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Alaska Airlines recently announced a new status match opportunity. For a limited time, elite members with three competing airlines can snag Mileage Plan status through 2021.
Even if you've never flown or plan to fly Alaska Airlines, you'll want to consider this opportunity anyway. That's because Alaska elite status will soon also include Oneworld elite status—providing meaningful benefits when flying dozens of partner airlines!
Alaska Mileage Plan Status Match-Challenge
Through April 15, 2021, Mileage Plan members who currently hold elite status with Delta, Southwest, or United can apply for a temporary status match with Alaska Mileage Plan. If approved, you'll also receive 50% more elite qualifying miles on all Alaska flights flown this year. That makes it easier to requalify and extend the benefits of your new status.
- To apply for this special status match, you must either first signup for Alaska Mileage Plan or already be a member.
- Applicants need to submit their forms by April 15, 2021.
- Mileage Plan will confirm within 2–4 weeks via email whether your application has been accepted or not.
- Status granted through this match program is valid through December 31, 2021.
- This offer is only available to legal residents of the U.S.A. and Canada.
- Applicants need to submit a screenshot displaying their current elite status. This screenshot needs to include the applicant's full name, current elite status, and mileage flown to earn the status.
- Promotional, previously-matched, or temporary elite status does not qualify for this match program.
- If you currently hold status with a different airline, you can still participate in Alaska's regular status match program.
While Alaska doesn't specifically list what it considers equivalent status between the eligible airlines, it leaves several clues:
The application splits up all Delta, Southwest, and United statuses into three options each—regardless of how many statuses each program offers. Mileage Plan itself offers three tiers of elite status: MVP, MVP Gold, and MVP Gold 75K. Therefore, I'll bet that this is what Alaska considers equivalent elite status:
| Existing Status | Equivalent Alaska Mileage Plan Status |
|---|---|
| Delta Silver Medallion | MVP |
| Delta Gold Medallion | MVP Gold |
| Delta Platinum or Diamond Medallion | MVP Gold 75K |
| Southwest A List | MVP |
| Southwest A-List Preferred | MVP Gold |
| Southwest A-List Preferred AND Southwest Companion Pass | MVP Gold 75K |
| United Premier Silver | MVP |
| United Premier Gold | MVP Gold |
| United Premier Platinum, Premier 1K, and Global Services | MVP Gold 75K |
Shortcut to Oneworld Elite Status
There's still a lot that we don't know about how the Mileage Plan program will evolve over the coming year. However, one thing we do know is that Mileage Plan elites will soon find themselves also Oneworld elites:
- MVP — Oneworld Ruby
- MVP Gold — Oneworld Sapphire
- MVP Gold 75K — Oneworld Emerald
This is obviously an exciting development for existing Mileage Plan elite members. However, when you combine this with the current match program, things get even better.
If you have status with Delta, Southwest, or United, you could utilize this match program to shortcut your way to Oneworld elite status. For example, if you currently have Delta Diamond, you could match to Alaska MVP Gold 75K. As of March 31, this would grant you Oneworld Emerald status. And you'll get benefits like extra baggage allowance and first-class lounge access while flying any Oneworld airline—including American!
Bottom Line
Alaska Mileage Plan announced a special, limited-time status match program. Through April 15, 2021, members can match eligible Delta, Southwest, or United elite status to reciprocal Alaska status through 2021. Plus, you'll earn 50% more elite-qualifying miles for Alaska flights in 2021 to keep that elite status into 2022.
I think this is an incredible opportunity for elite frequent fliers to broaden their status pool. Personally, I don't regularly fly Alaska, and I don't particularly have any interest in doing so.
However, I do fly AA and other Oneworld airlines often (or at least I did pre-COVID) and previously held elite status with AA. Since I currently have Southwest A-List status, I'm hoping this special match will provide me with Alaska MVP status. This will, in turn, offer many of the same benefits I previously enjoyed as an AA elite member.
Do you plan to match your Delta, Southwest, or United status to Alaska Mileage Plan?
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Sadly it only applies on American airlines… I’m Flying Blue Elite.
I should add that I “earned” 1K in 2020 because United carried over my status from the previous year due to COVID, not through miles earned. So, my statement didn’t show sufficient miles flown to earn status. To show that I flew those miles the previous year I sent them my transaction history from my MileagePlus account for the previous year. This worked for me and my wife.
The good thing about this for me is because Alaska joined one world. I can combine points and add benefits.
This is very clever timing by Alaska to offer this now at the point of joining oneworld. It will attract those who may not at the moment fly Alaska much, but are more interested now that benefits can buy used on American Airlines etc. It also promotes Alaska abs gets them publicity at the time they are becoming part of a large alliance.
Wow, great way to shortcut yourself to oneworld elite status with Alaska airlines…looking forward to using my Alaska miles for oneworld trips….elite status to go with it would be icing on the cake
Currently am a UA Platinum and seriously considering jumping over on this opportunity. Although, in the long run, switching to AA elite might be easier to accomplish than Alaska since I don’t live in the Northwest region
I only have status with American, Gold, I guess this will match to Alaska MVP.
Great post 🙂 I might move my Delta miles to Alaska Milage Plan.
Unfortunately, you can’t move your miles from Delta to Alaska (otherwise we all would!)
This is super helpful. Thank you!
My only earned elite status is on American. All my other status is due to status matching. I am actually trying to figure out what benefits we will get while flying Alaska as an AA executive Platinum. How miles will accrue and where we will fit in for upgrades. Do you have any articles about that? (I do know that the airlines have published some basic guidelines, but they never explain it very well.)
AA and Alaska have teased reciprocal upgrades for us Executive Platinum elites, but the details are still slim. The mileage accrual situation is also in limbo as Alaska joins Oneworld in a few days. I’m guessing that we will learn a lot more in the next week! But here’s what we know so far: https://awardwallet.com/blog/alaska-airlines-joining-oneworld/
This is good since alaska has now joined one world. If you hold elite status in the other airlines, it is a no brainer to sign up for this one.