Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice conditionally approved the Alaska Airlines (AS) and Virgin America (VX) merger plan. Today, the merger of the two airlines has officially closed, and Virgin America has already emailed all Elevate members, explaining the upcoming changes. Also, both airlines have launched a raffle to celebrate the merger. If you are usually lucky, you can give it a try.

Route network

The main hub airports for Alaska Airlines and Virgin America are in the West, and after the merger, almost every major airport in the West will have a lot more Alaska Airlines flights. If you live in Seattle (SEA), the San Francisco Bay Area (SFO), Los Angeles (LAX), Portland (PDX), or San Diego (SAN), you should have more transfer options through Alaska Airlines. Alaska Airlines and Virgin America’s major non-West Coast destinations are New York (JFK), Dallas Love Field (DAL, not DFW), and Hawaii (HNL, OGG). Most other major airports are also served, but the frequency is not very high. Overall, the merger should make these two airlines more competitive in the U.S. domestic market.

Partnerships with other frequent-flyer programs

Frequent-flyer programs are one of the main topics people care about. Right now, Alaska Airlines has broad code-share and loyalty program cooperation with American Airlines (AA) and Delta (DL), two major carriers. When the DOJ approved the merger, it required Alaska and American to substantially scale back their code-share agreements, and Delta and Alaska’s direct competition at Seattle-Tacoma (SeaTac, SEA) is already fierce. We expect that the benefits Alaska Mileage Plan members receive with these two major carriers may either be significantly reduced or fully removed.

Integration of the two frequent-flyer programs

This is likely what everyone cares about most, so let’s discuss each part.

Earning miles with each other

Starting Dec. 19, flying on either airline will let you earn miles in the other program. The exact ratio has not been released yet, but considering Alaska accrues miles based on distance flown while Virgin America has historically accrued based on fare, we don’t think they’ll suddenly change the accrual rate for the same flight. For now, we can’t yet tell which way of earning is more worthwhile, and we expect the accrual ratios to be published soon.

Elite status recognition

Starting Dec. 19, Elevate Gold and Silver members as well as Alaska Mileage Plan elites can each receive priority check-in and priority boarding on the other airline. And starting Jan. 9, 2017, Elevate elites will be eligible for Alaska Mileage Plan elite status. At that point, both types of miles can be used to redeem award tickets on both airlines. A redemption ratio has not been published yet.

Alaska Airlines award tickets

The merger is very good news for Alaska Airlines award-ticket redemption. Alaska’s award pricing is already very cheap, but there is one major limitation: it is not allowed to mix partner-airline flights on the same reward ticket. For example, you can redeem Alaska Airlines and Japan Airlines (JAL), but you cannot put American Airlines (AA) and JAL on the same ticket. For people in smaller U.S. cities, this has made it very difficult to redeem international reward tickets outside American Airlines. After the merger, because domestic destinations have increased, redeeming partner-airline tickets through Mileage Plan has become much easier.

Easter egg: raffle

To celebrate the merger, they launched a raffle giving away 1,200 round-trip tickets on Alaska Airlines or Virgin America to any destination that both airlines fly to. Click here to go to the registration page. Who knows—this time, maybe you’ll be the lucky one.

Airline mergers reduce competition on overlapping routes between the two carriers. At the same time, the two airlines can tap connected route networks to reach markets they previously could not serve, and trans-Pacific routes can connect onward to more U.S. destinations. West Coast airline competition is already very intense, with three major carriers running a lot of flights between Southern California, Northern California, and Seattle, so this merger is unlikely to cause a major fare shock. Hopefully, we will soon see the benefits this merger brings to passengers.