I woke up yesterday to an email from Alaska Air – my preferred airline – that made me go “wtf?!” It seems they’ve taking a page out of retail’s playbook (I’m looking at you, Best Buy), and starting a BS subscription service. Yup, Alaska Air launches a discount membership program, that I think is stupid
Everyone seems to be moving towards subscription models nowadays. I could be wrong, as I don’t really pay that close attention, but first one that struck me as particularly egregious is Best Buy’s Total Tech change, going from something that offered free installation on appliances/home theater purchases, to a subscription that offers an additional year of warrant on Best Buy purchases, plus access to exclusive sales. In fact, if you want Best Buy’s best sale prices, you have to be a Total Tech member. I hate it.
I actually have Total Tech because I bought one year for the same price as the delivery and installation of an appliance I had purchased. Made sense at the time, but not anymore. Anyhow, in what I hope won’t become a trend, Alaska Air launches a discount membership in the same vein as Best Buy Total Tech, which I find disappointing.
Alaska Air Launches a Discount Membership
As I mentioned earlier, I first learned of the program, called Alaska Access, via an official email from the company.
The company lauds the program as a way for price-conscious travelers to save time and money throughout the year. You see, with Alaska Access, you’ll enjoy:
- Early Sales Access: you’ll learn about and be able to book fare sales “the night before” the actual sale.
- Personalized Fare Page: this one is a bit vague, but I’m guessing its a page that lets you save city pairs to make it easier to track fare sales (both for purchase and mileage redemption)? What’s funny is Alaska Air says this isn’t a secured page, so anyone you send it to can see it and book your advanced-access fare. Alaska also states that your “advanced access” isn’t guaranteed, and they can choose to market a sale before notifying you about it.
- Monthly WiFi Voucher: this is the one benefit that doesn’t make this a grift – you get a one-time-use inflight WiFi voucher once per month. Unfortunately, the voucher doesn’t rollover. You either use it the month it’s issued or you lose it.
So how much does Alaska Access cost? $5 per month, but there’s a one-year commitment, so it’s actually $60 per year. Even though you’re billed monthly, you cannot cancel early. Seriously. They even have a provision in there about initiating a chargeback with your financial institution.
This all seems to be, well, not a good deal for anyone but Alaska. You have to commit to paying $60 for access to this program. It’s being marketed as a way to get early access to Alaska’s best deal, yet you aren’t guaranteed to get even that? If you’re considering this for some reason, this would be a hard pass. No one should be purchasing this crap on the premise of using it to save on airfare.
Who Is Alaska Access For?
If your average traveler should care as Alaska Air launches a discount membership, then who is Alaska Access for? Well, honestly, the only people that should consider this subscription are those that travel on Alaska at least once per month and can make use of that in-flight WiFi voucher. After all, the $5/month fee is lower than the $8 length-of-flight WiFi voucher price. So if you would’ve purchased access at least once a month, then this subscription would’ve saved you $3 a month, or $36 per year.
Unfortunately, Alaska Air doesn’t offer monthly and annual unlimited WiFi subscription plans. The only way to get this kind of access is to have a T-Mobile Go5G plan. The Next tier will get you unlimited free in-flight WiFi, while Go5G Plus will get you four length-of-flight vouchers, plus unlimited one-hour connections.
Alaska Air Launches a Discount Membership, Final Thoughts
In an era when other airlines are shifting towards offering all passenger free WiFi, I find it odd that Alaska Air launches a discount membership program that leans on offering one length-of-flight voucher per month to make its value proposition legitimate. Seriously. Delta offers all passengers free WiFi so long as they’re SkyMiles members (which doesn’t cost you anything). Hawaiian also offers free WiFi onboard its (currently limited) Starlink-equiped fleet. But Alaska chose to go in a different direction.
Honestly, I’m disappointed in this move. I know Alaska has always existed somewhere between a larger legacy and an LCC, much like Hawaiian, but I think this is a step too. This seems really cheap at best, and desperate/scummy at worst. I certainly hope it’s not a sign of things to come.