When Alaska announced changes to its program last year, one of the features that excited us most was the ability to earn elite qualifying miles (EQMs) for award tickets. While a couple of other airlines (Delta and Virgin among them) award some sort of elite credit for awards booked on their own metal, Alaska announced that it would offer 1 elite qualifying mile per mile flown both on Alaska-operated flights and on partner award tickets. Members are now reporting that the first elite qualifying miles for award flights have been posting to accounts today.
Elite Qualifying Miles (EQMs) posted for Alaska awards first, now partner awards also
Yesterday, Tim shared with the rest of the Frequent Miler team that EQMs from his completed 2025 Alaska-operated awards posted to his Alaska account. At the time, he noted that elite credit for partner-operated awards had not yet posted to Alaska accounts.
We followed up with Alaska for comment, but then Tim noticed that EQMs from all of his 2025 partner awards began posting today. I expect others will notice the same…