Alaska Airlines rolls out a subscription-based flight pass with annual plans starting at $49/month (plus taxes)

Alaska Airlines wants you to buy an annual airline pass instead of tickets one-by-one. Their new flight pass tries to capture customers over the long term by offering annual flight credits starting as low as $49 per month (plus taxes) that allows for 6 round trips annually within California, Reno, Las Vegas, and Phoenix. When you add up all the taxes subscribers receive 6 round trip tickets for about $750 annually. That is a pretty good estimated savings of  20% to 30%.  Additional plans offer up to 24 flights per year for $199/month. CLICK HERE to find out more.

Here is the best travel offer of the year – Sign up for the Southwest Rewards Plus Visa card by March 14, 2022, and you can earn the Southwest Companion Pass that offers free companion airline tickets on Southwest flights until February of 2023. The Southwest Companion Pass continues to be one of the best travel values in the industry. To apply for the VISA card simply CLICK HERE. Please be aware that in order to earn the free companion pass you must spend $5,000 in your first three months of receiving your card. If you fly once a month and bring along a spouse or friend you can save around $4200 ($350/ticket) by using the Companion Pass. That is a great deal.

I just got back from a week in Ireland – Things are about to explode in the travel industry as the COVID cloud gets lifted. I continue to think that after Easter you will see massive numbers of travel reservations surpassing the levels of pre-COVID found in 2019. All the folks in Ireland say that their busy months of July and August are already almost full. They really miss the American tourist as they say they are the best tourists in the world. Over 30% of all tourists to Ireland come from the USA.  My advice; if you are planning to go to Europe this year you better make your reservations sooner than later.

I am predicting that wearing masks on airplanes will go away by Memorial Day – The airlines will start lobbying the President really hard in the coming weeks to make mask-wearing on airplanes and in airports optional. Masks on airplanes served a purpose when COVID was running rampant. Now that it is retreating faster than a snowman in July I think the Americans and the travel industry want to get back to life as normal as quickly as possible.

Here is my favorite Mark Twain quote about traveling – “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover” – Mark Twain.