40% bonus when you buy Alaska Miles between now and 26 March

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

It sure is a strange time to be offering a ‘buy miles’ promotion, with so much of the world under lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic and many wondering which airlines (and therefore frequent flyer programmes) will survive this crisis and which won’t.

Nonetheless Alaska Mileage Plan is back with another of its regular ‘buy miles’ promotions, with a short-term 40% bonus on offer for those purchasing or topping up their balance between now and 26th March 2020.

Despite shutting down the popular intra-Asia stopover option in October last year, many of our readers still find value in holding an Alaska Miles balance for a range of cheap redemptions with the likes of Japan Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Qantas.

The March 2020 offer

Alaska miles haven’t been sold with a promotional bonus in Singapore since 17th February 2020. That’s quite a long time – these miles are almost always on offer at 40% or 50% bonus levels.

Pro Tip: Never buy Alaska miles at full price, unless you need a small top-up quickly to achieve a specific redemption. They are almost always available on offer (there were seven purchase bonus offers in 2019 alone).

Alaska Airlines often tailors these promotions slightly depending on your customer profile, so you’ll need to log on to your Mileage Plan account to check how your individual bonus is structured – since not everyone always gets exactly the same deal.

Eddie and I often get a different promotion structure, but this month we both have the same deal:

• 1,000 – 19,000 miles – no bonus (2.96 US ¢ / mile)
• 20,000 – 100,000 miles – 40% bonus (2.11 US ¢ / mile)

The top bonus level looks to be 40%, a little shy of Alaska’s (regularly offered) top bonus rate of 50%, where you’ll be buying miles at a slightly better 1.97 US cents each.

100,000 miles cap per transaction

There looks to be a new addition this month, the ability to purchase up to 100,000 miles per transaction (140,000 miles including the bonus in our case).

That’s in the usual 1,000-mile blocks up the 60,000 miles (the previous transaction cap), then 5,000-mile blocks up to 100,000 miles.

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?

In the past we always lauded Alaska miles for their incredible value when used to redeem the JAL intra-Asia stopover trick. That longstanding ‘loophole’ was sadly lost in 2019, however that doesn’t mean there aren’t still good redemptions to be achieved when redeeming Alaska Miles.

You can still redeem JAL flights using Alaska miles, however these now price at the 25,000 miles intra-Asia rate in Business Class for both sectors of your journey. Previously the stopover trick allowed a ‘pseudo-return’ itinerary for this incredible price.

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 necessarily 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 (at the end of your trip) 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 decent 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, while cash fares have almost a full choice of dates and times.

Pro Tip: JAL is selling Singapore to Tokyo return flights in Business Class for S$2,500 in August 2020, but Kuala Lumpur to Tokyo return is S$2,000 – or less than S$1,600 on the (arguably as good) Malaysia Airlines A350. That makes buying 50,000 Alaska miles for a JAL itinerary to and from Japan of relatively limited value, especially if you are willing to be flexible with your departure point.

Deadline: 26th March 2020

The offer closes at 11.59pm PST on Wednesday 25th March 2020, which is 3.59pm on Thursday 26th March 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 26th March 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

Cancellation fees

Do note that Alaska Airlines charges a US$125 fee (around S$182 at the time of writing) 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.

Note: Alaska is currently offering change and cancellation fee waiver for award tickets booked between now and 31st March 2020, for travel booked through the end of February 2021, due to the coronavirus situation.

Singapore Airlines redemptions

Singapore Airlines flights became redeemable using Alaska miles in October 2019, including their coveted Suites and long-haul Business Class seats – usually excluded from partner redemption agreements.

Unfortunately there is not really any fantastic value for SIA award seats since the intra-Asia stopover option was plugged, soon after they became available in the first place.

If you’re rich in Alaska miles, the only decent deals are to use them for SIA’s Business or First Class flights to and from the USA.

Singapore to New York Business Class	99,000	100,000
Singapore to New York First Class	132,000	125,000
Tokyo to Los Angeles Business Class	92,000	80,000
Tokyo to Los Angeles First Class	125,000	110,000

None of these rates are likely to make you want to buy Alaska miles at around 2 US cents each for this purpose, however.

Pro Tip: Another benefit of using Alaska miles on Singapore Airlines is different (i.e. sometimes better) award availability than to KrisFlyer members. We’ve recently seen more award space in Business Class on non-stop A350ULR flights such as SIN-EWR than KrisFlyer is offering at saver award level. Alaska members also seem to get more space on Singapore – Australia flights in premium cabins.

Other good value uses of Alaska miles

Here are some alternative examples, with a comparison against miles rates with other frequent flyer programmes on the same routes. Bear in mind that many of these will not be available in the near future due to coronavirus cuts, but should return later in 2020.

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 regularly offered, you’re looking at US$1,478 from Singapore 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 range 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 this 40% bonus level).

Singapore to Tokyo via Hong Kong in Business Class, with some excellent lounges along the way, is 22,500 miles (US$443 assuming a 50% bonus when you bought, or US$475 with a 40% bonus). This is even cheaper than the JAL rate now the stopover trick has ceased, though many will see an aircraft change in Hong Kong as an inconvenience.

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.

At this 40% bonus level, those miles are costing just US$897.

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.

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 DBS WWMC card via points.com does not automatically award the higher 4mpd earn rate. You must usually appeal and claim the miles later.

Summary

Even in these difficult times for travel, there’s still value in holding Alaska miles for a relatively wide range of (future) Business Class and First Class award seats to and from the Asia-Pacific region.

Some intra-Asia itineraries can also make sense where fares are high and award space can still be secured.

As past devaluations and rule changes have shown, and as we’ve always said, you should not buy Alaska miles speculatively. That’s especially true in the current climate, without many of the usual redemption options available. Some may even never return given the unprecedented issues the industry is facing.

Have a plan to use these miles before you take the plunge. Changes in both partner redemption relationships and valuations can occur.

It’s also worth noting that Alaska miles are occasionally offered at a 50% bonus level, typically several times a year, so if you don’t need the miles now (which is likely given the circumstances) 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)