulu isn’t a bad idea. And free Starlink internet will help make the time pass. Of course if you’re flying business class you’d earn status anyway.

You should definitely go to Australia! It’s far from peak season, but I’ll be there next month. It’s a bit cool in Sydney (usually highs in the low 60s) but absolute legend in Queensland. I’m not doing it in coach, though.

And of course, if you book a coach roundtrip to Australia and something else you’re probably going to earn MVP status anyway.

• MVP status requires 20,000 qualifying miles in a year.
  
• Seattle – Honolulu – Sydney is 15,487 miles roundtrip.
  
• East Coast departures – such as New York, Boston, or Florida – are over 20,000 miles roundtrip.

This is a really interesting way to offer a sweetener for Pacific long haul bookings, and draw attention to Alaska’s transpacific service. And it’s not even double elite qualifying miles!

They’ll be growing that segment of business soon with flights to Tokyo and Seoul – and Europe soon thereafter. They pulled my Hawaiian Airlines Airbus A330 flight from Austin – I said it would be the first Hawaiian route axed – and will be repositioning aircraft like this.

Unfortunately, earning MVP status with this offer doesn’t get you closer to MVP Gold. If you fly 16,000 miles roundtrip you aren’t receiving 4,000 bonus qualifying miles that help in your quest for even higher status.

Terms and Conditions:

Receive Mileage Plan MVP Status by booking and completing one round trip between the continental United States (including AK, not including HI) and Auckland, New Zealand (AKL) or Sydney, Australia (SYD) by December 31, 2025. Flights must be booked on www.alaskaair.com or www.hawaiianairlines.com using your Mileage Plan number.

All segments of the trip must be booked at the same time, All segments must be operated by Alaska Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, Horizon or SkyWest; flights operated by other codeshare partners are not eligible for this offer. Flights must originate and end in the same city within the United States (excluding Hawaii).

Award tickets and Saver Fares are not eligible for this promotion. All segments of the trip must be completed by December 31, 2025. All guests for whom a Mileage Plan number is provided in the qualifying reservation are eligible to receive Mileage Plan MVP Status. Guests who complete travel by December 31, 2025 will earn MVP status through December 31, 2026. MVP Status will be reflected in Mileage Plans account of guests who provide their Mileage Plan numbers at the time of booking, on or prior to the 15th of the month following the month in which travel is completed.

Guests who already hold or will have already attained Mileage Plan MVP or higher status for the applicable year will not receive a higher status through this promotion. Guests who receive MVP Status through this promotion will not receive any additional Elite Qualifying Miles.