The Alaska Airlines lounge at SFO on Aug. 29, 2024.

In this week’s update, Alaska Airlines adds bonus perks and new ways to reach elite status in its loyalty program; an activist hedge fund wants to call a special meeting of Southwest Airlines shareholders in its push to take control of the carrier’s board; the Transportation Department proposes five new long-distance flights into Washington Reagan National, including one from SFO; Avelo Airlines starts another new route from Santa Rosa; United increases SFO-Seoul and LAX-Hong Kong schedules next week and begins service to Marrakesh from Newark; Norse Atlantic plans to offer LAX-Rome flights starting at $199 one way; Delta is slated to revive LAX-Shanghai flights next summer; China’s Hainan Airlines is set to launch an around-the-world routing next month; American tests online bookings for AAdvantage systemwide upgrades; and Delta begins to refurbish passenger cabins across its fleet.

Alaska Airlines has unveiled some changes to its Mileage Plan loyalty program for 2025, including more ways to accumulate elite-qualifying miles and the chance to collect special perks when various EQM levels are achieved. Starting Jan. 1, the airline said, members can earn EQMs for the total distance flown on award travel on Alaska or its partner carriers; one EQM for every $3 spent on qualified purchases with the Alaska Airlines Visa card; and 1,000 EQMs for every 3,000 miles earned through affiliated Mileage Plus non-airline partners, such as its retail shopping and dining programs, consumer surveys, Laithwaites wine home delivery, and Diners Club International.

The number of EQMs needed to achieve elite status level is 20,000 for MVP, 40,000 for MVP Gold, 75,000 for MVP Gold 75K and 100,000 for MVP Gold 100K. But starting next year, members can earn additional perks when they achieve various intermediate quantities of EQMs, starting at 10,000 and ranging up to 250,000. “At each milestone, members choose the reward that means the most to them — perks that include bonus miles, lounge access, trying an elevated status for a trip, rollover EQMs and access to exclusive events and unique experiences,” Alaska said.

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Alaska is also continuing to work on a new loyalty program that combines its Mileage Plan with Hawaiian Airlines’ HawaiianMiles following Alaska’s recent acquisition of that airline. Meanwhile, One Mile at a Time’s Ben Schlappig reported this week that Alaska Mileage Plan is expected to introduce multicarrier award redemptions sometime this winter, starting with travel between the U.S. and Europe and expanding over the next year. “Up until now, one quirk of the Mileage Plan program has been that you could only redeem an award ticket for travel on a single partner airline, in addition to Alaska. So it was fine to redeem an award on a combination of Alaska and British Airways, but it wasn’t possible to redeem an award on a combination of American and British Airways, for example,” Schlappig noted.

A Southwest Airlines plane takes off from Hollywood Burbank Airport above other Southwest planes on July 25, 2024.

The war of words between Southwest Airlines and Elliott Investment Management — the hedge fund that controls 11% of Southwest’s stock — heated up again this week as Elliott said it wants to convene a special meeting of shareholders on........

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