Alaska-Virgin America Merge, Creating 5th Largest U.S. Airline

Enter the Holland America Line “Choose Your Cruise” sweepstakes by March 31, 2016, for a chance to win the grand prize: a seven-day Holland America Line cruise for two to the winner’s choice of Alaska, Canada and New England, the Caribbean, or Europe, including most onboard meals.

Bad news for the airlines often translates as good news for travel consumers.

With the high probability of Virgin America’s being folded into Alaska Airlines within the next two years, Virgin loyalists are in the market for an alternative. And JetBlue wants to be that alternative.

Today, two storied travel brands that are destined for the scrap heap announced a marketing partnership that only serves to make their imminent demise that much sadder.

Judging by their load factors, U.S. airlines are doing just fine. For June, Alaska Airlines filled 86 percent of its seats; Delta flew 87.7 percent full; other carriers’ results are expected to be similarly robust.

Alaska Airlines is justly lauded for its Mileage Plan loyalty program, which among other features boasts 17 airline partners, allowing program members to earn and redeem miles for flights throughout the world.

Until yesterday, American Airlines customers dismayed at the airline’s August 1 pivot to a spend-based mileage program had a fallback option: Earn miles for their American flights in Alaska Airlines’ Mileage Plan program, which still awards miles the old-fashioned way, according to the distance flown.

Wi-Fi access isn’t free on Alaska Airlines flights. But at least for the next year, the airline’s passengers can use inflight Wi-Fi to send and receive unlimited texts for free.

By traditional measures, Alaska Airlines is a carrier of decidedly modest size, even after its acquisition of Virgin America. Its own flight network is small, compared to those of American, Delta, and United. And it’s not a member of one of the three global airline alliances.

In 2015, flyers filed 15,260 complaints with the Department of Transportation. That was a 34 percent increase over 2014’s 11,365 complaints.

I recently dubbed Alaska Airlines’ loyalty program, Mileage Plan, the “Best Mileage Program for Average Travelers.” It’s a hard-won honor, awarded for two principal reasons. First, Alaska has chosen to retain Mileage Plan’s distance-based earning scheme, even as most other airlines have adopted less generous spend-based earning. And second, Alaska has cobbled together a roster of earning and redemption partners that rivals those of the world’s largest airlines.

With Alaska Airline’s acquisition of Virgin America, it was just a matter of time before Virgin’s loyalty program, Elevate, was terminated and its members folded into Alaska’s Mileage Plan program. In the meantime, the programs were somewhat integrated, allowing reciprocal mileage earning. And beginning on January 9, 2017, Elevate members will be able to convert their points at a 1:1.3 ratio to miles in Mileage Plan, and have their Virgin status matched in Alaska’s program.