Alaska Airlines continues its push into the subscription services model with the introduction of Alaska Access. The program promises early access to sale fares and a Wi-Fi discount among its benefits, for just $5/month (with an annual subscription and $1 initiation fee).
Alaska Access is part of our commitment to make travel more affordable and convenient for everyone – whether planning for your dream vacation or returning home from college.
– Shane Jones, VP of business development at Alaska Airlines
Subscription services are designed to increase stickiness for customers, and the Alaska Access program is no different. The carrier promises advance notice of fare sales for subscribers – via app alerts, naturally, to further increase that brand loyalty tie. Subscribers will have access to sales the night before they go public, allowing travelers to “book your favorite route times and seats before they’re gone!”
The program also introduces a “personalized fare page” which looks an awful lot like a fare calendar search available through various OTAs and metasearch engines. Alaska Airlines offers a twist by enabling at-a-glance low fare award prices in the view as well. For some travelers that level of data alone might be worth the low fee.
Finally, perhaps the most concrete benefit of the program appears to be a monthly Wi-Fi voucher. But, as with most subscription programs, the fine print matters.
The voucher provides a complimentary inflight connectivity session on board, removing the typical $8 fee. But it comes with limits. For one thing, it is tied only to the subscription member; you cannot give it to a friend or family member if you’re not flying in a given month. And the voucher is time limited to the calendar month in which it was issued. A customer signing up today would only have 10 days to use their first voucher on board. This also means a subscriber cannot save a pair of vouchers to use for a round-trip, unless the travel spans across calendar months.
Like all subscription programs, Alaska Access is something of a loyalty play, just not in the typical sense of airline loyalty programs. Indeed, the company expects consumers to buy in, demonstrating their loyalty with a cash component and then behavior that follows. When priced right that type of approach often delivers strong returns.
And, as with the flight subscription program Alaska Airlines offers, the value proposition generally tends towards those who already fly the carrier more often than not. The goal is to move more people into that category by getting them more attached to the brand. And the cost to get there with Alaska Access is probably low enough that it’ll work for a decent number of passengers.
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