As you all know, the Alaska Airlines / Virgin America merger was finally approved recently. Alaska is taking more steps to merge the two airlines, and part of that process is a merger of the two frequent flier programs.
Many people got the following email stating that their Virgin America Elevate accounts and Mileage Plan accounts would be merged on January 9.
Dear Michael,
We have some exciting news about Virgin America’s integration with Alaska Airlines. Starting today, Elevate members can now earn points when flying on Alaska Airlines.
On January 9, Elevate members will be receiving a Mileage PlanTM number, but based on our records, you’re already enjoying the benefits of Alaska’s award-winning Mileage Plan. If we got it right, there’s no need to contact us. But, if either of these account numbers are wrong, please let us know by December 26, so we can update our records accordingly, and assign you a Mileage Plan number if needed.
Elevate: ************
Mileage Plan: **********
I also got the following email, suggesting that a new Mileage Plan account would be created for me. However, given the other email, it looks like my profile was matched up automatically.
On January 9, 2017, you will receive an invitation from Alaska Airlines to activate a new Mileage PlanTM account. Alaska Airlines will send you a member number with access to a streamlined activation path. Upon activating your new account on or after January 9, you will be able to convert your Elevate points into Mileage Plan miles at a rate of 1.3 Mileage Plan miles per Elevate point. By converting your points into miles, you can access award travel to over 900 destinations with Alaska Airlines and Alaska Global Partners.
But according to this Reddit thread, Alaska is already starting to match status between the two programs. I checked my own profile, and indeed as of today, I was matched from Virgin America Gold to Alaska MVP Gold, which should be good until the end of 2017. Since I received Virgin America Gold through the Amex transfer 80k Membership Rewards for Gold promotion, this was a really easy way to get Alaska status again!
Alaska MileagePlan profile showing my new MVP Gold status
Check your Mileage Plan accounts if you have some status with Virgin America. If you did not receive an email stating that your profiles were automatically matched, up, you can try the following link to match with your Elevate account:
@DEM I also got the above email but I have one question, I got both Virgin & Alaska Status via “Status Matching” so I’m crossing my fingers I will be able to keep my status with Virgin & Alaska. Do you know where on the Alaska website you can verify the length of your membership so I can see if they “matched” it through 2017. Thanks for sharing this article! Great topic to cover. 🙂