Last year that I realized my flying plans lined up in a way that meant I’d find myself qualifying for elite status for the first time with a push from a credit card. At the end of the year, I squeaked into Atmos Silver with Alaska, and I was ready to take advantage of the (admittedly fairly meager) benefits. So far, I am not loving it.
It didn’t help that my first three trips in the new year would gain no benefit from Alaska status. The first, as you all know, was my adventures in Mexico where Alaska has no partner. The second was a day trip to Phoenix. There was no way I was going to drive up to LAX to fly American just on the off chance I’d get an upgrade for an hour. I went with Southwest. And the third involved a speaking engagement in Vegas. Alaska no longer even flies there from LAX, so it was either take one of only three daily, poorly-timed flights on American or… fly Southwest. I did the latter, and you’ll hear about that soon.
So things weren’t off to a great start, but we have a Hawaiian trip planned for this summer, and I was excited to get my benefits while also putting my credit card companion certificate to use. This too did not go well.
When you use the companion certificate, you have to book online, and you are required to only book two people in a reservation. I, as you know, have a family of four. There is no way to put that in a single booking, so I’d have to do two separate ones. The problem, of course, is that elite benefits only apply to companions in the same reservation as yourself. That’s frustrating since I didn’t want to book this separately.
Now, we aren’t talking big benefits here. As a Silver, I get a free checked bag (which I get from the credit card anyway), and free preferred seating. I am only entitled to an upgrade to “Premium” (extra legroom) or First Class with one companion anyway, so I didn’t expect that to happen. I was downright determined to get free preferred seating, because… well, because, damnit. That’s the only benefit that would matter.
I started by using Alaska’s chat function to ask if they could give free preferred seating to my other companions since it was Alaska that was forcing me to book in separate reservations. The agent told me that I could only upgrade one companion with my benefits anyway.
Frustrated with her lack of understanding what I was trying to do, I uploaded this very screenshot from the Alaska website.
She said that it was only one companion, but I could try calling reservations. Confused, I did just that.
Shockingly, the reservations agent said the exact same thing. She consulted her manual and said that upgrades were for only one companion. I tried to explain to her that preferred seats aren’t an upgrade, and the website clearly states it’s for the entire party. She would not budge. Since she was telling me the website was wrong, I asked her how this could get fixed. She said I could file a report, whatever that means. I hung up exceedingly frustrated that I had wasted time on this. It’s not like preferred seating is even all that great of a benefit.
I wasn’t planning on doing this, but I was so jaded by this experience that I decided to burn last year’s and this year’s companion pass on this trip, thinking I might not want to bother keeping the credit card. Then, in a fit of confusion, I booked myself in the preferred seats and paid for the other two not in my reservation to sit there. I should have just put us all in the regular seats, but I was stupidly determined to squeeze ANY benefit out of this silly elite status.
Not satisifed at all once I calmed down, I emailed the communications team at Alaska to ask for clarification on the policy. Would I not have been entitled to preferred seating for the whole family even in a single reservation as these two reservations agents suggested? It took more than one person and some time to get me an answer, but in the end, I was right. Of course, this wouldn’t have helped me get the other two free preferred seating since they were on separate reservations, but I was told that reservations agents are empowered to make exceptions in circumstances like that. I apparently found the two reservations agents who couldn’t even understand the policy in the first place. Alaska did refund the extra preferred charge which I appreciated, but it brings up the bigger question….
In the end, why do I even care? Upgrades on a trip with the family aren’t happening since that only works with one companion. The checked bag is free with the credit card — something that frustratingly also won’t apply to the other two people when I have to book separately anyway — and so that leaves me with preferred seating and priority boarding on a family trip? Who cares?
I have thought about trying to extend my elite status by matching to another airline to see if I’d feel the same way with others. If I have it, might as well try it. The obvious option is Southwest, but their policy is to do a challenge that requires booking AND traveling six one ways within a 120 day window. Having already booked my first two trips on Southwest, those would not have been eligible. But really, that’s fine. I would rather get off this roller coaster ride.
I give up. I will let this play out this year, but then I’m back out of the game. It’s just never worth it for a lowly entry-level status-holder to even bother.
