Alaska Miles up to 40% bonus until 24 December, but should you buy?

Mention Alaska Mileage Plan to frequent flyer addicts in Singapore around a month ago and you’d probably get quite a curt reaction!

That of course stemmed from the airline abruptly closing down the intra-Asia stopover option, one of the most valuable uses for their miles in this region, allowing a pseudo-return flight to Japan and back totalling 14 hours on Japan Airlines in Business Class for just 25,000 miles.

Add in the fact that most Singapore-based members had parted with hard cash to buy these miles in the first place, and the pain was real.

“You can never promote buying Alaska Miles again!”, one reader angrily exclaimed to us last month.

That’s understandable, and it’s true – the landscape has changed, but let’s break down whether there is still value in an Alaska miles purchase despite the recent bad news, given that yet another ‘buy miles’ promotion has launched today.

The November 2019 offer

Simply log on to your Mileage Plan account to check how your individual bonus is structured. Alaska often tailors these promotions slightly depending on your customer profile, so not everyone gets exactly the same deal.

Both Eddie and I have an identical offer this time, which suggests most of you will probably see the same.

• 1,000 – 9,000 miles – no bonus (2.96 US ¢ / mile)
• 10,000 – 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)

You’ll likely have to buy at least 30,000 miles to get the top bonus rate of 40%. You can credit up to 150,000 Alaska miles into your account per year, including the bonus level, unless you’re an MVP, MVP Gold or MVP Gold 75K member, in which case there is no annual cap.

Is it worth it?

At the 40% bonus rate, the JAL stopover in Business Class came in at an exceptional US$527.50 (approximately S$718). That was incredible value for close to 14 hours in a flat-bed Business Class seat, but alas it’s no longer possible.

You can still redeem JAL flights using Alaska miles, however these will price at the 25,000 miles intra-Asia rate in Business Class for both sectors of your journey. While that doubles the cost, effectively to S$1,400+ if you’re buying the miles at the 40% bonus rate, it’s actually still not a bad deal compared with cash fares on the route.

It also means there’s no need to ‘position’ yourself at the start or end of the journey, as was required under the stopover system where your origin and ultimate destination could not be the same.

Most of our readers achieved this by flying through Jakarta or Kuala Lumpur for one of the two flights, but now you can fly for 50,000 miles return to and from Singapore (like you always could).

It’s certainly a good way to use up any miles you have left, but probably isn’t enough of an incentive for you to buy a fresh batch given that you’ll be subject to award availability on the route.

What about Singapore Airlines?

Another benefit of the intra-Asia stopover allowance using Alaska miles was the ability to do so with their newest partner, Singapore Airlines.

This introduced some good-value options (some far too good, as it turned out), but now they too are dead there is really little value in using your Alaska miles for Singapore Airlines redemptions, especially if you’ve bought the miles from the outset.

Thankfully there remain a number of good alternatives, though for the most part they are only likely of much interest if you plan to fly in Business or First Class cabins to or from the USA.

Alternative uses of Alaska miles

Here are some alternative examples, with a comparison against miles rates with other frequent flyer programmes on the same routes.

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
Singapore to Tokyo Business Class	62,000	40,000	25,000

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

If you managed to buy Alaska miles in one of the 50% bonus sales, the top level usually offered, you’re looking at US$1,478 to New York in First Class, US$1,281 in Business Class or US$493 to Tokyo in Business Class.

Yes, you’ll have to find the award availability (easier on Singapore to Tokyo than Singapore to New York!), but these are competitive ‘fares’.

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
Singapore to Tokyo Business Class	44,000	45,000	22,500

* Business Class to Hong Kong, then First Class to the USA

There are a number of good value Cathay Pacific options, including Singapore to the USA for 50,000 miles in Business Class (US$985 if you buy Alaska miles with a 50% bonus, or US$1,055 at 40% bonus). Singapore to Tokyo via Hong Kong in Business Class, with some excellent lounges on the way, is 22,500 miles (US$443 assuming a 50% bonus when you bought, US$475 with a 40% bonus).

Just today in fact the Hong Kong-based airline announced a service, amenities and dining enhancement in its First and Business Class cabins.

I have personally used my Alaska miles for a last-minute (day before) Cathay Pacific Hong Kong to London flight in Business Class for 42,500 miles, a 13-hour flight typically costing at least S$6,000.

Qantas

If you’re a regular traveller to or from Australia, or can include the country in your travel plans, Alaska miles provide both a domestic and USA option using Qantas.

Sydney to Dallas First Class	206,000	189,900	70,000
Sydney to Dallas Business Class	154,500	126,500	55,000
Perth to Sydney Business Class	38,750	41,500	20,000

If you pick the right aircraft type, Perth to Sydney in a flat-bed Business Class seat (choose an A330) is coming in at US$422 when the miles are bought with a 40% bonus, significantly less than cash fares.

Partner availability on Qantas international routes is restrictive, however for domestic flights it’s mostly wide open.

All options

For those not familiar, here’s a recap of the airline and route options using Alaska Miles applicable to the majority of our readers in Asia-Pacific.

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
	Asia – USA Asia – South Pacific Asia – India Asia – Middle East Asia – Europe Asia – Africa Intra-Asia

You can search and redeem online for all partners, except Cathay Pacific and LATAM, where it’s done over the phone.

You can view the full Alaska miles award charts here.

Cancellation fees

Do note that Alaska Airlines charges a US$125 fee (around S$170) for award ticket changes or cancellations, which is pretty steep. You’ll no doubt want to have relatively firm travel plans and dates before booking, in order to avoid this penalty.

Deadline: 24th December 2019

The offer closes at 11.59pm PST on Monday 23rd December 2019, which is 3.59pm on Tuesday 24th December 2019 Singapore time.

Alaska is strict about the offer deadline, so it will completely disappear at the end time – we’ve tested it to the minute in the past. We would therefore recommend making your purchase before approximately 2pm on 24th December in Singapore if you’re interested, just in case you have any issues or the payment doesn’t go through first time.

Click here to buy Alaska miles

Which card to use

If you are going to buy in this promotion, and 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.

The transaction itself 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
Citi Rewards Visa / MasterCard (see our review)	4.0	4mpd on all online spend in a statement period, capped at S$1,000 per card.
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.

* Note: One of our readers reported that using the WWMC card via points.com does not automatically award the higher 4mpd earn rate. You must usually appeal and claim the miles later.

Summary

We’ve always said it, but perhaps now it’s true more than ever: Don’t 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.

If like us you’re based in Singapore and you didn’t buy Alaska miles before, when the JAL stopover option was still available, you almost certainly won’t want to do so now.

If you were a regular buyer though, you’ll have to be comfortable with the value proposition when used on other partner airlines, which to be fair you may have been taking advantage of in the past anyway, as we have done.

It’s also worth noting that Alaska miles are occasionally offered at a 50% bonus level, typically more than once a year these days, so if you don’t need the miles now we would definitely recommend waiting for one of those more generous promotions to come up.

Click here to buy Alaska miles

(Cover Photo: Alaska Airlines)