Alaska Airlines, in a new bid to recruit and retain loyal passengers, is offering frequent flyer miles to members of the Mountain Collective. As Alaska Airlines is a proud member of the oneworld alliance and has earn & redeem partnerships beyond that, the airline can connect to global destinations.

A unique partnership between sky and ski

The new Alaska Airlines partnership with Mountain Collective using the airline's frequent flyer program will translate into frequent flyer miles for Mountain Collective members. There are now two new ways to earn frequent flyer miles on Alaska Airlines:

1. Mileage Plan elites (aka MVPs) will earn an additional 5,000 bonus miles when they sign up with The Mountain Collective. The offer is only available between August 3 and September 25, 2023.
2. Mileage Plan members who purchase a season pass with The Mountain Collective will receive 5,000 bonus miles and a third day free at a resort of their choice.

To Alaska Airlines, this serves as a means to incentivize winter bookings and retain frequent flyers who happen to also like skiing. As Brett Catlin, vice president of loyalty, alliances and sales at Alaska Airlines explained in an August 3 airline statement,

“So many of our Mileage Plan members are avid skiers and snowboarders. Our new partnership with The Mountain Collective is an excellent way to experience amazing resorts this winter and save money. We also love that we can get you to all of these resorts on Alaska flights or with one of our oneworld member airlines and additional global partners.”

Indeed, the new partnership coupled to the Alaska Airlines frequent flyer program means a member can book a flight to the Southern Hemisphere for a skiing vacation now at Chile's Valle Nevado or Australia's Mt Buller, for example, and redeem those miles this upcoming Northern Hemisphere winter to fly on the Alaska Airlines network to for example Sun Valley, Idaho. But how is that possible when Alaska Airlines does not fly directly to Australia or Chile?

Skiing thru Alaska Airlines' Allies

See, Alaska Airlines is first part of the 14-member oneworld alliance which includes Australia's Qantas. Second, Alaska Airlines also has partnerships with an additional 11 members - including LATAM Airlines.

Photo: Los Angeles World Airports - Jacob Brosseau

Therefore, an Alaska Airlines frequent flyer miles member could book a flight to, say, Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) pictured above and transfer to either the Qantas or LATAM networks to get to the ski resort they want now in return for frequent flyer miles. Or even redeem those miles to take such flights. So yes, you can fly Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 or Embraer E175 to LAX to fly the Airbus A380 to ski in Australia on frequent flier miles.

This way, an airline like Alaska Airlines can retain focus on core routes with single mainline + regional fleets while rewarding every loyalty program member with truly global connections as needed. Other airlines in partnership with Alaska Airlines feel the same way.

Photo: Alaska Airlines 

One should also note the Mountain Collective member ski resorts that Alaska Airlines directly connects to:

• Alta Ski Area
• Big Sky Resort
• Jackson Hole
• Revelstoke
• Snowbird
• Sun Valley
• Taos Ski Valley.

Additional benefits to the partnership

Yes, there are other benefits to the frequent flyer partnership than just frequent flyer miles. For instance, on Alaska Airlines flights, packing skiing and snowboarding equipment comes with only standard luggage fees on that airline. According to the Alaska Airlines statement, there will also be special events this winter to celebrate the new partnership.

Do you find this partnership of interest? Please share in the comments section.