Last-minute strategies for Alaska Mileage Plan elite status

With just a little over two months left in 2022, now is the perfect time to check your frequent flyer mileage balances, calculate your travel earnings for the rest of the year and pinpoint where exactly you will end up in terms of qualification requirements by Dec. 31.

If you think you might not hit your goal, the good news is that there’s still time to do some major mileage-earning before the end of 2022. In this guide, we will focus on last-minute strategies to qualify for Alaska Airlines elite status.

Here is what you need to know about Alaska’s MVP program, including qualification requirements, tier benefits and ideas for earning the status you want for another year.

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Some background

Alaska Airlines is the only major U.S. airline that doesn't have a revenue requirement for earning elite status. All you have to do is earn the number of elite qualifying miles or elite qualifying segments required for your desired status tier to qualify, plus meet a minimum amount of segments on Alaska-operated flights.

Here's a look at what each status tier requires:

This makes earning Alaska elite status easier than other airline statuses if you frequently fly cheap economy tickets on Alaska or its partner airlines. However, you'll still earn status faster on more expensive tickets as these typically earn more elite qualifying miles due to being booked in a higher fare class.

Related: 5 reasons I love having entry-level elite status with Alaska

Last-minute earning strategies

As discussed, the elite qualification year is coming to a close. Here are a few ways to rack up more elite qualifying miles to cross the finish line to your desired elite status tier before time runs out.

Maximize your routing

If you already have MVP Gold, MVP Gold 75K or MVP Gold 100K status, you’re in luck.

Alaska's generous same-day flight changes policy lets you request a same-day confirmed flight change at any time during the check-in window. Your new flight must depart on the same calendar day as the original departure, but you can change your routing to include additional layovers.

This is useful because you will earn more elite qualifying miles on longer routes. For example, instead of flying nonstop from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and earning 2,311 EQMs, you could fly from Washington to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) and from there to Los Angeles for 3,282 EQMs.

Or to earn even more EQMs, pop in an extra segment from Seattle to San Francisco International Airport (SFO) and end up with 3,507 EQMs total (or three EQSs instead of one if you’re thinking about segments).

Status matching

If you don’t already have elite status with Alaska but do have elite status with another airline, this might be your best option for attaining elite status quickly. Alaska updated its policy to add a challenge element, instead of just offering a simple match like it used to.

Related: Alaska Airlines updates status match program, adds challenge component

To keep your new Alaska status after the promotional three-month period, you’ll need to fly the following number of miles on flights marketed by Alaska Airlines and operated by Alaska Airlines:

• MVP: 5,000 miles.
• MVP Gold: 10,000 miles.
• MVP Gold 75K: 20,000 miles.

Alaska makes this process very simple, with a page of publicly available information where you can select your specific status with a competitor from a list of eligible programs and upload your credentials directly. If you’re approved and complete the challenge, your new status will go into effect.

If you start your status match by the end of June and meet the requirements, you will keep your status through the end of the calendar year.

If you start your status match between July and December and meet the requirements to keep your status, you’ll keep it through the end of the following year. So with that in mind, consider matching your status in early July to maximize your time with Alaska elite status.

Buy elite miles

In the past, Alaska has offered flyers the opportunity either to purchase elite miles or status outright or to buy back up to their status level. The offers seem to vary by individual — and there’s no guarantee that this will be the case this year — but you can check out threads like this one on FlyerTalk to see how you might be able to get in touch with a Mileage Plan agent and what you can expect when you do.

While prices in the past have been expensive, if you’re within striking distance of MVP Gold 75K and the 50,000-mile bonus you get upon achieving that level, this could be worth it.

Elite leave for new parents

Are you running behind on elite status because of a new bundle of joy that’s curtailed your travel lately? Alaska Airlines has an “elite leave” policy for new parents that allows flyers to suspend their current elite status temporarily.

Here’s the information page on the topic, but the gist of it is as follows: Alaska Airlines will let you keep your current elite status for another year during pregnancy or parental leave. To take advantage of this benefit, you’ve got to email the airline with your full name, date of birth, Mileage Plan number and proof of pregnancy or parental leave, such as a note from your doctor or employer.

If successful, the airline will presume you will have qualified for elite status in the year in which your parental leave ends and will extend it through the following year.

Mileage-run scenarios

Though time is running short, you might still be able to maximize your mileage earning during what’s left of 2022 to achieve elite status with Alaska. That’s because, unlike other major airlines, Alaska Airlines has no minimum spending requirements for elite status.

Related: How and why you might want to book a mileage run

Here are a couple of ideas to help you along the way.

1,000 EQM short: Alaska is generous in that, whether you have elite status or not, you earn a minimum of 500 EQMs on flights. That means you can take two short hops and hit the mark.

For example, you can spend just $132 and a few hours on a Saturday flying between Seattle and Spokane, Washington, for 1,000 EQMs.

Or spend $98 to fly from San Francisco to Las Vegas for a few days for the same 1,000 EQMs.

5,000 miles short: The easiest way to fill this gap is to seek out low-cost transcontinental flights from the West Coast to the East Coast. These routes will be more expensive than short-haul flights, but prices are usually reasonable enough to justify a quick trip to keep elite status.

Here's a mid-December flight from San Francisco to Newark for $258 in Saver economy. This gives you a total of 5,131 EQMs earned.

Or, spend a long weekend in Boston with this $228 round-trip flight from Seattle. You'd earn 4,992 EQMs on this itinerary.

10,000 miles or more short: If you’re well short of your goal — and this is probably most applicable to those shooting for MVP Gold 75K or above — you still might be able to earn 10,000 or even 20,000 EQMs this year.

The simplest way would be to book two back-to-back transcontinental flights (like in the above examples) since you could complete each in a day or two and end up with right around 10,000 EQMs. But that's a lot of time flying in narrow-body jets to destinations you may have already visited.

If you want to qualify in one fell swoop, there are two specific strategies I might suggest, which involve flying one of Alaska’s many airline partners on cheap long-hauls. Just know you'll probably be flying intercontinental, so consider making a vacation of it.

However, you need to pay special attention to the earning rates on airline partners since the number of miles earned varies by partner and fare class. Make sure to check your fare class and the partner page for the operating carrier to calculate how many EQMs you’ll receive from a partner flight.

The first strategy would be to book a cheap long-haul fare on a partner that earns full mileage on certain economy fares.

For example, this itinerary from Los Angeles to Sydney via Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific would earn 11,841 EQMs each way. This is because all premium economy tickets credit 100% EQM and 110% redeemable miles to Alaska, based on miles flown.

Of course, if you have a slightly higher budget, you may consider booking a premium economy or business-class fare on a partner, which typically earns between 125%-150% EQMs.

For instance, this $1,734 fare from Los Angeles to Bangkok via Tokyo in Japan Airlines premium economy would earn 10,425 EQMs each way. This is because business class tickets booked in the J, C, and D fare class earn 125% EQM and 225% redeemable miles.

Segments

If your mileage-run strategy involves earning segments instead, you can use Google Flights’ multicity search to piece an itinerary together.

Given Alaska’s extensive short-haul route network in the Pacific Northwest, if you’re based in a hub like Seattle or Portland or even a “focus” city like the Bay Area, you might have some luck just piecing together a bunch of quick itineraries on the fly.

Here’s a sample one-day trip I put together with Seattle as the start and end points. You'd rack up four segments and 2,229 EQMs by flying to Spokane, Portland and San Francisco before returning to Seattle. This itinerary costs just $263, but there may be better deals out there.

Related: The best credit cards for airfare purchases

Bottom line

Even though the year is coming to an end, there’s still time to lock in your Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan MVP elite status for 2022. You first want to find out where you are now in your pursuit for elite status and then decide which strategy is best to help you get closer to your goal.

Additional reporting by Andrew Kunesh, Eric Rosen and Ethan Steinberg.