Alaska Airlines will be offering travelers the chance to subscribe to airline tickets within California, Nevada, and Arizona.
With the launch of Flight Pass, passengers will be able to lock-in discounted pricing for roundtrip flights on a monthly or bimonthly basis. The airline’s subscription service will be a members-only flight ticket service.
Travelers have a choice of two subscription packages. The standard Flight Pass, which starts at $49 per month requires bookings at least 14 days before. Alternatively, the Flight Pass Pro, which starts at $199 per month, allows same-day bookings up to two hours prior to departure. On both plans, it is possible to make bookings as early as 90 days in advance.
Currently both plans allow the subscriber to choose 6, 12, or 24 trips per year.
“Flight Pass builds on our mission to offer travelers the most West Coast destinations at the best value,” said Alaska Airline’s managing director of business development and product Alex Corey.
On the website, the airline explains that “Flight Pass is an annual subscription for roundtrip travel — you cannot use credits to book one-way travel. Most flights are available to select for only $0.01 plus $14.60 in airport taxes and fees, but some of the most popular flights will require a higher fare to select.”
While credits do expire, the airline has allowed space for flexibility given the nature of travel during the pandemic. If travelers do need to cancel the trip before to the booked flight, the credit will be redeposited into the account so that rebooking is a possibility.
The service will be the first of its kind in the U.S. as currently, no other airline offers this to its passengers. It has been described as a useful alternative for frequent fliers looking to lock in the ever-fluctuating ticket prices following the pandemic.