Alaska 50% ‘buy miles’ bonus until 27 August

Most of our readers, quite understandably, haven’t been in the market for buying miles for the last few months. The uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has kept many of us grounded for an extended period and there looks to be no immediate end to the global travel restrictions.

Alaska Airlines hardly waits five minutes between its ‘buy miles’ promotions, so of course another one is in full swing. This time the airline is offering up to 50% bonus for those purchasing or topping up their balance between now and 27th August 2020, allowing you the opportunity to buy Alaska miles from 1.8 US cents each.

The July 2020 offer

This is the fourth Alaska miles bonus offer since the coronavirus situation took hold, with a previous week-long bonus 40% sale and not one but two up to 60% bonus sales already offered.

This month the airline appears not to be offering its top 60% bonus, with 50% being the top level and some of our readers reporting a 40% bonus. The exact deal is targeted specifically for your account, so log on to check. Not everyone receives the same offer.

Remember that these miles are very regularly on offer at these 40-50% bonus levels.

Pro Tip: Never buy Alaska miles at full price, unless you need a small top-up quickly to achieve a specific redemption, or to urgently keep your existing balance alive if it is about to expire. These miles are almost always available on offer (there were seven purchase bonus offers in 2019 alone).

At the top end you’ll have a 50% bonus (that used to be the maximum, but recently Alaska miles have been sold at a 60% bonus).

Here’s a typical 50% deal:

• 1,000 – 2,000 miles: No bonus (2.75 US ¢ / mile)
• 3,000 – 100,000 miles: 40% bonus (1.96 US ¢ / mile)

Why buy Alaska miles?

In normal circumstances we’d recommend buying Alaska miles at 50%+ bonus rates for excellent value First and Business Class award tickets with airlines like Cathay Pacific and Japan Airlines.

That’s because even if you don’t earn Alaska miles through other means (e.g. Kaligo hotel bookings, or crediting miles from paid Emirates / SIA bookings to the programme), the effective ‘fares’ you are paying for these redemptions are highly competitive even having only acquired your miles in one of these sales.

In many cases, taxes are low with no fuel surcharges levied and Alaska allows free stopovers for no additional miles on most itineraries.

Let’s look at some examples, with the effective cost shown based on buying all the miles you need for the booking.

		Effective cost buying at bonus levels (US$):
		40%	50%
Singapore to New York First Class*	75,000 miles	$1,473	$1,375
Singapore to New York Business Class	65,000 miles	$1,276	$1,191
Singapore to Tokyo Business Class	25,000 miles	$491	$458

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

Singapore to the USA in JAL First Class for 75,000 Alaska miles is one of the standout redemptions in the programme, and just in case you thought it wasn’t possible:

This itinerary would cost you just US$1,375 if you bought Alaska miles at a 50% bonus rate, though to be fair no one will be complaining much about spending US$1,473 for the experience at the lower 40% bonus level.

While the first flight up to Tokyo is in JAL’s Business Class seat, you’ll be in First Class for the longer overnight flight to New York.

Better still, you can search and book JAL award tickets using Alaska miles wholly online, including availability view by month, no fuel surcharges are added so the taxes are low, and you can have a free stopover in Tokyo on this itinerary for no additional miles (just US$22 in additional taxes).

		Effective cost buying at bonus levels (US$):
		40%	50%
Tokyo to Los Angeles Business Class	80,000 miles	$1,571	$1,467

There aren’t really any great value ways to use Alaska miles on Singapore Airlines, since the intra-Asia stopover ‘tricks’ were shut down in October 2019.

Perhaps the only decent value option is a Business Class ticket on one of the airline’s fifth freedom routes between Tokyo and Los Angeles, usually 92,000 KrisFlyer miles but available for 80,000 Alaska miles or the equivalent of US$1,467 with a 50% purchase bonus.

It’s not an incredible deal but personally we would probably rather buy the Alaska miles for this one and save the 92,000 KrisFlyer miles for a better value redemption, assuming we needed to fly this city pair in isolation.

		Effective cost buying at bonus levels (US$):
		40%	50%
Singapore to Los Angeles First Class*	70,000 miles	$1,375	$1,283
Singapore to Los Angeles Business Class	50,000 miles	$982	$917
Sydney to New York First Class*	80,000 miles	$1,571	$1,467
Sydney to New York Business Class	60,000 miles	$1,179	$1,100
Hong Kong to London Business Class	42,500 miles	$835	$779
Singapore to Tokyo Business Class	22,500 miles	$442	$413

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

There are some great value ways to use Alaska miles on Cathay Pacific, including Singapore to the USA in Business Class for US$917 (if you buy at the 50% bonus rate).

Even Singapore to Tokyo or Seoul for example drops to US$413 in Business Class at a 50% bonus.

Bear in mind though that Cathay Pacific awards using Alaska miles are not searchable or bookable online, so you’ll have to call to secure them. Using the British Airways Avios or American Airlines AAdvantage search engines to check award availability beforehand is usually accurate.

		Effective cost buying at bonus levels (US$):
		40%	50%
Sydney to Dallas First Class	70,000 miles	$1,375	$1,283
Sydney to Dallas Business Class	55,000 miles	$1,080	$1,008
Perth to Sydney Business Class	20,000 miles	$393	$367

If you’re based in Australia, using Alaska miles for coast-to-coast domestic flights in Business Class on Qantas, like Perth to Sydney or Perth to Melbourne at 20,000 miles each way, is great value. That’s equivalent to just US$367 when buying with a 50% bonus. Pick an Airbus A330 or Boeing 787 for the newest flat-bed seats.

It’s also worth checking out Australia to USA award pricing.

Business Class on one of the world’s longest flights (the 16-hour mammoth from Sydney to Dallas) comes in at around US$1,000 when buying miles at a 50% bonus.

		Effective cost buying at bonus levels (US$):
		40%	50%
Singapore to Chicago Business Class	120,000 miles return	$2,357	$2,200

Korean Air awards must be booked as a round-trip, however for 120,000 miles you can fly from Singapore to the USA and back in Business Class for US$2,200 at the 50% bonus rate.

Deadline: 27th August 2020

The offer closes at 11.59pm PST on Wednesday 26th August 2020, which is 2.59pm on Thursday 27th August 2020 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 27th August 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$178 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 8th September 2020, for travel booked through 8th August 2021, due to the coronavirus situation. Tickets must be changed or canceled prior to the departure of your original flight.

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 has to be 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	4 mpd 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*	4 mpd on all online spend in a calendar month, capped at S$2,000.
UOB Visa Signature (see our review)	4.0	4 mpd on all overseas spend of at least S$1,000 in a statement period, capped at S$2,000.
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: Our readers have reported that using the DBS WWMC card via points.com does not automatically award the higher 4 mpd earn rate. You must usually appeal and claim the bonus miles later.

Should you buy?

Our own opinion? Probably not.

Even over the last two months with 60% bonuses on offer, buying Alaska Miles speculatively in the current climate doesn’t seem wise, unless you’re taking this opportunity to top-up for a specific redemption (in 2021 for example).

Alaska Airlines should survive COVID-19, but no airline is 100% immune. Crucially, Alaska Mileage Plan is not ring-fenced from the airline. If Alaska Airlines goes down, so do your miles.

If you used Alaska miles in this example to make a partner redemption, like a JAL flight sometime in 2021, chances are it will not be honoured as the financial compensation between Alaska and the partner airline for an award flight happens after the flight has taken place.

Given that JAL knows it won’t be compensated in this case, they likely won’t honour the booking.

There’s also the risk of devaluation. Alaska miles have been devalued before, sometimes without notice, and the airline’s upcoming entry into the oneworld alliance (recently reaffirmed by oneworld itself) spells bad news for future changes to the award charts in our opinion.

If you still want to though:

  Click here to buy Alaska Miles

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(Cover Photo: VDB Photos / Shutterstock)