Porter Airlines big expansion plans continue today with the announcement of a new partnership with Alaska Airlines. The partnership launches immediately with an interline agreement and will be followed up reciprocal frequent flyer earning and redemption in 2024.
Interline Agreement
Effective immediately the new interline agreement between the airlines means passengers can purchase combined Porter-Alaska itineraries directly from flyporter.com, alaskaair.com or via third-party agencies.
Frequent flyer program partnership
The frequent flyer partnership between the two airlines will be rolled out in several stages over the course of 2024:
Alaska’s Mileage Plan members can start earning miles on Porter flights booked via Alaska Airlines from January, and later in 2024 both VIPorter and Mileage Plan members will earn miles in their respective loyalty programs no matter where they book their flights.
Finally, next year will bring even more benefits with access to mileage redemptions with enhanced availability for both VIPorter and Mileage Plan members on each other’s airline. Porter and Alaska will continue to strengthen their partnership in 2024.
This is huge for Canadians, namely from the perspective of the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan program. That program just recently announced changes to their partner awards by consolidating them all into one reward chart that takes effect in March 2024. This should hopefully mean Porter Airlines flights will follow this chart as well and if they do, many Porter Airlines routes in Eastern Canada will be available for as little as 4,500 Mileage Plan miles one way.
If Porter Airlines does follow the Mileage Plan partner award chart (and I don’t see why they wouldn’t) here are the minimum Mileage Plan mileage requirements (one way) on a selection of Porter Airlines routes:
- Toronto – Montreal: 4,500 miles
- Calgary-Ottawa: 12,500 miles
- Vancouver-Toronto: 12,500 miles
- Toronto-Los Angeles: 17,500 miles (This one hurts as it’s literally about ~70 miles outside of the 12,500 miles category)
- Toronto-Miami: 7,500 miles
- Halifax-Toronto: 7,500 miles
- Montreal-Halifax: 4,500 miles
- Winnipeg-Toronto: 7,500 miles
As you can see for many of the routes, in particular short haul flights and from Eastern Canada to Florida, they represent some really great redemption options.
For Porter Airlines VIPorter there are no details yet on the program’s redemption rates for travel on Alaska Airlines. As soon as we learn these we’ll be sure to pass them along!
Earning Alaska Airlines Miles in Canada
Even though the MBNA Alaska Airlines Mastercard has been officially discontinued there is one open avenue to earning Mileage Plan miles in Canada outside of earning with Alaska and their airline or hotel partners (including Canada’s own Coast Hotels!) . Currently that avenue is by converting Marriott Bonvoy points to Mileage Plan.
Here in Canada you can earn Marriott Bonvoy points with the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card or the Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express Card. Bonvoy points convert at a ratio of 3:1 to Alaska Airlines and if you convert 60,000 points at a time the program adds an extra 5,000 miles to your total (60,000 Bonvoy points = 25,000 Mileage Plan miles)
You can also convert American Express Membership Rewards Points earned on cards like the American Express Cobalt Card and Platinum Card to Marriott Bonvoy and then convert those to Alaska Airlines.
Above I mentioned ‘open avenue’ as there is one closed avenue for earning Mileage Plan miles in Canada and that is if you have a Diners Club Club Rewards Mastercard. Holders of these cards, which for the most part are closed to new applications, can covert Club Rewards points to Mileage Plan Miles.
Future Mileage Plan earning in Canada
As you know though if you have followed RWRDS Canada closely this year, there are plans for one more avenue for earning Mileage Plan miles here in Canada! That avenue is the planned conversion option from MBNA Rewards to Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan. Ever since MBNA announced the discontinuation of their Alaska cards they have promised that 1:1 conversion to Alaska Airlines from their proprietary rewards program is in the works and that is huge for this Alaska-Porter partnership.
If and when MBNA Rewards begin offering their 1:1 conversion option to Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan it will mean MBNA Rewards World Elite Mastercard holders will be earning as much as 5.5 Mileage Plan miles per dollar spent and MBNA Platinum Plus Mastercard holders will be earning as much as 4.4 miles per dollar spent.
It is the high earn rates on the MBNA cards combined with the proposed 1:1 conversion that make this a huge deal. If you take those redemption rates above of only 4,500 miles you could potentially be redeeming for a one way flight with only $818.18 in spend (at 5.5 points per dollar). When it comes to fruition that will the best redemption option in Canada based on a spend to redeem ratio – not even the famed Cobalt Card can reach that. And, for the routes at 7,500 miles that’s as little as $1,363 in spending, again that might be tough for the Cobalt Card to match.
As Porter Airlines VIPorter currently does not have their own co-brand credit card in Canada it would mean the MBNA-Alaska route would represent the closest thing to a co-brand partnership for Porter Airlines. Granted, Porter Airlines is a partner airline with AIR MILES so by having an AIR MILES credit card you can redeem them on Porter and not to mention any credit card program that lets you redeem points towards travel charges (Membership Rewards, BMO Rewards, TD Rewards) can be used as well.
Wrapping it up
This new partnership between Porter Airlines and Alaska Airlines is not only great for the airlines involved but it is great for Canadian travelers! The future option to be able to redeem Mileage Plan miles on Porter Airlines flights is just what we needed as Porter’s own program is limited to strictly earning points via their flights.
With Mileage Plan you can earn on flights with airlines from all around the world, on hotel stays, for car rentals, and with Canadian credit cards. Add in their option to frequently buy miles with a bonus (which we will have to evaluate to see if there will be value in buying and redeeming on Porter) and you have a very well rounded frequent flyer program to sue for Porter Airlines.
Click here to learn more about the new partnership
Image via Porter Airlines