How To Earn And Use The Alaska Airlines Companion Fare

One of many nice perks of the Alaska Airways Visa Signature® bank card is the so-called “Well-known Companion Fare.” Every cardholder 12 months, members get a singular low cost code letting them e-book an Alaska flight and add a companion for simply $99 plus taxes beginning, which begin at $22.

Alaska Airways makes it fairly simple to make use of this perk too. The distinctive code is deposited into your Alaska Airways Mileage Plan account. Which means you don’t have to fret about discovering an e-mail or bodily coupon whenever you wish to use it—and there are few restrictions on how you should use the low cost code.

If you should use this perk every year, you possibly can simply justify the $75 annual payment on the Alaska Airways Visa Signature® bank card. Let’s present you how you can earn and use the Alaska Airways Companion Fare.

How To Earn the Alaska Companion Fare

The one option to earn Alaska’s “Well-known Companion Fare” is to carry choose Alaska Mileage Plan bank cards. At present, there are two playing cards that provide the Companion Fare: Alaska Airways Visa Signature® bank card and Alaska Airways Visa® Enterprise Credit score Card*.

Alaska Airways Visa Signature® bank card

New Alaska Airways Visa Signature® bank card cardholders will earn an Alaska Companion Fare as a part of the welcome bonus. Then, cardholders will earn one other Companion Fare every card anniversary.

Alaska notes that your first Companion Fare code will likely be deposited in your account 6 to eight weeks after qualifying for the welcome provide. Nevertheless, it’s more likely to be a lot sooner than that in observe. Once I signed up for a brand new Alaska Airways Visa Signature® bank card in fall 2020, my Companion Fare was deposited simply days after I met the spending necessities.

To earn the cardholder anniversary Companion Fare, your account will have to be open and with lively charging privileges in your account anniversary—which might be 6 to eight weeks after you initially opened your card. Per the phrases, the Companion Fare low cost code ought to be deposited in your account inside two billing cycles after your account anniversary. Though, in observe, I’ve discovered that the code normally deposits inside just a few days of your card anniversary.

Alaska Airways Visa® Enterprise Credit score Card*

When you have a small enterprise, you possibly can join the Alaska Airways Visa® Enterprise Credit score Card*. As with the private card, you’ll earn a Companion Fare as a part of the sign-up bonus after which every subsequent 12 months.

The primary Companion Fare will likely be added to your account 6 to eight weeks after you meet the spending necessities. Then, you’ll get one other Companion Fare every year in your account anniversary.

Canada-issued Alaska Airways Playing cards

The Alaska Companion Fare isn’t only for Individuals. Canadians also can get a Companion Fare on each of Alaska’s Canadian bank cards:

• Alaska Airways World Elite® Mastercard®
• Alaska Airways Platinum Plus® Mastercard®

As with the U.S. playing cards, you’ll get the primary Companion Fare after assembly the preliminary spending necessities after which every year after that.

Guidelines for Reserving Alaska’s Companion Fare

For such a invaluable perk, you would possibly anticipate a bunch of restrictions. Nevertheless, Alaska solely locations just a few restrictions on utilizing the Companion Fare.

Maybe probably the most essential is that it is advisable e-book each passengers on the similar time. This units the Alaska Companion Fare aside from the Southwest Companion Go, which helps you to add your companion after reserving the unique passenger’s flight.

The Companion Fare is just legitimate for financial system bookings, so that you received’t have the ability to get buy-one-get-one-almost-free on top quality fares. And, talking of fares, you could e-book a printed airfare. Which means you possibly can’t e-book any loopy routings or flights between airports the place Alaska doesn’t promote flights.

Lastly, the Companion Fare can’t be mixed with different reductions and isn’t legitimate for award bookings. Which means you possibly can’t e-book any of the unbelievable Mileage Plan candy spots and add a companion fare utilizing a certificates.

What’s allowed when reserving Alaska Companion Fare?

Alaska lets vacationers use the Companion Fare for different vacationers. For instance, I’m utilizing this 12 months’s Companion Fare to e-book two buddies on the identical journey that I booked with final 12 months’s certificates. When utilizing the Companion Fare for others, the one limitation is that the holder’s bank card should be used to e-book the reservation, which is probably going a step to forestall fraud.

Though you possibly can’t use miles or low cost codes to scale back the price of a Companion Fare reserving, Alaska lets passengers apply any legitimate Alaska journey funds to the reserving. So should you needed to ditch a visit as a result of pandemic, you should use flight credit to scale back the price of your Companion Fare reserving.

And excellent news for mileage collectors—each vacationers will earn miles and elite credit from the flight. Elite vacationers are even eligible for upgrades to top quality. Nevertheless, each vacationers should journey collectively in the identical cabin,so there must be improve area for each vacationers.

How lengthy is the Alaska Companion Fare legitimate?

The Alaska Companion Fare expires at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time on the acknowledged expiration date, which is ready primarily based on whenever you earned the Companion Fare

Don’t fear should you can’t journey by that date. So long as your reserving has been ticketed earlier than the expiration date, you may have as much as 12 months to finish journey.

How To E-book the Alaska Companion Fare

To get began, log into your Alaska Mileage Plan account. Underneath “Account,” click on the dropdown field and choose the “low cost/companion fare codes” hyperlink.

Click on the “store” button on the low cost code you wish to use. This can launch a search utilizing that distinctive low cost code.

Alaska will routinely default to 2 adults, and also you’ll get an error should you change the search to roughly than two vacationers. The search additionally defaults to a round-trip, however you possibly can e-book a one-way or multi-city journey as an alternative. Enter your origin, vacation spot and dates. Then click on “discover flights” to launch a search.

The flight outcomes will look a bit completely different to those who are used to the Alaska flight search engine. You’ll see two costs for every flight. The highest value is the fee (together with taxes and charges) for the unique passenger. The value for the companion is proven beneath that. The flexible-date search bar above the flight outcomes helpfully exhibits the entire value for each passengers.

As you possibly can see within the screenshot above, you possibly can e-book both Saver or Primary cabin fares. The Companion Fare is identical ($99 plus taxes) for both possibility.

You’ll be able to’t combine and match Saver and Primary fares between the outbound and return flights. As a substitute, you’ll want to decide on Saver or Primary for each instructions of a round-trip. Additionally, since first-class fares can’t be booked with a Companion Fare, Alaska exhibits these fares as “N/A”.

When you’ve chosen your flights, click on “add to cart” to proceed to checkout. Right here you’ll see the fares for each the first passenger and the $99 companion fare. On this instance, you’re saving over $150 due to the Companion Fare low cost.

When you affirm the flight particulars, click on the “subsequent” button on the backside of the web page. On the following display, enter the private data for each vacationers and click on “proceed” to maneuver to seat choice. Along with your seat chosen, the following step is to enter fee to finish the acquisition.

How To Maximize the Alaska Companion Fare

Now, let’s get into the enjoyable half: maximizing the Companion Fare. As you possibly can see, reserving the Alaska Companion Fare is pretty easy and may all be finished on-line. So long as you possibly can value out an itinerary on Alaska’s web site, you possibly can e-book it with the Companion Fare.

E-book a Multi-leg Journey

One of many enjoyable methods to maximise the Alaska Companion Fare is by reserving two journeys in only one ticket. For instance, should you’re primarily based on the East Coast, you possibly can e-book a visit to go to each the West Coast and Hawaii in the identical journey.

An alternative choice—you possibly can depart from New York Metropolis and go to each Seattle and Hawaii for just a few nights every earlier than returning to NYC. This journey presently prices $482 round-trip in Saver or $652 round-trip in Primary Cabin.

After including the $99 Companion Fare plus taxes and charges, you may pay simply $620 round-trip for 2 passengers in Saver class or $790 round-trip for 2 in Primary Cabin.

E-book the Alaska Milk Run

This 12 months I used the Alaska Companion Fare to e-book Alaska Airways’ well-known “Milk Run”. Every day, Alaska operates flights 61-67,every of which makes a number of stops in small cities in southern Alaska on the best way between Seattle and Anchorage. As these flights carry important provides to those cities, these flights have earned the “Milk Run” nickname.

And sure, you should use the Alaska Companion Fare to e-book these flights. Simply make sure that to make use of the Multi-Metropolis search software to drive your approach onto one of many Milk Run flights.

Except you reside in Seattle or Anchorage, make sure that to e-book your positioning flights as a part of the identical reserving. The $99 Companion Fare would be the similar regardless of what number of flights you add. You’ll successfully get buy-one-get-one-free in your positioning flights as properly.

Backside Line

The Alaska Companion Fare is a rewarding perk of Alaska co-branded bank cards. If you should use it every year, this perk alone can assist justify the cheap annual payment on these Alaska bank cards. The opposite perks of those playing cards—from free checked luggage to reductions on in-flight purchases and lounge passes—are only a bonus on high.