HUGE NEWS! Yesterday, Alaska Airlines finally revealed its future integration plans! And while there were some speculation Alaska Air would retain both brands, they’ve decided not to. So soon it’ll be time to say goodbye Virgin America.
Merging Brands
There were great arguments regarding the possibility of Alaska Air preserving Virgin America as its own, separate brand. That way Virgin could keep its quirkiness, and Alaska could continue to be an all Boeing airline. But it wasn’t meant to be. Yesterday, Alaska Air’s CEO, Brad Tilden, announced that the Virgin brand will be retired.
Tilden estimates that the Virgin brand will disappear sometime in 2019, at which time Alaska’s name and logo will be adopted throughout. However, Virgin’s influence won’t disappear from the combined airline completely. Aspects of the “Virgin Experience” will be adopted throughout the combined airline, including:
- mood lighting
- entertainment
- music
Creating a “different flying experience” is also claimed to be a major driving force behind the new Alaska.
Continuous Improvement
Some of Alaska Air’s changes are already in-progress. One of the biggies of these changes, is probably the addition of premium economy seating. Not only will this continue, but Alaska will standardize the number of first class (12) and premium economy (18) seats across both its Boeing and Airbus fleets.
Enhancements to the airline’s entertainment has already happened too. Back in January, Alaska ran a promotion allowing passengers to view all movies and tv show free when streamed to their own devices. That promotion has now been made permanent. Further, 100% complimentary entertainment will expand to the Airbus fleet’s Red system by August 2017. Also already a feature onboard Alaska metal, and coming to Virgin metal in August 2017, is the airline’s free iChat/Facebook Messenger/WhatsApp (wifi) service.
Other enhancements include expansion of lounges, onboard satellite-based wifi, new onboard + airport music, and West Coast-inspired food & drink.
Mileage Plan
Obviously, Mileage Plan will be the sole remaining loyalty program when all is said and done. Luckily, it doesn’t sound like any major change are on the way. Even upgrades seems like they’ll remain the same; complimentary upgrade to first class for MVP Golds and up. And with pre-merger Virgin aircraft being upgraded with the same number of premium seats as Alaska’s fleet, complimentary upgrades will be coming to Airbus aircraft in late 2018.
Even though no changes to Mileage Plan are being announced now, two years is a long time. Much can change between now and full integration in 2019, but we’ll have to just wait and see. I’m sure one thing that will change is the upgrade process. I wouldn’t surprised if, once the premium economy rollout is complete, we’ll see first class upgrades being limited to MVP Gold 75Ks. But even if this doesn’t happen in policy, I’m sure in practice that how things will be, and likely are already. After all, all my flights on Alaska thus far have been PACKED, with up to 50% of passengers being MVPs.
New Alaska Air Final Thoughts
This is the news we’ve been waiting months to hear. Me? I’m not surprised Alaska chose to go this route, in fact it’s what I expected. And while I’m pleased with the direction Alaska is taking, I’m going to remain cautiously optimistic in regards to Mileage Plan. I think the loyalty program is the best in the business now, and is the whole reason why I jumped shipped to Alaska. So its something I hope Alaska will use to its advantage and not change… Unlike American.
I do wish that the new standardization of first class seats would have continued to be whatever fits in each aircraft version. The B739’s have 16 seats, and it would be nice if that would remain so, as more seats equals more chances of a complimentary 1st class upgrade. 12 isn’t a lot.
This could be the case too, ptpntp77. They weren’t clear and/or I was rushing to finish this and didn’t read into it enough! But perhaps there is a reduction to the first class cabin to make room for the premium economy cabin too? The space has to come from somewhere after all, and since I’m guessing they don’t sell a lot of first class tickets, that’s likely where’d they’d pull it from.