Customer Q&A on Alaska Airlines and Virgin America merger

On April 4, 2016, Alaska Airlines and Virgin America announced their intention to merge, forming the West Coast’s premier airline. Since the announcement, many customers have had questions about the future of the Alaska Airlines and Virgin America brands. In her 14 months with the company, Alaska’s vice president of marketing Sangita Woerner has overseen…

Alaska Airlines and Virgin America: Uniting to create the premier West Coast airline

When it comes to flying, there are airlines that get you from point A to point B, and then there are airlines that get you. At Alaska Airlines, and at Virgin America, it’s always been about the latter. Today two of the country’s favorite carriers announced their intention to merge, forming the premier airline for…

Travel advisory: Operations restored in northern Alaska

Image credit: David Schneider / Alaska Volcano Observatory / U.S. Geological Survey Update: 12:30 p.m. PDT, March 30, 2016 Operations have been restored to six northern cities in Alaska as ash clouds from the Mount Pavlof eruption have dissipated. Regular flights have resumed to and from Bethel, Nome, Kotzebue, Barrow, Fairbanks and Prudhoe Bay today and Alaska’s…

Always innovating: Alaska testing electronic bag tags

Travel can be a hassle. Nobody knows that better than the members of CX Labs, Alaska Airlines’ customer research and development team, who spend their days at the airport looking for travelers’ pain points and brainstorming ways to soothe them. Since the department’s creation in 2013, the team has tested all kinds of new products…

Chasing the shadow of the moon: To intercept eclipse, Alaska Airlines adjusts flight plan to delight astronomers

There’s no luck in physics. When the sun and the moon and the Earth aligned this week, an Alaska Airlines jet was in the right place at the right time to catch the total solar eclipse. The March 8 rendezvous over the Pacific Ocean was not luck, but a precisely planned equation. The calculations began a year…

Strategies for booking international award tickets

If you read Mileage Plan 101 on the basics of booking award travel, then you should know that Alaska Airlines has 16 different partners that can help you get almost anywhere in the world. However, award space can be limited, and the sheer number of possible itineraries on these longer trips can sometimes make it…

Twitter exchange sparks new in-flight partnership with Sub Pop Records

Looking for something fresh and exciting to do during your next flight? Then Alaska has some good news for you. Beginning this month, the airline is partnering with Seattle’s Sub Pop Records to bring some of the label’s best music onboard – for free.

Mileage Plan 101: The basics of booking award travel

Earning Mileage Plan miles is as easy as adding your member number to your ticket or when booking with Mileage Plan partners. Redeeming miles is just as easy, but if you’ve never done it before, you might not know where to start. Fortunately Alaska’s easy online search tool can find and book almost any Mileage…

Seattle fashion designer Luly Yang will design new uniforms for 12,000 Alaska employees

For the past six months, Seattle couture designer Luly Yang has been traveling undercover on Alaska Airlines flights, interviewing pilots, flight attendants and customer service agents about their uniforms. “I tell them I’m on a research project,” says Yang, who was tapped in February 2016 to redesign uniforms for Alaska’s 12,000 uniformed employees. The uniform…

Walking the Great Wall’s wild side

Robert Reid is a travel writer based in Portland, Oregon, whose writings have appeared in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. He’s been the spokesperson for Lonely Planet, appearing on CNN, NBC’s Today Show and NPR to discuss travel trends. He’s currently the Digital Nomad for National Geographic Traveler. This is exactly what…

5-4-3-2-1: Travel tips for San Francisco’s big game weekend

As football fans around the country get ready for Sunday’s big game, Bay Area airports are preparing for the crush. “In advance of the big game Feb. 7, we’re reminding all travelers to plan ahead and don’t underestimate the craziness that a major sporting event can bring to a city,” says Matt Prainito, Alaska Airlines’…

Alaska Airlines unveils major brand updates

Today Alaska Airlines revealed the most substantial updates to its brand in a quarter century. Beginning today, and throughout the rest of 2016, Alaska fliers will see the visual updates in new signage at the airport, an all-new airplane paint job, a refreshed website and mobile app, and more. “We’ve always been a company about…

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