Today is the last opportunity to take advantage of the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan mileage sale with up to a 60% bonus which ends tonight, February 20, 2022.
Alaska Airlines joined Oneworld on March 31, 2021, yet award redemptions with many of their new alliance “partners” are still unavailable.
Alaska Airlines airline also has ties with several non-OneWorld partners including Singapore Airlines and Korean Air among others.
For purposes of buying their miles, Mileage Plan has instituted a maximum number of miles that non-elite members can purchase every year (150,000). However, MVP, MVP Gold, and MVP 75K can continue purchasing miles without any limits.
You can access Alaska’s web page for buying and gifting miles here.
These are the bonus thresholds:
- 3,000-19,000 miles = 40% Bonus
- 20,000-39,000 miles = 50% Bonus
- 40,000-100,000 miles = 60% Bonus
This is the price when you purchase 100k miles with the 60% Bonus:
That’s almost US$3000 for 160,000 miles. In other words, the cost of an Alaska Airlines mile purchased at the 60% bonus level is 1.85 cents each.
While there might be some (many) cases where you could make this worthwhile it’s also a lot of money and I recommend checking revenue fares before buying miles blindly thinking it’s always the cheapest option.
For example, a round trip in First Class on Japan Airlines between North America and Thailand would cost 150,000 miles (75k per way) and that’s certainly worth the $2,750 for the miles plus taxes. Since Business Class would only cost slightly less and given the current rates for paid business class fares you could almost certainly do better by just buying a well-priced ticket and earn fresh miles in the process.
There are also severe limitations to how Mileage Plan miles can be used such as the case a reader had this week when he tried to fly between Japan and Australia:
Reader Question: JAL Tokyo – Sydney/Melbourne Awards Not Available Using Alaska Airlines Miles?
It’s very important that you have a good look at what routes and airlines are currently being offered with Mileage Plan and at what rates.
Also, keep in mind that there will be a devaluation of the Mileage Plan award system on March 1, 2022 as they are changing to flexible awards.
Conclusion
Alaska Airlines miles are helpful for partner awards on premium cabins on airlines such as Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, and JAL. Customers are still waiting for the comprehensive award chart that allows mixing and matching different oneWorld airlines (if there ever will be one). It’s crazy that Alaska joined oneWorld quite some time ago and still hasn’t figured out proper award redemption.
These mileage sales usually max at a 60% bonus, although they had one 70% bonus in 2020. So if are targeted for less than 60% then it’s probably better to wait for another sale to surface. Transferring hotel points to Alaska Airlines might also make sense.
Here are the terms and conditions of this offer:
Transactions must be completed between 6:00 AM PST January 26, 2022 and 11:59 PM PST February 20, 2022 to be eligible for bonus miles.
Miles are purchased from Points.com Inc. for a cost of $27.50 per 1,000 miles, plus GST/HST for Canadian residents and QST for Quebec residents.
Miles are non-refundable and do not count toward MVP and MVP/Gold status.
You may purchase and gift Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles in increments of 1,000 miles up to 60,000 miles, and in increments of 5,000 miles up to a maximum of 100,000 miles per transaction.
MVP, MVP Gold, MVP Gold 75K and MVP Gold 100K Mileage Plan member (Elite Member) accounts have no annual limit on the number of miles which may be purchased or gifted through Points.com. If you are not an Elite Member, your account may only be credited up to a maximum total of 150,000 miles acquired through Points.com in a calendar year, whether purchased by you or gifted to you. Bonus miles do not count toward the maximum total of 150,000 miles.
Offer is subject to change and all terms and conditions of the Mileage Plan Program apply.
*Points.com Inc. is collecting Federal Excise Tax on behalf of Alaska Airlines Inc.
Alaska Airlines Inc. has the obligation to collect Federal Excise Tax and remit the tax to the appropriate government agency.
