Alaska Mileage Plan buy miles with up to 60% bonus

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Alaska Airlines’ Mileage Plan miles were a great way to tap into good value First and Business Class redemptions with a variety of airlines, but over the last couple of years we’ve become a lot more cautious about recommending our readers to buy them, due to a couple of big uncertainties.

The first of those was the obvious inability to travel during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the unknown effect it would ultimately have on Alaska Airlines, while the second was the airline’s entry into the oneworld alliance, with fears that could lead to a devaluation of award ‘sweet spots’ in the programme.

Buying miles speculatively with these two prospects looming was unwise, in our opinion!

The good news is that the COVID-19 pandemic is behind us, save for a few countries still clinging on to some restrictions, and equally importantly that Alaska Airlines has recently maintained its competitive award pricing for partner redemptions, despite a “simplified” chart being published.

As usual, the airline is back with one of its regular ‘buy miles’ promotions this month, offering a mystery bonus of up to 60% for selected members, which at the top end allows you to purchase at 1.85 US cents per mile.

With travel options mostly back on the cards, and improving all the time, this does have the potential to unlock some great value redemptions over the coming year or so.

The new offer runs from now until 21st February 2023, for our readers based in Asia.

Alaska’s January 2023 miles bonus offer

The exact deal is targeted specifically for your account, so log on to check. Not everyone receives the same offer.

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 are typically 8 purchase bonus offers per year!).

I was targeted for the 60% deal, and here’s how it’s structured for my account:

Miles purchased	Bonus	Cost per mile
1,000 – 2,000	None	2.96 US ¢
3,000 – 19,000	40%	2.11 US ¢
20,000 – 39,000	50%	1.97 US ¢
40,000 – 100,000	60%	1.85 US ¢

Some of our readers have been targeted with a 50% bonus, while Eddie has a 40% offer, as structured below:

Miles purchased	Bonus	Cost per mile
1,000 – 2,000	None	2.96 US ¢
3,000 – 14,000	30%	2.27 US ¢
15,000 – 100,000	40%	2.11 US ¢

If you are not an elite member, your account may only be credited up to a maximum total of 150,000 miles (acquired through buying miles) in a calendar year, whether purchased by you or gifted to you.

MVP, MVP Gold and MVP Gold 75K Mileage Plan member accounts have no annual limit on the number of miles which may be purchased or gifted.

  Click here to buy Alaska Miles

Deadline: 21st February 2023

The offer closes at 11.59pm PST on Monday 20th February 2023, which is 3.59pm on Tuesday 21st February 2023 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 21st February in Singapore if you’re interested, just in case you have any issues or the payment doesn’t go through first time.

Why buy Alaska miles?

Now that imminent devaluation is off the cards, and travel opportunities are back, we once again recommend buying Alaska miles at anything from 50% bonus rates or more, 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 flight 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.

Here are 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%	60%
Singapore to New York First Class*	75,000 miles	$1,584	$1,386
Singapore to New York Business Class	65,000 miles	$1,373	$1,201
Singapore to Tokyo Business Class	25,000 miles	$528	$462

* 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.

This itinerary would cost you just US$1,386 if you bought Alaska miles at a 60% bonus rate, though to be fair no one will be complaining much about spending US$1,584 for the experience at the lower 40% bonus level.

Even a Business Class redemption on JAL to the USA comes in at a very decent one-way ‘cost’ of US$1,200 with the 60% bonus.

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

		Effective cost buying at bonus levels (US$):
		40%	60%
Singapore to Los Angeles First Class*	70,000 miles	$1,478	$1,293
Singapore to Los Angeles Business Class	50,000 miles	$1,056	$924
Sydney to New York First Class*	80,000 miles	$1,689	$1,478
Sydney to New York Business Class	60,000 miles	$1,267	$1,109
Hong Kong to Auckland Business Class	30,000 miles	$633	$555
Hong Kong to London Business Class	42,500 miles	$897	$785
Singapore to Tokyo Business Class	22,500 miles	$475	$416

* 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$924 (if you buy at the 60% bonus rate).

Even Singapore to Tokyo or Seoul for example drops to US$416 in Business Class at a 60% bonus.

Cathay Pacific awards using Alaska miles are now searchable and bookable online, so there’s no longer any need to call to secure them, like there was before.

		Effective cost buying at bonus levels (US$):
		40%	60%
Sydney to Dallas First Class	70,000 miles	$1,478	$1,293
Sydney to Dallas Business Class	55,000 miles	$1,161	$1,016
Perth to Sydney Business Class	20,000 miles	$422	$370

If you’re based in Australia, or just visiting on holiday, 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$370 when buying miles with a 60% bonus.

Pick an Airbus A330 (see our recent review here) or Boeing 787 for the newest flat-bed seats, with these flights taking upwards of five hours.

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

Qantas A380 First Class on the 15-hour non-stop from Los Angeles to Sydney comes in at around US$1,300 when buying miles at a 60% bonus.

		Effective cost buying at bonus levels (US$):
		40%	60%
Singapore to Chicago (return) Business Class	120,000 miles (return)	$2,534	$2,217

Korean Air awards using Alaska Miles 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 when purchasing miles at the 60% bonus rate.

		Effective cost buying at bonus levels (US$):
		40%	60%
Singapore to Helsinki Business Class	60,000 miles	$1,266	$1,201

A decent but not incredible deal is Business Class with Finnair from Asia to Europe for 60,000 Alaska Miles, or about US$1,200 at the 60% bonus rate.

This also allows you to experience the carrier’s latest AirLounge Business Class product from Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong and Tokyo, and avoid a hefty fuel surcharge on the Tokyo – Helsinki route.

		Effective cost buying at bonus levels (US$):
		40%	60%
Singapore to Auckland Business Class	65,000 miles	$1,373	$1,110
Tokyo to Los Angeles Business Class	80,000 miles	$1,689	$1,478

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.

Singapore to Auckland (or Australian cities like Melbourne and Sydney) at 65,000 miles can make sense, even though KrisFlyer charges only 68,500 miles for the same itinerary, since Alaska gets better award space on SIA flights.

Perhaps the only other decent value option is a Business Class ticket on one of the airline’s fifth freedom routes between Tokyo and Los Angeles, usually 103,500 KrisFlyer miles but available for 80,000 Alaska miles or the equivalent of US$1,478 with a 60% purchase bonus.

It’s not an incredible deal but personally we would probably rather buy the Alaska miles for this one and save the 103,500 KrisFlyer miles for a better value redemption, assuming we needed to fly this city pair in isolation.

Change and cancellation is free

Alaska Mileage Plan used to levy a US$125 change and cancellation (miles redeposit) fee on its award tickets, but this has now been abolished.

Instead, partner awards have a US$12.50 booking fee per one-way trip (US$25 for a round-trip), which is not refundable if you cancel.

Alaska Miles don’t expire

Alaska Mileage Plan miles don’t expire, provided you have some earning or redemption activity within the last 24 months.

Buying miles, like in this sale, counts as earning activity.

Alaska promises 90 days’ notice of any devaluation

Following an unannounced devaluation of Emirates awards in 2016, and the backlash that ensued, Alaska Airlines has since promised to give us 90 days notice of any change to existing partner award rates.

“We will strive to give at least 90 days’ notice if changes are coming to any current partner awards”

Alaska Airlines

The 90 day promise should allow you three months to redeem at existing rates, even if the pricing for a particular partner (e.g. Cathay Pacific) does get hiked in future.

That would mean the ability to continue to make the current (good value) redemption bookings for flights close to a year in advance, softening the blow of any potential future devaluation, even if you buy miles that you don’t immediately use.

However, our recommendation is always to have a redemption in mind before buying.

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 (see our review)	4.0	4 mpd on all online spend in a statement period, capped at S$1,000 per card.
DBS WWMC* (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 spend.
Standard Chartered VI (see our review)	3.0	All 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)	2.2	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.

With COVID-19 travel restrictions largely behind us, and Alaska Mileage Plan retaining its competitive award pricing for a range of partner airlines, there’s once again value in buying Alaska miles for a relatively wide range of Business Class and First Class award seats to, from and within the Asia-Pacific region.

However, as we’ve always said, you should not buy Alaska miles speculatively. Have a plan to use them, preferably in the near future, before you take the plunge. Changes in both partner redemption relationships and valuations can occur, though 90 days’ advance notice is promised.

It’s also worth noting that if you have been offered a lower bonus level, the programme may have a higher bonus level on offer for you next time round (and there’s never long to wait for an Alaska Miles sale!).

If you’re in this boat and you don’t need the miles urgently, we would recommend waiting for a more generous promotions to come up for your account.

  Click here to buy Alaska Miles

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(Cover Photo: VDB Photos / Shutterstock)