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Alaska Airlines - The Fifth-Largest Airline Company in the United States


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Many of you know that Alaska Airlines purchased Virgin America last year for $2.6 billion, making it the country's fifth-largest airline (probably larger in terms of land coverage!) They have now announced that the two will merge into one brand - this Forbes article is a good place to start.

"Why Virgin America Will Soon Cease To Exist" by Lauren Gensler on forbes.com

If you're an existing Virgin America frequent-flier member (like me), you have the option, in 2017, to convert 1 point to 1.3 miles on Alaska Airlines program; if you wait to do this, the points will be automatically transferred in early 2018. 

This is the important thing: It's not clear to me whether they'll be automatically transferred at 1 to 1.3, or at 1 to 1, so why risk it? Do it now.

"Alaska Airlines Is Killing Off the Virgin Airline Brand" by David Goldman and Jon Ostrower on money.cnn.com

Personally, I'll miss the safety-announcement song more than anything - I do hope this gives Alaska Airlines some east-west coast routes.

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I hope this merger goes well. Alaska is by far my favorite airline to fly, a fact that is really hammered home whenever I end up on Delta or American. They also have by far the best flights to the PNW, including one direct each way daily out of DCA to Portland, and two each day to Seattle. 

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On 3/25/2017 at 10:37 AM, DonRocks said:

I do hope this gives Alaska Airlines some east-west coast routes.

I flew Alaska Airlines DCA -> LAX -> DCA (non-stop both ways, and they were the least expensive carrier on short notice) in June.

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If you are doing wine tasting on the West Coast, Alaska Airlines can be a great option due to their wine program, which allows Mileage members to check a case of wine for free from certain airports. 

We were able to haul a case of wine back from Walla Walla, WA via Sea-Tac.  One of the wineries in Walla Walla provided us with a shipping box and the cardboard inserts which cradle the bottles.  Or you can buy one of those fancy wine suitcases. Plus we flew Sea-Tac to BWI direct, also a bonus!   

Wine (Mileage Plan™ members only) - one protectively packaged case of wine when traveling on flights from the following airports, within the United States: Burbank (BUR), Fresno (FAT), Los Angeles (LAX), Monterey (MRY), Oakland (OAK), Orange County (SNA), Ontario (ONT), Palm Springs (PSP), Sacramento (SMF), San Diego (SAN), San Francisco (SFO), San Jose (SJC), San Luis Obispo (SBP), Santa Barbara (SBA), Sonoma (STS), Boise (BOI), Eugene (EUG), Medford (MFR), Portland (PDX), Redmond (RDM), Bellingham (BLI), Pasco (PSC), Pullman (PUW), Seattle (SEA), Spokane (GEG), Walla Walla (ALW), Wenatchee (EAT), and Yakima (YKM). The program does not apply when flying to international destinations.

Looks like they do a similar waiver for pineapples from Hawaii!

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