Alaska Airlines has introduced a $49 flight subscription service on Wednesday that will be flat fee-based. The airline company is taking a page out of the television and streaming book in hopes that frequent fliers will jump on board.
The subscriptions, as mentioned, will start at $49 per month and will allow people to fly to a few airports in the western U.S. – most are in California, but Reno, Las Vegas and Phoenix are also included.
In a news release, Alaska shared that they are banking on travel trend reports that show Americans planning to take vacations domestically in 2022, especially to destinations with warm weather and beaches.
“After two years of staying close to home, guests are ready to travel chain and with 100 daily flights from 16 airports throughout California and between California to Reno, Phoenix and Las Vegas, ‘Flight Pass’ (the name of the subscription service) will take them there,” said Alex Corey, managing director of business development and products for Alaska Airlines.
Two types of memberships will be offered: Flight Pass, which starts at $49 per month and requires booking at least 14 days in advance, and Flight Pass Pro, which starts at $199 per month and enables same day booking up to two hours prior to departure.
After choosing your plan, you then decide how many roundtrip flights you’ll want to take in a year: 6,12, or 24. Credits can then be redeemed to book a trip on an eligible route, choosing from the 100 daily flights from 16 airports.
As always, there’s some fine print. Costs can be incurred beyond the subscription fee, but Alaska reassures they’ll be less than $15. Government taxes and airport fees for each flight will still be the responsibility of the traveler, as well as a nominal fare, which Alaska says is as low as $0.01 for “most flights.”
Additionally, the deal is only good for roundtrip flights, not one-way fares, and the credits expire if they are not used before the next set arrives; your typical ‘if you don’t use it, you lose it’ scenario.