Archive of What's New at alaskaair.com
Update - October 30, 2012
Receipt Enhancement
More receipt information is now available to view, print or email from Your
Confirmed Reservation, located through Manage Reservation. A section for
Optional Services and Fees will display if you or any traveler on your
itinerary has purchased optional services; inflight services, however, are not
yet reflected on Your Confirmed Reservation in this enhancement.
Update - September 24, 2012
Autocomplete/Shopping Enhancements
alaskaair.com now gives you the option to shop for flights in the entire metro area of Los Angeles, the Bay Area, Houston, Dallas, and Miami in addition to the metro areas we currently support ... Washington D.C., Chicago, and New York. Simply select "all airports" option from the dropdown menu.
Also, as you are typing in a city name, the most relevant option will be highlighted. If the city you are searching for appears in the highlighted box, you can just hit enter ... no need to finish spelling it out.
Update - August 2012
Flight Status On the Go
Up-to-the-minute information on your flight, including scheduled departure/arrival times, actual departure/arrival times (when available), and gate information - delivered right to your phone.
Just text a valid flight number to 252752 and we will respond with the current flight status information.
Learn more...
Improved Upgrade Shopping
Your feedback has led to the following improvements:
- Ability to compare upgradeable fares with non-upgradeable fares when an upgrade type is selected.
- Introduction of two new symbols to:
- Indicate when an instant upgrade is not available.
- Indicate when a flight is not applicable for an upgrade.
- New location of the upgrade symbol. It will appear next to each flight so you know instantly which flights have an upgrade available.
Don't Forget: You must select an upgrade type in order to see the upgrade symbols and what's available.
Update - June 6, 2012
Route Map
A new interactive Route Map that now includes the functionality to book your flight directly from the map.
View our new interactive map.
Update - May 22, 2012
Partner Airline Information
When your itinerary includes one of our partner airlines, we will show you who operates the flight and, when available, where to check in. In the example below, the Atlanta to Los Angeles flight is operated by Delta Air Lines as flight number 1455, and you check in with Delta Air Lines.
Update - March 21, 2012
Nicknames for Companion Travelers
In My Account, under the Settings & Preferences section, you can add a nickname for your companion travelers. The saved nickname will appear in your traveler options while booking tickets, but will not appear on the ticket or boarding pass.
Seat Assignments
When selecting a seat from the seat map, you will see a seat substitution or seat change failure message in the instance the seat is no longer available (someone else selected it at the same time).
Ticket Exchanges
When exchanging part of a Full Flex ticket (booked in Y class) for a new coach/unrestricted ticket, the "Kept Flight" will remain as a Full Flex fare (Y class). If you shop by any other option (e.g. coach/restricted), the Kept Flight fare will change to the lowest available fare.
Update - January 26, 2012
My Account Sign In/Sign Out
Based on your feedback, we have enhanced the My Account sign in and sign out process. In addition to improving the speed, we have added a new shortcut menu to give you access to your account info from any page, as well as one-click access to sign out of your account.
Update - January 24, 2012
Million Miler Status
When signed into your My Account profile, you can now view your progress toward Million Miler Status (1 million miles flown on Alaska Airlines).
Suffixes Available in Passenger Name Field
Including suffixes allows passengers with the same name to be booked in the same reservation. You can update your Traveler Profiles and the suffix will auto-fill during booking when signed in.
Update - December 7, 2011
View Schedule Changes Online
When your itinerary has gone through a minor schedule change, you will see both the old and new flights.
Updates - October 26, 2011
Changes to Your Shopping Experience
- American AAdvantage program elites can now receive preferred seating checked baggage waivers.
- American AAdvantage and Delta Skymiles elite status is recognized on confirmation page and in confirmation email.
- Mileage Plan numbers can be entered during award shopping. Tracking numbers are no longer used.
- Credit card numbers may now be entered with dashes or spaces.
- Itineraries resulting in a combination of First Class and main cabin will display in a more visible manner.
Updates - October 4, 2011
Electronic Guest Upgrade Fix
We fixed an error that was not allowing those using Electronic Guest Upgrades to check in online.
Updates - August 31, 2011
Add to Calendar Fix
We updated our "add to calendar" feature to work with iCal calendars.
Updates - August 17, 2011
Electronic Guest Upgrades
Each year, our Mileage Plan™ MVP® Golds receive 4 one-way upgrades to give to friends or family. Now, instead of paper coupons, these upgrades are electronic.
- Electronic upgrade codes were deposited on August 17, 2011, into the accounts of all who have already qualified for 2012 MVP® Gold status.
- MVP® Golds and Gold 75K's will find a section called Guest Upgrades in their my Account Profile.
- We've made it easy to search for guest upgrades while you shop. Learn more.
Updates - July 27, 2011
Home Page Speed
We've made several changes to the behind the scenes processing to make the home page load faster for you.
Changes to Confirmation Page
We've made a couple changes to the seats section of your confirmed reservation page. First, we've added links for you to request or change seats. We've also updated some back end processing so that your correct seat assignments will show up, even if you've changed them during online check-in. Previously the confirmation didn't update once the check-in window opened.
Certificate Expirations
Now, when you receive a certificate or travel credit, the expiration date is displayed in the confirmation email you receive. Previously, the expiration date only displayed in the Wallet portion of your My Account profile.
Updates - July 22, 2011
New Quick Links on the Homepage
In the bottom right section of the homepage, you'll find our new Quick Links. We've made it easier for you to get right to the information you need at alaskaair.com by featuring links to some of our most popular and most requested pages.
Updates - July 13, 2011
New My Account Layout
We replaced the tab structure to give your My Account profile a cleaner look. You can now navigate through the different sections of My Account by using the links on the left side of the page.
New Navigation for Mileage Plan™ section
We heard from many of you that you were having a hard time finding things in the Mileage Plan™ section at alaskaair.com. To make it easier for you to find what you're looking for, we've renamed some of the groupings, and added a couple more items to the horizontal and drop-down navigation bars.
Updates - June 29, 2011
Check Flight Status from Flight Schedules
You can now check flight status for the current or next day's flight directly from the flight number link on the Flight Schedule page.
More Options When Changing a Reservation
When you use the value of your current trip to purchase a new trip, we've added "include nearby airports" to the one-way and round-trip shopping options, and we've also added the option to shop multi-city itineraries.
Updates - June 8, 2011
Billing Address/Payment Changes - Canadian Postal Code
The Postal Code box now allows for capitalized and non-capitalized letters when entering a billing address within My Account and on the shopping payment page.
New Document Type - Mexican Passport
When entering passport/ID card information for international travel, Mexican citizens now have the ability to choose "Mexican Passport" from the list of Document types.
alaskaair.com Redesign - April 27, 2011
The new alaskaair.com is more than just a visual face lift for the 21st century internet. The airline that pioneered online booking 15 years ago has introduced more intuitive shopping, an ecommerce shopping cart and more to back up the new look and feel.
Over the past several months, we've been adding new features and enhancements to the way you shop for trips in preparation of this new design. For example, in November, 2010, we introduced you to the new Shopping Experience, which added flexibility to your search and made it easier to filter down to what you want to see while simplifying the display of available fares. Now, we proudly introduce you to the full experience of flexible and intuitive shopping at alaskaair.com.
Easy Sign In and Sign Out from Anywhere
Sign into your My Account quickly from anywhere on alaskaair.com with the new dropdown menu at the top right of the main navigation menu. As you sign in, you can now choose which account information you want to see first. Jump right to your My Trips, view your Mileage Activity or My Wallet balance, check out your Account Overview, and more.
After you've finished shopping or browsing, just return to this same link to sign out or view another area of your My Account profile.
Don't have a My Account yet? From this window you can sign up on the simple, one-page registration page.
New Look and Feel
The motivation behind rebuilding alaskaair.com has been all about making it easier for you to do everything you need to do.
"We started by asking customers how we could make online shopping friendlier, simpler and more helpful," said Curtis Kopf, Managing Director of alaskaair.com and Customer Innovation. "The most important thing was to provide a simple, flexible shopping experience, whether the customer is researching and booking a flight, a hotel stay, a rental car, or all three."
Improved Navigation
How valuable is a website if you can't find anything? With the new menu navigation, what you're looking for can be found easily under simplified tab sections with more intuitive names.
Additionally, secondary navigation links to the left of many information pages make it easier to find additional information pertinent to what you're reading.
Your Shopping Cart
Now we offer you flexibility with one-stop trip planning. Store a flight you've searched for in your Cart while you shop for hotels and car rentals. Found a hotel you love, but it's in a different city or not available for the days you're traveling? Save the hotel and return to your Cart to change the flights.
Refreshed Jenn
It's amazing how a new look can rejuvenate you. Jenn, alaskaair.com's pioneering online virtual assistant, continues to offer helpful support for what you need to find, pointing you toward the information you need. Now just over three years old, she continues to learn and expand her knowledge based on what you ask her.
