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UPDATE 1/10/17: If you have a Virgin America Elevate account and an Alaska Mileage Plan account that were both opened prior to December 5, 2016, you should have gotten/be getting the 10k Alaska mile bonus soon. Alaska shared the following statement with The Points Guy:

“We understand that many Mileage Plan members have questions about a surprise 10,000 mile gift that started appearing in some accounts last night, and we wanted to help put some of the mystery to rest. We can’t wait to show members of both programs what more to love looks like with Alaska Mileage Plan, and decided to kick things off with a 10,000 mile bonus award to thank our guests who have been loyal members of both Elevate and Mileage Plan. The gift process is expected to be completed over the course of next couple of days, and eligible members — which includes guests who were active in both Elevate and Mileage Plan as of December 5, 2016 — should look for an email from Mileage Plan later this week. Elevate members who don’t have a Mileage Plan account will be invited to activate one, along with details about their own special welcome offer, how to convert points, and status matching. For now, please sit tight, and we’ll be sharing more information about what members have to look forward to in the next couple of days.”

Hooray! They won’t be revoking any of our mystery bonus miles 🙂

If you qualify but haven’t received the bonus yet are are itching for it, you can try tweeting @AlaskaAir to let them know. Give them your Elevate and Mileage Plan account numbers and ask what’s up.

If you have an Alaska Mileage Plan account as well as a Virgin America Elevate account, log in to your Mileage Plan account and check your balance. You might be 10,000 Alaska miles richer than you were when the weekend began.

It’s not 100% clear yet what’s going on but it definitely has to do with the merger of Virgin America and Alaska Airlines’ and their frequent flyer programs, and it probably has to do with this welcome promotion offering pre-existing Virgin America Elevate members that don’t have pre-existing Alaska Mileage Plan accounts either 10,000 Alaska miles or a $100 flight coupon.

People with already existing Virgin America Elevate and Alaska Mileage Plan accounts have been reporting today across many different sources (Doctor of Credit, Million Mile Secrets, Flyertalk, Mommy Points, One Mile at a Time) that they received a surprise bonus of 10,000 Alaska miles yesterday.

What to Look For

Sign in to your Mileage Plan account on alaskaair.com.

If you did receive the mystery 10k bonus, you’ll see a line in your Mileage Activity section of your account that reads “SPECIAL SERVICES ELEVATE MEMBER OTO 10K BONUS”:

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The first time I checked my Alaska Mileage Plan account today, I had not received any such bonus. After reading others’ experiences in this Flyertalk thread I decided to call Mileage Plan and ask if I would be receiving it soon considering others have done the same with success. The agent told me that on her end, she could see a deposit of 10,000 Alaska miles into my account on January 8, and that they were in a queue to process and should hit later today or tomorrow. And as she promised, they showed up in my account a couple hours later.

SCORE!

From data points I’ve read, not everyone with an existing Elevate as well as Mileage Plan account has received this mystery bonus, but a good deal of people have.

Here’s Mileage Plan’s contact numbers in case you want to investigate this for yourself:

1-800-654-5669
8:00 am – 6:00 pm (Pacific Time), Monday-Friday
8:00 am – 5:00 pm (Pacific Time), Saturday

Why I’m Excited

If you couldn’t tell by my recent post about seven awesome ways to redeem Alaska miles with free stopovers, I am a big fan of the reward currency. We value Alaska miles at 1.75 cents each, so I consider 10,000 free miles like someone handing me $175. Especially because I already have a collection like most miles, their value increases the more of them you have (so you can redeem on expensive premium cabin flights). Even if you don’t already have Alaska miles, 10,000 is enough for a free roundtrip domestic flight on Alaska Airlines, as long as each flight is under 700 miles in distance.

Welcome Promo for Pre-Existing Virgin America Elevate Members With a Newly Assigned Alaska Mileage Plan Account

Congrats–you get the bonus either way.

If you already have a Virgin America Elevate account (and signed up for it by or before December 5, 2016) but never signed up for an Alaska Mileage Plan account yourself, you should have received an email recently (or should soon) from Alaska notifying you that an Alaska Mileage Plan account has been created for you/offering the welcome promo. Fill in your new Alaska Mileage Plan account info here, and choose which promo you want to cash in on: 10k Alaska miles or a $100 discount code (off of base fare levels published at alaskaair.com).

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You Can Now Transfer 1 Virgin America point = 1.3 Alaska Miles

Did you transfer SPG points over to Virgin America before their partnership ended to take advantage of the new Virgin America to Alaska miles transfer rate? You’re free to start moving points!

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Bottom Line

If you have a Virgin America Elevate account as well as an Alaska Mileage Plan account open, check your Mileage Plan account to see if you were also gifted 10k Alaska miles. You should be soon if you haven’t been yet!

Or if you had a Virgin America Elevate account open pre-December, but no Alaska Mileage Plan account, take advantage of the welcome promo and register here with the info of your new Alaska account to choose between a 10k Alaska mile bonus or a $100 coupon.

If you had forgotten–today is January 9. That means you can now transfer Virgin America points to Alaska at a rate of 1:1.3.

Did you get any free money over the weekend?

Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.

Just getting started in the world of points and miles? The Chase Sapphire Preferred is the best card for you to start with.

With a bonus of 60,000 points after $4,000 spend in the first 3 months, 5x points on travel booked through the Chase Travel Portal and 3x points on restaurants, streaming services, and online groceries (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs), this card truly cannot be beat for getting started!


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