It used to be we would annually receive 2 free Board Room passes, 2 First class upgrades, and companion-fares that could be used for any class travel. Now all you get is one companion-fare that is only good for coach.

As far as using our Alaska miles to get to where we want to go- I am glad that you have been successful. Our last booking to Cabo required the wife and I to book on separate flights as there was not two seats available on the same Alaska flights from PDX-SJD. Now before you say it, we did not wait until the last minute to book, this was 10 months out. I say booked because hurricane Odile wiped out our resort, which forced us to cancel our trip.

While we have AA accounts, we choose to have mileage credited to our Alaska MileagePlan accounts. This was fine because up until a couple years ago we did not have a problem redeeming them!