I generally don’t pay much attention to fare class when I book a flight, because I focus more on the cost of the ticket. Screen shot of fare class order from the Alaska Airlines website. When it comes to complimentary upgrades, certain fare classes rank higher than others. Alaska categorizes the different seats on a plane by category and assigns a letter to denote its fare class. The higher your status, the higher you’ll rank on the upgrade list. The more miles you fly, the higher the status level you can earn, from MVP Gold to MVP Gold 100K. For Alaska Airlines, the lowest elite level you can earn is MVP at 20,000 miles flown. Also referred to as your frequent flier status, your elite level indicates how many miles you’ve flown with the airline in the past calendar year. These are the considerations that Alaska Airlines takes into account when creating the upgrade list, in order of importance: Contrary to what some believe, whether or not you land an upgrade depends on more than your sense of fashion. The airline doles out available first class seats based on where you rank on that upgrade list. Instead, Alaska maintains an upgrade list for every flight. Fancy duds won’t land you a complimentary first class upgrade. One thing is certain: don’t bother getting dressed up to impress the flight crew. You may be asking yourself how one gets to the top of the first class upgrade list when flying with Alaska. How to make it to the top of the upgrade list for an Alaska Airlines flight Keep reading to find out how the airline decides who gets upgraded to an open first class seat. So if you’re looking for a “hack” that puts you at the top of the upgrade waitlist, I have two words for you: elite status. Our “almost, but not quite” ranking on the upgrade waitlist as #3 and #4 scored us the last two first class seats on the new plane! Instead of my usual seat at 16D, I was now assigned 4F. Suddenly, I received a notification on my phone from the Alaska Airlines mobile app - the airline had changed my seat assignment. And this newer plane came equipped with an extra row of first class seats. Even better, we’d be flying on the newer 737 MAX. In less than 20 minutes, the Alaska gate crew announced our new gate assignment - just one gate over. The crew apologized and let us know that we would receive our new gate and plane assignment shortly. We were instructed to deplane, as our Boeing 737-800 (an older model) had a mechanical issue. Soon after we had boarded the plane and settled in, I noticed that the flow of passengers had stopped. Because it’s an emergency exit row, there’s more leg room in these seats than the typical main cabin seat. We tend to book seats in the main cabin, at the exit row. Our boarding time arrived, and we boarded with Group A as MVP Gold members. We were ranked #3 and #4 on the waitlist, and the first class cabin was full. When John and I arrived at the Seattle airport, we loaded the upgrade waitlist found on the Alaska Air mobile app. There was no hack involved, just pure chance and a high ranking on the upgrade waitlist. We were upgraded at the eleventh hour, after we had already boarded the plane. Why we scored a complimentary first class upgrade - after we had already boarded View from the window while in flight at 4C on the 737 MAX flight with Alaska Airlines. Looking for lounge access at Seattle-Tacoma Airport? Read about the new Centurion Lounge from American Express. Alaska Airlines lounge access (You aren’t granted lounge access as an upgraded fare, only if you purchase a first class fare.).First class cabin seating with more legroom and larger seats than main cabin seats.Complimentary food, snacks, and alcoholic beverages.Landing at Maui’s Kahului (OGG) Airportīreaking down our first class cabin experience with Alaska Airlines.
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