Alaska Airlines gives customers option to reduce environmental impact through SAF credits

Photo: Alaska Airlines

As part of Alaska Airlines’ longstanding journey to make air travel more sustainable, the airline announced May 7 that it will now give guests the choice to voluntarily reduce the environmental impact of their travel with sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) credits during the booking process.

Guests can choose to support SAF in an amount based on 5 percent, 10 percent or 20 percent of their carbon impact when they book a ticket on the airline’s website.

Building on a successful pilot in late 2023, Alaska’s Mileage Plan™ members who buy SAF credits will once again earn elite-qualifying miles (EQMs) for their contributions.

Mileage Plan members will receive 500 EQMs for every $100 they spend on SAF (up to 5,000 EQMs per year), for a sustainability linked way to accelerate the path to elite status.

Alaska is the first U.S. airline to create a link between guest engagement in SAF and earning elite status.

“Alaska is on a journey to make air travel more sustainable with an ambitious goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2040,” said Diana Birkett Rakow, senior vice president of public affairs and sustainability at Alaska Airlines. “Now we are inviting our guests to join us on the journey. Today, we’ve launched new options for guests to customize their travel experience, take action on the environmental impact of their trip, and help us scale the market for SAF. SAF is a critical part of aviation’s path to a more sustainable future, and while we use it today, there is not enough SAF available. It will take all of us to grow this market. The more people who know about and support this important technology, the better we can impact efforts to make a sustainable future for air travel a reality.”  

With this new feature in the booking process, powered by climate-technology company CHOOOSE, the SAF-credit options will appear on the same page as other optional trip add-ons during the booking process.

The SAF-credit option is based on carbon emissions associated with the guest’s flight and follow the International Air Transport Association’s recommended passenger CO2-calculation method.

This calculation method leverage parameters including aircraft fuel consumption, flight path, seat configuration, cabin class and load factors sourced directly from Alaska’s operational data.  

For guests who want to support SAF equal to their full emissions of their flight, they can do so by visiting alaskaair.chooose.today. 

SAF is a safe, certified fuel that, according to IATA, can lower carbon emissions by 80 percent or more on a lifecycle basis.

It can be used in existing fuel systems and airplane engines. 

Since 2010, Alaska has worked with a coalition of partners to drive the growth of the SAF market.  

These efforts include programs with Microsoft and other companies to offset employee business travel, partnering with universities and scientists to leverage the latest research and knowledge, and advocating for public policy to advance SAF.