Alaska airlines and Virgin

[grubbidok]

Hi all,
I am currently in the process of considering tipping all my work travel to Virgin from Qantas. However, one of the issues that concerns me is that I do at least two trips to Seattle a year, and have noticed that Alaska does not earn points or SCs, even though this is the airline the Virgin route map suggests is their partner for the entire NW. I don't mind switching to Delta, but even they use Alaska for most of their flights to this area, and I missed out on points on a Delta-coded flight SEA-LAX earlier this year. I often base myself in Seattle and do 3-4 US domestic trips whilst there, often on Alaska metal. Does anyone know if this arrangement is going to get cosier? It seems a bit strange to have such a partnership promoted, but not enable earn on any of the network.

 

[MandM]

Hi all,
I am currently in the process of considering tipping all my work travel to Virgin from Qantas. However, one of the issues that concerns me is that I do at least two trips to Seattle a year, and have noticed that Alaska does not earn points or SCs, even though this is the airline the Virgin route map suggests is their partner for the entire NW. I don't mind switching to Delta, but even they use Alaska for most of their flights to this area, and I missed out on points on a Delta-coded flight SEA-LAX earlier this year. I often base myself in Seattle and do 3-4 US domestic trips whilst there, often on Alaska metal. Does anyone know if this arrangement is going to get cosier? It seems a bit strange to have such a partnership promoted, but not enable earn on any of the network.

Does the Virgin America schedule suit your needs? That is the 'partnership' that seems to be gaining strength.

 

[ff-jr]

I fly SEA-LAX once a year using VX and would easily recommend it. I'm not a fan of Delta but I use them where they're my only option to earn Velocity points (more than I would like; VX's network is slowly expanding but still isn't too big).

 

[grubbidok]

Thanks guys - if it was just a simple LAX-SEA flight VX would be great. I quite like the VX SEA-LAX trip too, but unfortunately whilst SEA is the base my itinerary usually contains a PHX, SLC, YYC, YYZ, ORD or GEG detour for meetings. Delta serves well (at least until VX expands their route coverage), but an Alaska metal segment is often unavoidable with these trips in the itinerary. QF also partner with Alaska for much of these segments, though points are given (part of the reason they're not on DJ??) - at least it saves me having to fly on American!

 

[pythonisman]

From memory I thought Alaska used to be a points earning partner with DJ, but then when Alaska moved to T6 at LAX they seemed to cut some ties. I do find it odd as they codeshare out of VA's booking engine for flights. If they used to be and aren't any more, my guess is they're probably not coming back?

Note my memory could be completely wrong here haha, it is early in the morning!