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Virgin America ceases to exist on April 24th, 2018.
That’s a sad day for a lot of people, but let’s be optimists. Just because Virgin America ceases to exist doesn’t mean their planes cease to exist, in fact, for Alaska Elites it creates a great opportunity to get upgraded into one of the best domestic first class seats out there ( aside from lie flat transcons). How you say? Lemme show you a couple SUPER easy ways to distinguish between planes that will fly the old Virgin product vs. the Alaska product.
The Goal
April 25th will be the first day that complimentary upgrades will be given in these seats. EVER. As an MVPG75 I’m pretty stoked for these planes to fly as Alaska planes.
Let’s take a look at flights to D.C. on April 24th…the last day you’ll see a Virgin America flight.
The very next day every flight has an Alaska badge. However, 1108 and 114 are operated by with the Old Virgin America planes.
We can use the seat configurations to decipher between planes that were once Virgin America and those that have always been Alaska.
Courtesy of Seatguru, here are the planes that both airlines currently offer:
There are two big ways you can tell the difference…Plane manufacturer and seat map.
Virgin Flies an Airbus with 8 first class seats
When you see a seat map for an Airbus plane…you will get the current Virgin America plane. Alaska has plans of changing these around, but for the foreseeable future…you can count on getting those seats.
Alaska planes will be Boeing with 8+ seats ( currently 12-16)
Alaska has plans to change these cabins, but I thought this would be a helpful for the time being.
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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