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In the last couple of days, a little rumor went around that Alaska was giving away 10,000 miles to some members. Members even posted screenshots of their Alaska accounts showing a nice surprise 10,000 miles. The miles were described in the statements as “SPECIAL SERVICES ELEVATE MEMBER OTO 10K BONUS.”
So, What’s Going On?
Initially, the award seemed completely random, although due to the description most people guessed correctly that it was somehow linked to Alaska’s takeover of Virgin America. The randomness created some resentment in online forums and blogs since—rightly so—quite a few people were frustrated by the fact that it seemed that they had missed out on a 10K freebie from Alaska.
Well, Alaska responded and clarified the situation. The airline will be giving 10,000 miles to all members who had an Alaska Mileage plan and a Virgin America Elevate account on December 5, 2016. In addition, members of Virgin Elevate who do not have an Alaska Mileage account will be given the choice of either $100 flight credit or 10,000 miles. Below is the relevant part of the statement released by Alaska:
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.
This now appears to be part of the greater Alaska’s merger with Virgin Elevate, since recently it became possible to transfer your Elevate points to Alaska; although you can’t go the other way.
Overall
Well, the old adage goes: don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Anytime any airline gives you 10K miles as a freebie it is great news. For those of you who feel they missed out over the last couple of days, just sit back and relax, if you meet the criteria the miles should post to your account later this week.
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Thanks for the reminder! I’m finally going to do this.
Got the 10k in my AS before the announcement was made.
I have a VA account but didn’t receive the mail. Can I open an Alaska Mileage account to have the bonus?
Check out this page Matt: https://www.alaskaair.com/elevatemember/activate
Might need to give a call to Alaska.
Got mine a couple days ago. Too bad I signed up my wife to Virgin 5 days after the cut off! Man these miles are sooooooooooooo valuable. I live in LA and I’ve found one way award availability from OGG>LAX (11 month layover) LAX>LHR on American for 20,000 miles. What an unbelievable deal.
my wife who did not have a Virgin America account got the 10k and I am still waiting for mine after having a Virgin acct for several years now. Has anyone else experienced this?
They finally posted
It took a few days before I could link my Alaska and elevate accounts and am now waiting for the 10K to be posted. Will give a few more days and then contact them. Any free miles always welcome.
Oh man – looks like I wouldn’t have been eligible for this promo since I already had an account open with Alaska Airlines before (even though I’d never flown with them previously).
I got this offer via email, but when I tried to activate my account it did not work. Said my mileage plan number was not correct. Not sure why. I wrote to customer support. Anyone else experiencing this issue?
Was not prepared for this one. Woops.
had to send a tweet to get the points posted
All is well now with my AS account. The 10K miles posted yesterday and once again, AS gets huge kudos!
My 10,000 miles posted today!
However, I had the same issue as a few others reported regarding a second Mileage Plan account being opened. I spoke with a CSR and the two accounts were combined and the points were credited two days later.
I had an elevate account with 0 miles. I still received the 10K from Alaska. Happy for me and everyone else who received. Now to decide where to use them, haha
As they are trying to combine two program, will Alaska’s protocols with AA (like the mutual elite benefits) be eligible for Virgin flights?
I would say no at this point.
Unfortunately, I was not eligible.
finally received an e-mail with the 10000 miles or 100 credit offer and replied that I am already an Alaska mileage member. waiting to see the response.
There is a link on the bottom of the email you have to click so they will link your VA account with Alaska and then post the 10K points. At least its close to the bottom
I also got the 10k bonus for having both Alaska airlines and virgin elevate accounts.
I got an e-mail with my new Alaska account number. There was also the option to link my existing AS account with my VX account, and 10k miles would be added to my account. I did this, but have not received the miles. Does it take some time?
It appears as though this is the case. I was not in this scenario so I cannot verify your specific case, however.
Same scenario for me. It took 2 or 3 days for miles to post.
Thanks for sharing so that those of us waiting have some idea of a timeline!
Thanks. I’ll give it another week or so, before I start chasing up.
10k miles deposited this morning. Thanks AS!
I haven’t received any miles or communication. Long time member of both programs! 🙁
Thanks. Got it. Now the question is what to do with them – I’m not familiar with Alaska. Where those points can take me?
I’d start here: https://www.alaskaair.com/content/mileage-plan/use-miles/award-charts.aspx
I setup a VX account for the JetBlue deal . My 10K miles posted to my Mileage Plan earlier this week.
Thnaks AK for the 10k miles.
Wish I had signed up for the plan earlier!
A generous gesture and nice way to celebrate, Alaska!
Unfortunately I don’t have either account, but it seems like a really generous offer for those that are eligible.
nothing for me yet
I have both AS and VX accounts, but for some reason they didn’t recognize each other and VX created a new AS account under my name.
Frustrating…
My existing AS and VX accounts had exactly identical profiles.
I got the email, but the points did not post
I got the email, also transferred 2k of elevate points to alaska so a total of 12k miles for free! ?
Now just use the Alaska portal to buy some things you already needed and get just 500 more miles- then you’ll have enough for a free one way across the country! Don’t know where you live, but SEA to Florida sounds nice right now!
I never got anything!
I got the offer email as an existing VX member, however, I could not activate my “new” Alaskaaccount through the email link because I had an existing Alaska account. I contacted CS and was told to expect the welcome bonus miles to post once my duplicate Alaska accounts could be merged. Very please with how my situation was handled.
I am not sure what is going on with my link. I got the email I get all the way to link my accounts and then it gives me an error saying that we did not receive your info. I might have to call Alaska
This is nice! 10k is a nice chunk of miles. Really smart of Alaska. I have read that they have a great mileage loyalty plan. That it’s the best to make redemptions from, since they partner with so many carriers. Of Alaska, United, American, and Delta, who do you think has the best loyalty plan? I do like having an United number, since they take points from Chase Sapphire. I know you’ve gone over the best ways from Sapphire to get the most but is United still on top of US carriers?
Of those, I’d say Alaska has the best loyalty plan.
Now I am tempted to check out Alaska, never flown but they do fly to PDX and SEA from my home airport.
Good generous offer. I wonder how well they will compete with the larger carriers’ programs.
I’m still waiting to see the AS 10K post. I did receive the email informing me of the 10K gesture, however AS opened a new account in my name during that process, so I have some communicating to do w/AS to merge those accounts. It might take some time, but I trust it will all work out.
I both have a Alaska and Virgin account. However, they didn’t match my accounts automatically and thus I didn’t receive 10,000 miles. It’s hard to follow up with Alaska on that. Any advice?
I would follow up through their contact us page or via phone call to customer service.
I have never flown Alaska or Virgin but its an awesome gesture towards customers. Would have been nice to see from AA or UA after their respective mergers!
I agree, it would have been nice that UA, AA, or Delta had done this..
This was a nice bonus to see. Hopefully more good news to come from the combined airline.
Darn, I wish I had a Virgin America account. Missed out.
This is another example why having open accounts even in airline programs not often used can be extremely beneficial. What a nice surprise to those who received this additional 10,000 miles!
Sadly, it never occurred to me to open an Elevate account. So it looks like I’ll miss out. 🙁
I just got 10k miles for signing up for the account for the first time (been only Virgin Elevate member). Worked like a breeze and the bonus is quite generous too!
I didn’t receive it yet, but neither did I get any notification of the accounts being merged. So I messaged them about that, we’ll see what happens.
I got an email to my Elevate account inviting me to activate with Alaska to get 10,000 miles. I’m happy because I only opened Elevate to get some free miles a while back for email subscriptions.
I kept linking my sister’s mileageplan w/ vx account using the link that was sent to the email address, and they haven’t added anything.
Had Elevate, but not Mileage Plan…until earlier today. Still waiting for that “special offer”.
Very nice gesture by Alaska Air. Both my wife and I got the email for the 10k miles even though we had simply opened the frequent flyer account but never actually flown on VA.
However, I am unable to redeem the 10k miles using the link as it errors out.
If i register for Virgin and Alaska account, can i get the bonus points?
No, you must have had an account previously.
Sigh… I got the points (only because I opened a Virgin account last summer) but would have loved getting the points for the rest of my family. I actually only opened the Alaska accounts for my family members in December. So close…
I got the email today and went in (from email link) and linked my accounts. I’d already linked them to transfer Virgin points. I haven’t seen the 10k point deposit to my Alaska account yet. How long does it take?!
“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.”
Just for clarification – is this also subject to the December 5, 2016 cutoff date?
No, just the bonus.
I have two (unexpectedly) Virgin accounts and received the email notification from neither. All my family members did however so I’ll just wait. This seems to be a great opportunity and makes me much happier about the merger. I’ll probably fly Alaska now when I can.
Smart move by Alaska Airlines. They seemed to be more customer focused than Virign.
Wife and I both had VA accounts only, we both got the email today. Activated Alaska accounts and the 10K already shows up in both. Nice way for Alaska to kick things off!
I did received the 10,000 miles from Alaska. What a nice surprise! 🙂
Interesting to find out miles in my account.
I have not received the 10,000 bonus miles.
Today I have received an email for the activation of a new account and the choice between a coupon of $100 or 10,000 miles.
As I have already a Mileage Plan account I have sent them a message via twitter.
Now they have replied that they have put the 10,000 bonus miles on the new account and that now they will do the merge of the two accounts.
Let’s hope that everything will go smoothly!
They are doing what USAir and American did while they merged, I received bonus and deals during the merger and after they gave incentives to combine both programs into one. Just trying to make everyone happy.
Was a very nice gesture. Smart too. As someone who has used Alaska here and there, it won’t suddenly make me use them exclusively (cost/value still matter when different of course), but all things being equal, I’ll give Alaska some more attention.