Promo: Buy miles from the Alaska Mileage Plan with a bonus

Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan is one of my favorite programs for buying miles, both because of how often the program sells miles, and how good a deal redemption can be. Alaska Mileage Plan has been offering a bonus on miles purchased for a few weeks now, and it’s a reminder that the offer will expire soon.

Until Saturday, October 30, 2021, the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan program offers a bonus on miles purchased. This is marketed as a mystery bonus, so you will need to log into your account to see what you are entitled to. At the high end, it looks like you can receive a tiered bonus of up to 60% on the miles purchased, as follows:

• Buy 3,000-19,000 miles, get 40% bonus
• Buy 20,000 to 39,000 miles, get 50% bonus
• Buy 40,000 to 100,000 miles, get 60% bonus

How much does it cost to purchase Alaska Mileage Plan miles?

Normally, you can purchase Alaska Mileage Plan miles for 2.75 cents each before taxes, before any discounts or bonuses. If you were eligible for the 60% bonus and purchased 100,000 pre-bonus Mileage Plan miles, you will receive a total of 160,000 miles of the mileage plan at a cost of $ 2,956.25, which is a rate of 1.85 cents per mile of the mileage plan.

How many Mileage Plan miles can you purchase?

The number of Alaska miles you can purchase depends on your status:

• Alaska Mileage Plan Elite members (MVP, MVP Gold, MVP Gold 75K, and MVP Gold 100K) can purchase an unlimited number of miles
• Non-elite members of the Alaska Mileage Plan can purchase up to 150,000 miles per calendar year; this limit does not include bonus miles

Note that in all cases, you are limited to purchasing 100,000 Mileage Plan miles per transaction (pre-bonus), although you can still make multiple transactions. In addition, you can only purchase miles if you have been a member of the Mileage Plan for at least 10 days.

Which credit card should you purchase Mileage Plan miles with?

Alaska Mileage Plan mile purchases are processed by points.com, which means they are not considered an airline ticket purchase for credit card spending.

Therefore, I recommend that you use a card on which you are trying to achieve minimum spending, or if not, a credit card that maximizes your return on your daily spending, such as the Chase Freedom Unlimited® (notice), the Citi® Double Cash Card (exam) or Capital One Venture Rewards credit card (exam).

Check out this article to learn more about the best credit cards for purchasing points.

Is Buying Alaska Mileage Plan Miles Worth It?

There is so much to love about the Alaska Mileage Plan miles:

• Alaska Mileage Plan offers one of the most reasonable premium cabin exchange rates you can find for traveling on partner airlines.
• Alaska Mileage Plan has a unique set of airline partners – the airline is part of the oneworld alliance and therefore has many partners within the alliance, but also many non-oneworld partners, ranging from Condor to Fiji Airways to Icelandair , at LATAM, at Singapore Airlines
• Alaska Mileage Plan allows stopovers on award tickets, which most programs do not allow these days; it can stretch your miles much further
• Miles are reasonably priced and can be purchased in large quantities, making this a great program to ‘start from scratch’ and save money on a premium international ticket.

So yes, I think there are many situations where purchasing Mileage Plan miles offers great value, especially if you find premium cabin premium space on airlines like Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, Qantas, etc. .

Which airlines can you redeem Alaska Mileage Plan miles on?

Currently, Alaska Mileage Plan miles can be redeemed on the following partner airlines:

• Aer Lingus
• American Airlines
• British Airways
• Cathay pacific
• Condor
• Fiji Airways
• Finnair
• Hainan Airlines
• Icelandair
• Japan Airlines
• Korean Air
• LATAM
• Qantas
• Qatar Airways
• Singapore Airlines

What Are Some Good Uses for Alaska Mileage Plan Miles?

There are so many amazing uses for Alaska Mileage Plan miles, so let me give you some examples of one-way exchange rates:

• Between the United States and Asia, you can travel in Cathay Pacific First Class for 70,000 miles, or Cathay Pacific Business Class for 50,000 miles
• Between the United States and Southeast Asia, you can travel in Japan Airlines first class for 75,000 miles, or Japan Airlines business class for 65,000 miles
• Between the United States and Australia or New Zealand, you can travel in Fiji Airways business class for 55,000 miles
• Between the United States and Australia, you can travel Qantas First Class for 70,000 miles, or Qantas Business Class for 55,000 miles
• Between the United States and Europe, you can travel in Icelandair business class for 55,000 miles
• Between the United States and Europe, you can travel in Aer Lingus business class for 60,000 miles
• Between the United States and Europe, you can travel in Finnair business class for 70,000 miles
• Between the United States and South America, you can travel in LATAM business class for 45,000 miles

These are just a few of the great ways to redeem Mileage Plan miles, and as I’ll explain below, they don’t do full justice to the value you can potentially get with those miles.

Tip: Take advantage of Alaska’s generous stopover policy

One of my favorite aspects of the Alaska Mileage Plan miles is that you are allowed to stop over on a partner award ticket without paying extra miles. Since you are allowed to make a stopover even on a one-way trip, this means that you could have two stopovers on a round-trip award.

Most airline loyalty programs these days have eliminated free stopovers on award tickets, so this is something that really sets the program apart. The only exception is that stopovers are not allowed if your reward is intended exclusively for travel to Asia.

This is such an impressive and underrated benefit. While current travel restrictions make it difficult to maximize, the long-term potential here is huge:

• Traveling from New York to Bali via Hong Kong? You can stop for a few days in Hong Kong!
• Traveling from Chicago to Singapore via Tokyo? You can stop for a few days in Japan!
• Are you flying from Los Angeles to Sydney via Nadi? You can stop for a few days in Fiji!
• Flying from Seattle to Frankfurt via Keflavik? You can stop for a few days in Iceland!
• Are you flying from Miami to Santiago via Lima? You can stop for a few days in Peru!

Are there any fuel surcharges on the Alaska Mileage Plan Rewards?

Many consumers are frustrated with the practice of airlines adding surcharges imposed by carriers to reward tickets. In the case of the Mileage Plan, most partners do not have these supplements. However, there are surcharges for travel on British Airways, Hainan Airlines, and Icelandair, which should be kept in mind.

How Much Are the Alaska Mileage Plan Miles Worth?

Everyone will rate the mileage currencies differently, but personally I rate the miles in the Alaska Mileage Plan at around 1.8 cents each which is the highest value I rate for a single currency. airline mileage. I tend to rate points fairly conservatively, and there are plenty of ways to get more mileage plan miles worth than this (as I hopefully demonstrated above).

Do Alaska Mileage Plan miles expire?

Alaska Mileage Plan miles do not expire until you have at least one activity on your account once every 24 months. Account activity may include earning or redeeming miles.

In what other ways can you earn Alaska Mileage Plan miles?

There are several ways to earn Alaska Mileage Plan miles, both by air and non-air. Alaska Mileage Plan is not a transfer partner with any of the major transferable point currencies, so the easiest way to earn Alaska miles is to use one of the co-branded credit cards, which include :

Both offer great welcome bonuses after making a moderate minimum spending amount. These cards also offer many other benefits.

At the end of the line

Alaska Mileage Plan is one of the most lucrative loyalty programs for purchasing miles, thanks to great redemption rates, stopovers on one-way rewards, and variety of partners.

Currently, the Mileage Plan is offering up to a 60% bonus on miles purchased, which is in line with the best deals we see from the program. There is a lot of value to be had with this offer if you are strategic. Granted, Mileage Plan miles aren’t as useful as they usually are right now, given much of Asia and the South Pacific remain closed, but hopefully that will change soon.

Do you plan to purchase Alaska Mileage Plan miles with this promotion?