Alaska Airlines Virgin Elevate 10K Gift
Last night I covered the news that many Alaska MileagePlan members were reporting that 10,000 miles mysteriously appeared in their accounts. Now, via The Points Guy, they have confirmed that all members who had active accounts in both Virgin America Elevate and Alaska MileagePlan on December 5, 2016 will receive the bonus.
Additionally, Virgin Elevate Members who are new to Alaska MileagePlan will receive a “special welcome offer.” The offer has not been confirmed, however many people have reported receiving an email giving them either 10,000 miles or a $100 credit. So basically every Virgin Elevate member will get some love!
Here is the statement released by Alaska Airlines:
We understand that many Mileage Plan members have questions about a surprise 10,000 mile gift that started appearing in some accounts last night, and we wanted to help put some of the mystery to rest. We can’t wait to show members of both programs what more to love looks like with Alaska Mileage Plan, and decided to kick things off with a 10,000 mile bonus award to thank our guests who have been loyal members of both Elevate and Mileage Plan. The gift process is expected to be completed over the course of next couple of days, and eligible members — which includes guests who were active in both Elevate and Mileage Plan as of December 5, 2016 — should look for an email from Mileage Plan later this week. Elevate members who don’t have a Mileage Plan account will be invited to activate one, along with details about their own special welcome offer, how to convert points, and status matching. For now, please sit tight, and we’ll be sharing more information about what members have to look forward to in the next couple of days.
Virgin to Alaska Conversions
Awhile back, Alaska announced that Virgin America Elevate points would be convertible to Alaska Airlines miles at a 1:1.3 ratio. As of today you can now convert your points. Note that these conversions are one way, so once you go to Alaska, you cannot move your points back over to Virgin. You can convert your points here.
Virgin America Bookable on Alaska.com
Finally, Virgin America flights are now bookable with Alaska miles. Thanks to VM on Twitter for tipping me off. Short intra-California flights cost only 7,500 miles each way, regular domestic flights are 12,500 miles each way and Hawaii flights are 20,000 miles each way in economy. Virgin’s very good first class costs twice the economy rate. A great deal on longer routes!
Conclusion
Alaska is being very generous considering they are basically giving just about everyone 10,000 free miles! It is nice to see this integration going forward smoothly and maybe even if there is a bump or two, we’ll probably be able to overlook it when we look at our account balances!
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[…] is the same offer that we saw earlier this year, but it originally expired on January 31 and it was later extended […]
[…] news lately due to their completed merger with Virgin America. A couple of months ago they offered 10,000 free Alaska MilagePlan miles for Virgin Elevate loyalty program members who joined MileagePlan and earlier this week they announced the future of the combined […]
[…] Alaska Furthers Virgin Integration & Confirms Almost Everyone WILL Get 10K Free Miles! […]
Do you know if Alaska Visa cardholders will get free checked bags on Virgin flights?
no joy for me … still waiting for the 10K miles on all my family’s accounts. and also still waiting for the points to transfer — it didn’t happen instantly.
Did you get the acknowledgement of the request? For then that took about 5 minutes, and then it was an hour or so after that for the transfer,.
I got my 10K in that the last hour or two. I have never flown Virgin America, but I had 500 points (signup bonus or something). I transferred those earlier today. It just goes to show you that you should pick up those odd points in programs you may not really use much. You never know.
I sort of didn’t want to start thinking it was coming, and risk being disappointed.
Hey, I just checked and noticed I got the 10k! That was a nice surprise!