What does Virgin-Alaska partnership mean?
Bay Area travelers are starting off the new year with a new airline of sorts, the combined Virgin America and Alaska Airlines. Here’s what you need to know:
Change will be slow. Virgin America’s unique amenities like mood lighting, larger bins (and bag size allowances), seat-back food ordering and modern Airbus fleet are not going away any time soon, and could become part of the combined carrier. Virgin America will continue to operate as a subsidiary of Alaska Airlines for at least the next year as decisions are made regarding how to combine the two operations.
Fares could rise. Anytime you remove a competitor from the market, prices rise. Virgin America has been an aggressive discounter at San Francisco International, and it remains to be seen whether Alaska will carry on that tradition. Keep an eye on the bellwether San Francisco-Seattle route, where the two airlines have keenly competed on price.
Business travelers to benefit. With its acquisition of Virgin, Alaska hopes to build a West Coast powerhouse. To do that, it’s going to have to win the hearts, wallets and repeat business of Virgin loyalists in the Bay Area. Right off the bat, Alaska offered Virgin Elevate elite members access to benefits such as priority check-in and boarding on Alaska Air flights. Last week it invited Elevate members to join its Mileage Plan program and convert Virgin points to Alaska miles at a relatively generous rate of 1.3 to 1. Then it even reduced the mileage cost on many award flights. It also recently added free movies, chat and texting on flights equipped with Gogo. Frequent travelers likely will see even more coddling like this over the next year.