Alaska Mileage Plan 40% buy miles bonus

EXPIRED This article relates to an offer or promotion which has now expired.

Alaska Airlines never waits long between its Mileage Plan ‘buy miles’ promotions, with the last one ending just over a month ago. Back then it was the highest bonus they ever offer, with many members targeted for 50% additional miles.

This time round it’s back to the more usual 40% bonus, meaning you can top up your account with miles at 2.11 US cents each. Alaska miles are an ideal frequent flyer currency to hold for good value Business Class and First Class redemptions in Asia-Pacific and beyond with several top airlines.

The current offer

As usual you will have to log on to your Mileage Plan account to check how the bonus is structured. That’s because Alaska tends to tailor these promotions slightly depending on your customer profile.

For example in the last bonus I was targeted at the 50% rate, while Eddie was offered 40% with a slightly different structure based on the quantity of miles purchased.

This time for me the deal is offered as follows:

• 1,000 – 19,000 miles – no bonus (2.96 US ¢ / mile)
• 20,000 – 60,000 miles – 40% bonus (2.11 US ¢ / mile)

Eddie, who always seems to get a different offer, has the following options:

• 1,000 – 4,000 miles – no bonus (2.96 US ¢ / mile)
• 5,000 – 19,000 miles – 20% bonus (2.46 US ¢ / mile)
• 20,000 – 29,000 miles – 30% bonus (2.27 US ¢ / mile)
• 30,000 – 60,000 miles – 40% bonus (2.11 US ¢ / mile)

Deadline: 23rd February

The offer closes at 11.59m PST on Friday 22nd February 2019, which is 3.59pm on Saturday 23rd February 2019 Singapore time.

Anyone can buy with a bonus

Last year Alaska Airlines removed their limitation that only accounts 10 days or older were able to buy miles. That means you can sign up for an Alaska Mileage Plan account at any time and see what miles purchase bonus you are entitled to right away.

The exact bonus structure offered won’t be known until you register, but it’s worth a try so sign up now if you don’t yet have an account. Even if they don’t give you a very good bonus this time, you’ll be all set for the next one.

It’s unlimited (nearly) It’s now limited

If you proceed to make an Alaska miles purchase during this offer, the site will clearly show you the bonus miles applicable to each level.

You might automatically assume the highest level shown in the drop-down menu is the limit – it’s not.

You can buy an effectively unlimited volume of miles by repeating the purchases. It’s only possible to make up to four miles purchases per card however, so you are technically limited by the number of credit cards you have.

Edit 25th Jan 17:45: Assuming you don’t hold elite status in the Alaska Mileage Plan scheme (MVP, MVP Gold or MVP Gold 75K), you are now limited to 150,000 miles credited per calendar year from points.com (i.e. buying miles as in this promotion). That includes the applicable bonus, and any miles gifted to you through points.com.

If this restricts you and you book as a couple then one option is to have your partner open an Alaska account too, which would then allow you to buy up to 150,000 miles each per calendar year, if required.

Remember this only applies to miles credited by points.com, and you are still free to transfer miles into Alaska on top of that limit from hotel loyalty programs for example, and of course from eligible revenue flying.

Thanks to freedom in the comments section for alerting us to this.

Which card to use

Assuming like most of our readers you are based in Singapore, you’ll want to achieve the maximum number of credit card miles for the purchase itself when buying Alaska miles. If you do go ahead and buy, the transaction happens in US dollars (i.e. non-SGD) and is processed by points.com.

You can earn the most extra miles for the purchase transaction by using one of the following Singapore issued credit cards if you can:

Card	Miles per S$1	Notes
DBS Women’s World Mastercard (see our review)	4.0	4mpd on all online spend in a calendar month, capped at S$2,000.
UOB Visa Signature	4.0	4mpd on all overseas spend of at least S$1,000 in a statement period, capped at S$2,000.
BOC Elite Miles World Mastercard (see our review)	3.0	3mpd on all non-SGD spend, with no cap.
Standard Chartered Visa Infinite (see our review)	3.0	For non-SGD spend, provided total card spend (any currency) is S$2,000 or greater in the same statement cycle.
UOB PRVI Miles (see our review)	2.4	All non-SGD spend.
OCBC Voyage Visa (see our review)	2.3	All non-SGD spend.
Citi PremierMiles (see our review)	2.0	All non-SGD spend.
Citi Prestige (see our review)	2.0	All non-SGD spend.

We also understand the Citi Rewards Visa or Mastercard earns at the 10x bonus rewards rates (4 miles per dollar) on points.com transactions, though as we haven’t tried this do be cautious and don’t scold us if the bonus is not credited!

Card	Miles per S$1	Notes
Citi Rewards Visa / MasterCard (see our review)	4.0	points.com transactions qualify for 10x Rewards Points (4mpd). Remember a monthly cap now applies.

This can be a very nice deal

When used the right way, Alaska miles can represent very good value at these high bonus rates, with 40% being the second-highest bonus the airline tends to offer.

As you might have guessed, or probably already know, First and Business Class redemptions with Alaska’s partner airlines are where the value lies.

If like us you’re based in Asia – think options like Cathay Pacific or JAL Business / First Class to the USA, Qantas from Sydney to Dallas in First Class on the A380, even Qantas flat-bed A330 domestic Business Class can be a steal with these miles.

We’ve outlined the great uses of Alaska miles to and from this region before, but here’s a recap of the options applicable to the majority of our readers.

Airline	Routes
	Asia – Canada/USA, Caribbean & Mexico Australia/NZ – Canada/USA
	India/South Asia – Canada/USA & Mexico
	Asia – Canada/USA Australia/NZ – Canada/USA India/South Asia – Canada/USA Intra-Asia Hong Kong – Africa, Australia/NZ, Europe, India/South Asia & Middle East
	Asia – Canada/USA Australia/NZ – Canada/USA India/South Asia – Canada/USA
	Australia/NZ – USA
	Asia – Canada/USA, Europe & Mexico India/South Asia – Canada/USA, Europe & Mexico
	Asia – Canada/USA & Mexico Intra-China
	Asia – Canada/USA Intra-Asia
	Asia – Canada/USA Australia/NZ – Canada/USA India/South Asia – Canada/USA Korea – SE Asia
	Australia/NZ – Canada/USA Intra-Australia

All of these can be searched and booked online via the Alaska Airlines portal, with the exception of Cathay Pacific awards where you’ll have to call Alaska Airlines to book. Ideally with Cathay you can use a program like British Airways Avios or American Airlines AAdvantage sites to search availability first before calling.

You’ll also have to call to book LATAM awards, though their flights between South America and Australia / New Zealand are not redeemable through Alaska miles so the options are not likely to be useful to our Asia-Pacific readers.

As we’ve mentioned before, there are varying accounts regarding what Cathay Pacific availability Alaska phone agents can and cannot see. We generally find the Cathay availability shown on the BA Avios site to be accurate.

Though a number of the reports we read about are negative, in our latest check in October last year while trying to secure a Cathay First Class HKG-LHR redemption for 2019 with one available award seat showing on the BA site, the Alaska phone rep could see two First Class award seats on this flight.

Moral of the story – there is no set rule. It could be the same as you see online, it could be less or it could be more, but one thing is certain – no matter what you find online elsewhere you won’t know for sure until you call.

The JAL stopover ‘trick’

One major benefit of Alaska miles is that you can add a free stopover to your journey. This allows a fairly unique trick here in Asia using Japan Airlines to create a pseudo-return itinerary in Business Class for just 25,000 Alaska miles. We’ve written about it before, but here’s a recap on how it works.

What’s the JAL ‘stopover trick’? An exceptional rate of 25,000 Alaska miles for a ‘return’ flight from Singapore to Japan in Business Class. This takes advantage of the ability under the Alaska scheme to book free stopovers on one-way redemption tickets. It means you can create a ‘pseudo return’ itinerary for a very low miles rate by booking a redemption to a close-by city, with a stopover in a distant one. The JAL trick is effectively booking Japan Airlines from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, with a stopover in Tokyo. Sounds like it shouldn’t be possible – but it is, and it’s incredible value at 25,000 Alaska miles in business class (the equivalent of 12,500 miles for each 7 hour sector). Other routings are also possible, you could decide to start your journey in Kuala Lumpur or Bangkok for example and return non-stop to Singapore. Jakarta is also an option. Generally speaking, JAL Business Class award availability through Alaska MP is also quite good. The variety of aircraft types used on JAL flights in Asia means you’ll likely be able to try out their newest ‘Sky Suite III’ and ‘Sky Suite 787’ flat-bed products, not to mention renowned on-board service and cuisine. There’s also a selection of oneworld lounges to visit depending on your routing and the time of day, so this is your chance to try out facilities like the Qantas Singapore Lounge, JAL’s Tokyo lounges or the Qatar / Cathay offerings in Bangkok. Something new if you’re used to flying the Singapore Airlines / Star Alliance network. In order to search and book such an itinerary on the Alaska Airlines website, select ‘all search options’ under the booking area, then select ‘multi-city’ and of course ensure the ‘use miles’ option is selected. After that simply enter each leg separately (e.g. Singapore to Tokyo for the first flight, Tokyo to Kuala Lumpur on the second flight), select the dates you want (your stopover in Tokyo can be as long as you like), then search to check award availability.

Other good redemptions

Even if the JAL trick isn’t of interest to you – there are plenty other good uses of Alaska miles. Here are a few more examples, with comparison against the miles needed for the same routings with other frequent flyer programs also shown:

Japan Airlines

Singapore to New York First Class*	200,000	85,000	75,000
Singapore to New York Business Class	165,000	70,000	65,000

* Business Class Singapore to Tokyo, First Class Tokyo to New York

Cathay Pacific

Singapore to Los Angeles First Class	160,000	130,000	70,000
Singapore to Los Angeles Business Class	135,000	85,000	50,000
Sydney to New York First Class*	200,000	130,000	80,000
Sydney to New York Business Class	165,000	85,000	60,000
Hong Kong to London Business Class	90,000	65,000	42,500
Vancouver to New York First Class	50,000	40,000	35,000

* Business Class Sydney to Hong Kong, First Class Hong Kong to New York

Note that you can fly Singapore to Europe on Cathay Pacific using Alaska miles, but they will charge you for the Singapore – Hong Kong (Intra-Asia) and Hong Kong – Europe rates combined (22,500 + 42,500), making it a relatively poor deal at 65,000 miles in Business Class.

It’s better to position to Hong Kong with a low-cost airline then take the competitive Business Class rate with Alaska miles from there in our opinion, or use Avios to get to Hong Kong for 20,000 points in Business.

Korean Air

Singapore to Chicago Business Class	200,000 (return)	150,000 (return)	120,000 (return)

Qantas

Sydney to Dallas First Class	200,000	168,000	70,000
Sydney to Dallas Business Class	165,000	112,000	55,000
Perth to Sydney Business Class	37,500	36,000	20,000

Emirates

Singapore to New York First Class	178,750	168,000	180,000
Singapore to New York Business Class	131,250	112,000	105,000

Finnair

Singapore to London Business Class	105,000	70,000	60,000

The full partner award charts are also available to search on the Alaska Mileage Plan site.

Click here to buy Alaska miles

No sign of Singapore Airlines awards

There’s still no sign of the ability to use Alaska Miles on Singapore Airlines flights, with the most recent addition being Finnair in August last year.

SIA’s upcoming Singapore – Seattle services in September this year will depend heavily on connectivity at Alaska’s largest hub (that’s Seattle, not Anchorage!) and so we would expect an announcement on reciprocal award redemption across the two frequent flyer programs before then.

Don’t buy speculatively

As we always say – Alaska miles aren’t for everybody. You should not buy Alaska miles speculatively. Have a solid redemption plan in mind in the near future, or know exactly what you want to redeem now (having checked it’s available), as changes in both partner redemption relationships and valuations can occur.

Summary

One thing’s certain – you should never buy Alaska miles at full price. You shouldn’t even buy them at anything less than 40% bonus, because frankly this is a very regular offer. If you don’t need to jump on a redemption soon, it may also be a good idea to hold off for the top 50% bonus offer, previously appearing only once a year but lately coming around more often than that.

As for whether to buy at all, our advice never changes. Have a plan to use these miles first. Alaska miles are useful and valuable (we wouldn’t write about them if they weren’t), and you can achieve excellent value from them in a variety of cases.

That doesn’t mean they are immune from partner agreement changes and devaluations, so as always when buying miles – tread carefully.

Click here to buy Alaska miles

(Cover Photo: Matt@TWN via Flickr)