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Back in March, Alaska Airlines launched a new subscription service that requires a $5-a-month payment to get Alaska fare sales, a personal fare page and free Wi-Fi credits — the Seattle-based airline calls the service “Alaska Access.” Was excited to check it out, because at the time, Alaska said it would give subscribers advance notice of some of its biggest deals of the year.

I eagerly signed up for TPG to try it out, paying $5 a month. Now that it’s been half a year, I wanted to share the results of my experiment.

What a disappointment.

Unless Alaska makes this more attractive soon, I will be canceling my subscription. Still, it might be worth it for a few frequent flyers to Alaska.

I reached out to Alaska Airlines about the problems I was seeing.

“Alaska Access is a new and evolving subscription service, and we really appreciate feedback on it,” a carrier spokesperson said in an email. “We are committed to listening closely to our guests, as we do with all of our products and services, and are actively working to ensure that subscription benefits align with the needs and expectations of our valued subscribers.”

If you’re weighing whether or not to subscribe, here’s what you need to know.

Alaska Airlines All Access Presale Notices

The biggest selling point of the Alaska Airlines All Access program is the initial heads-up about sales on Alaska Airlines flights — what a bargain. If you want to get early notification, you will need to check the app daily. No email notifications are sent to passengers; You should hope to get lucky while checking out the app. That is if you get a notification at all. Below are just a few of the sales that Alaska sent to my email inbox that I never saw in my Alaska Airlines app messages.

I have only caught lightning in a bottle once so far during my membership. I saw a message in the app that a three-day sale was happening. The problem? I only saw the notification on 7th August and the sale ended on 8th August. So, I couldn’t beat people to sales.

I check the app regularly, and this is the one and only early access notification I’ve received during the six months of membership.

According to Alaska’s announcement about the feature, “With your Alaska Access subscription, we’ll notify you of the sale the night before on our site.”

I just don’t see it that way. Hopefully, Alaska will take this feedback and find a better way to communicate these deal warnings. It is completely unacceptable that the promised benefit is not consistently delivered.

Since this is one of the main selling points of the subscription, fixing it will improve the value of the feature.

When I spoke with Alaska Airlines about these issues, the carrier told me that sales notifications are only sent in-app because emails are often buried in people’s inboxes or not checked often. Of course, most people are more likely to see an email than an app notification, but at least Alaska knows there’s a problem. Alaska told TPG that it has published at least one early sales alert per month since the program’s inception.

“We understand that some subscribers may not be able to set up their apps to receive alerts for these types of marketing communications and are working with our engineering teams to find a solution,” a carrier spokesperson said.

Alaska Airlines All Access Deals Page

Another big selling point for the subscription service is supposed to be the “personal rental page”.

The page was supposed to show you the lowest fares using cash or Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan Miles.

Alaska calls it “a unique web page where you can see our lowest fares and miles to more than 500 global destinations! This view takes the guesswork and time out of finding the best value flights on Alaska Airlines.”

Unfortunately, my experience with it was uneven.

To begin with, that page was hard to find.

I searched all over the place to find it, including my logged-in All Access membership page, but there were no links on the Alaska Airlines website or on Google. I finally had to go to my welcome email back in March to find out Link to website.

Indeed, I met John F. of New York City. Did a few test runs using both Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) as my home airports and found some deals. The problem is that the deals weren’t any better than on the regular Alaska website. There were no special discounts or deals just for being an All Access subscriber. what’s the matter

When I did a general search on the public Alaska Airlines website, I found the same flight to Phoenix that the All Access personalized page shows.

Again, there is no special magic that I can detect in these individual pages.

Alaska uses the legal language here to explain some of the issues with both early access and individual rental page benefits:

“Individual fare pages are accessible without log-in and therefore accessible to the general public if shared. Early sale access is not guaranteed to be exclusive to Alaska Access subscribers. Alaska Airlines reserves the right to notify and grant access prior to any sale. is. Any additional discount above or beyond the sale or deal price is offered to Alaska Access subscribers as part of their subscription, in Alaska Airlines’ sole discretion.”

In other words, a personalized page is not truly personalized and is available to the public, and early access to sales is not guaranteed to be exclusive to subscribers.

So, why am I paying an extra $5 for this subscription, exactly?

Related: Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan Award Chart Changes Now Live

Alaska Airlines All Access Wi-Fi Voucher

Finally, this subscription offers a solid benefit that can be useful for regular Alaska flyers.

During the six months I’ve had Alaska Airlines All Access, I was finally able to use the monthly Wi-Fi credit recently. It’s supposed to be only $5 per month, but after I entered the promo code from my email into the checkout page on alaskawifi.com, it charged the full price of $8 for full-flight Wi-Fi, so I paid nothing for Wi-Fi. Fi on my flight from JFK to SEA.

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Alaska Airlines All Access Free Wi-Fi Email. Alaska Airlines

I also tried to use it again on a recent flight from SEA to Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC), Alaska, but even though I was on the same plane, the carrier wouldn’t let me use the Wi-Fi voucher again.

The bottom line

I’m a big fan of Alaska Airlines, but an Alaska Airlines All Access subscription just doesn’t cut it.

Unfortunately, I’m also locked into a year-round membership. When I considered canceling, I was disappointed to read that I was locked into spending $5 per month for the first year.

According to the Alaska Airlines enrollment email, “Alaska Access membership requires a 12-month commitment. Although we will be sad to see you go, if you would like to set your subscription to expire at the end of this term, please do so. Via Recurring Account Management page And use your email to log in.”

I’m disappointed that the Alaska Airlines All Access subscription didn’t turn out to be as good a deal as I had hoped. I don’t take as many Alaska flights as I used to, so it’s not worth spending $36 on my membership to get $8 worth so far.

“Alaska’s new subscription product sounds like a well-conceived idea, but the devil is in the details,” said Henry Hartveldt, travel industry analyst and president. Atmospheric Research Grouptold TPG in March.

That certainly turned out to be the case.

While an Alaska Airlines All Access subscription might make sense for those who fly Alaska at least once a month and can use the monthly Wi-Fi credits, it makes little sense for the rest of us.

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