How to Fly Alaska Airlines for Less

The single best discount in American skies isn't found — it's earned, and it has survived three decades and a corporate rebrand: Alaska's Companion Fare, a second seat for $99 plus taxes, year after year. Around it sits an airline with genuine fare sales, zero coupon codes, and a search landscape so polluted with fake "senior discount policy" PDFs that knowing what doesn't exist is half the value here. Fare figures below are round trips from the ~8,700 Alaska routes RatePunk tracked over the past month.

The real headline: the $99 Companion Fare

Alaska's famous companion deal survives every rebrand: hold the Atmos Rewards Visa (Alaska's loyalty program merged with HawaiianMiles into Atmos Rewards in 2025 — if you knew it as Mileage Plan, that name is gone), spend $6,000 on the card in your anniversary year, and you earn a companion ticket for $99 plus taxes (in practice from about $122 total) on Alaska- and Hawaiian-operated flights within North America. On a $600 Hawaii round trip for two, that's the single biggest discount any program on this page will ever produce. Terms that matter: it's earned annually, the companion flies the same itinerary, and you book it on alaskaair.com before it expires.

If you fly Alaska with a partner even once a year, this mechanism beats every promo code that has ever existed for this airline — mostly because those codes don't exist, which brings us to:

Promo codes and the scam problem

Alaska has a discount-code field, but it's for targeted certificates — companion fare codes, group-travel codes — never public percent-off coupons. The public savings channel is the fare sale page on alaskaair.com, which rotates genuine route sales year-round.

One thing this search space has that others don't: fake "policy" PDFs. Search for an Alaska senior discount or booking policy and you'll find official- looking documents with phone numbers to call. Those are support scams — Alaska has no senior discount program and no student discount program, and any document claiming otherwise, with a number to dial, is bait. Book on alaskaair.com or the app, full stop.

What does exist: military benefits — active-duty US service members (and spouse/dependents traveling with them) check their first two bags free, five when traveling on orders, with a valid military ID. It's a baggage benefit, not a fare discount, but on a family trip it's real money.

Real Alaska fares from the tracker

Across everything we track, Alaska round trips typically land between $496 and $945, with a median around $681 — this is a full-network number including Hawaii and transcon flying, which is where Alaska's route map skews expensive. The floor lives on the West Coast shuttle routes. From our last month of tracking, round trips started around:

• San Diego ↔ San Jose from ~$101
• San Francisco ↔ San Diego from ~$112
• San Francisco ↔ Los Angeles from ~$117 (we've tracked dips to ~$44)
• Los Angeles ↔ Seattle from ~$99

And the volume king is Hawaii: Seattle ↔ Honolulu from ~$186 and Los Angeles ↔ Honolulu from ~$131 are where Alaska's deal inventory runs deepest — and where the Companion Fare multiplies best.

When Alaska is cheapest

Fares we're tracking right now (updated August 2026): October is the trough — median round trips around $613 for October outbound dates versus over $1,000 for August, with November close behind and December spiking back toward $850 for the holidays. Shoulder-season Hawaii is the classic Alaska value play.

The Saver fare: read this before you buy the cheapest ticket

Alaska's lowest fares are Saver fares, and the restrictions are sharper than most people expect: seats assigned only at check-in (groups can be split), no standby, and — the expensive one — cancel less than 14 days out and you get nothing; cancel earlier and you only get 50% back as credit. Two changes worth knowing because they're recent: Saver rules tighten further for spring 2026 travel, and Saver fares for travel from August 2026 no longer earn Atmos points at all. If you're loyal to Alaska, the cheapest ticket now costs you your points earning — price that in before saving $30 over Main Cabin.

Four moves that beat any coupon page

1. Check the fare-sale page first — Alaska's sales are genuine and rotate constantly; there's no code to hunt.
2. Compare the route's tracked floor — our route pages above show what the pair actually sells for, so a "sale" price has context.
3. Do the Saver math: Saver vs Main Cabin is often $20–40 apart; the flexibility and (from August 2026) the points you give up are frequently worth more.
4. If you fly Alaska twice a year with someone, run the Companion Fare numbers before any other strategy on this page — it usually wins.

FAQ

Does Alaska Airlines offer a senior discount?

No — and be careful with this search: the "Alaska senior discount policy" PDFs with phone numbers that rank for it are support scams. Alaska has no senior or student fare programs. Its real discounts are fare sales, the Companion Fare, and military baggage benefits.

Does Alaska Airlines have promo codes?

Not public ones. The discount-code field exists for targeted certificates like companion fare codes and group bookings. Public savings come from the fare-sale page on alaskaair.com.

What happened to Mileage Plan?

It merged with HawaiianMiles into Atmos Rewards in 2025. Miles became points, the credit card became the Atmos Rewards Visa, and the Companion Fare survived as the "$99 Companion Fare."

What's the cheapest month to fly Alaska?

In our current tracking, October outbound dates carry the lowest medians, with September and November close — and August is the most expensive month on the network. (Updated August 2026.)

Is the Companion Fare worth the credit card?

If you take even one two-person round trip per year on Alaska or Hawaiian, the $99-plus-taxes companion ticket routinely outweighs the card's annual fee — that's the honest math most coupon pages never do. Note it requires $6,000 of card spend in the year for post-2023 applicants.