Alaska Airlines Makes Travel Easier with Google Wallet

SEATTLE, Sept. 20, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — Enrolling and tracking your Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan account just got easier thanks to Google Wallet, a virtual wallet application that eliminates the need to carry plastic and paper membership cards.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130920/SF83492)

"Google Wallet is a fantastic tool that enables our frequent fliers to enroll and access their accounts and track their miles right on their smart phones," said Curtis Kopf, Alaska Airlines’ vice president of customer innovation. "As the first domestic airline to support both Google Wallet and Apple’s Passbook, we’re committed to providing our customers with tools that make travel easier."

Customers can store their Mileage Plan number in Google Wallet by scanning the card or typing in their account numbers. The Google Wallet app is free and available for download at Google Play and Apple’s App Store. Learn more and download the app at http://www.google.com/wallet/shop-in-stores/index.html.

Alaska Airlines partnered with Urban Airship to launch Apple Passbook in May. With Passbook, travelers can save their boarding pass to the app and have it automatically appear on their iOS device’s home screen on arrival at the airport. Any changes to seat assignments, gates and departure times are automatically updated on the electronic boarding pass.

"Alaska Airlines recognizes that today’s customer relies on their smartphone as their daily digital dashboard, so putting boarding passes, loyalty programs and real-time updates at their fingertips, offers an exceptional service and makes travel more enjoyable," said Scott Kveton, Urban Airship CEO and co-founder.

Alaska has a long history of customer innovation, including being the first U.S. airline to enable online bookings and the first airline to offer web check-in. Alaska continues to offer customer-friendly technology to make traveling more enjoyable with its industry leading mobile apps and website and its recent rollout of self-bag tagging, among other things.

About Alaska Airlines
Alaska Airlines, a subsidiary of Alaska Air Group (NYSE: ALK), together with its partner regional airlines, serves 95 cities through an expansive network in Alaska, the Lower 48, Hawaii, Canada and Mexico. Alaska Airlines has ranked "Highest in Customer Satisfaction Among Traditional Network Carriers" in the J.D. Power and Associates North America Airline Satisfaction Study^SM for six consecutive years from 2008 to 2013. For reservations, visit www.alaskaair.com. For more news and information, visit the Alaska Airlines Newsroom at www.alaskaair.com/newsroom.

About Urban Airship
Urban Airship enables brands to build relationships with their constantly connected customers through Mobile Relationship Management solutions that streamline delivering highly targeted cross-platform mobile push messages and creating and managing Apple Passbook passes and Google Wallet cards. Billions of push messages and tens of thousands of passes are delivered each month, sparking exceptional consumer experiences, driving app engagement and increasing customer loyalty and lifetime value for leading brands such as CBS Interactive, Cinemagram, ESPN, Groupon, Walgreens and Warner Bros. The company’s solutions manage the end-to-end process of high-performance push messaging, location-targeted messaging and digital wallet management. For more information, visit www.urbanairship.com and follow us on Twitter @urbanairship.

SOURCE Alaska Airlines