Month: December 2016

The dust has settled on the first day of the Alaska Airlines and Virgin America integration, and the speed of that integration is even faster than it first appeared. On December 14th we learned that the deal had closed and that on December 19th several nice program benefits would be shared between Alaska’s Mileage Plan and Virgin America’s Elevate program, which I covered in this post. On top of this news we also learned that miles flown on Virgin America counted as Alaska Elite Miles, and would be accrued toward Alaska Elite status as of December 19th. That again, is very fast in the airline merger universe.

Continue reading “Surprise Integration Benefits for Virgin America Elevate Members”

Last April Alaska Airlines announced it was going to acquire Virgin America for $2.6 billion.  All through the fall we waited for the final announce of the merger to be completed. First it was end of September, then October and then November.  Alaska wanted to close the deal in the fourth quarter, and the U.S. DOJ wanted (what it sounded like what it was going to be) a pound of flesh from Alaska. In the end Alaska promised not to code share on certain American Airline routes and on December 6th the DOJ approved the acquisition. Alaska then had to settle out a nuisance lawsuit filed by a group of travelers and travel agents, which it did handily on the very next day – December 7th. Then one week later (December 14th) the acquisition closed and Alaska Airlines owns Virgin America.

Continue reading “Fast Integration Of Alaska Airlines and Virgin America Frequent Flyer Benifits”