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Alaska 75K Gold Lounge Passes Non-Transferable

Alaska 75K Gold Lounge Passes Non-Transferable

UPDATE 3/4/19: It seems like Alaska may be walking back this devaluation.  Alaska has added new language to the MVP Gold 75K website:

**To redeem 75K Lounge day passes, visit the Alaska Lounge and provide your Mileage Plan number to the Concierge. To ensure account security, the 75K member must be present to redeem, though the passes can be used by others. 75K Lounge day passes can be converted to sharable day passes by visiting an Alaska Lounge location. Once converted, day passes must be used within 3 months of being issued.

UPDATE: I spoke with one of my contacts in PR at Alaska.  This change is confirmed however it does not go into effect until January 1, 2019.  So for the rest of December, you should still be able to gift Lounge passes for use prior to 2019.  As of January 1, 2019, the MVP Gold 75K will need to be present at the Lounge.

One of the perks of MVP 75K Gold status with Alaska Airlines is four Alaska Lounge passes.  These Lounge passes, good for one day, could be used by the member or the codes could be gifted to another passenger.

A number of times I gave these away to family or friends to use when traveling, especially around the holidays when my extra codes were going to expire.

Recently I purchased an Alaska Lounge membership.  I was left with three of my 75K passes that were set to expire at the end of 2018.

Apparently Alaska recently implemented a change where the codes could only be used by the Gold 75K member.  They could still be used by someone else, but the member had to be traveling with that person.  I first read about this over at FlyerTalk and had it confirmed by an Alaska rep via Twitter.

This is one of the most poorly thought out changes by Alaska.  It makes the Lounge pass benefit worthless for someone like me that purchased an Alaska Lounge membership.  I already get to guest in two other passengers — how often am I going to need to guest in a 4th or 5th passenger with me where I would need to use one of my 75K passes?

I have written about why Alaska is losing my loyalty.  Alaska is continuing to reduce benefits to their most loyal customers — in this case it is impacting most those that are 75K elites AND paid Alaska Lounge members.

The cost to Alaska of the passes is close to zero.  If anything, it might be an opportunity for Alaska to show off the Lounge and potentially sell a Lounge membership.

What is Alaska thinking by removing a low cost benefit from their best customers?

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