Alaska Mileage Plan Back With Another 40% Bonus Promotion

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The last Alaska mileage sale may have offered a bonus of up to 40% but it was so highly targeted that a lot of people weren’t even offered a bonus at all. Now Alaska Mileage Plan is back with another sale which, if targeted, is aimed at a lot more people.

Both the Mileage Plan accounts I control are being offered bonuses of between 20% and 40% depending on how may miles are being purchased (there’s a chance some may have been targeted for a bonus of up to 50%).

Alaska miles can be used to great effect if you’re looking to book premium cabin awards on the likes of Cathay Pacific, Korean Air and even LAN and that’s why it’s one of the few currencies that I still find myself tempted to purchase every time there’s a reasonably good bonus on offer.

As always, it’s worth remembering that  Mileage Plan isn’t just a program that works for US-based flyers – it can be of great benefit to those based in Europe too.

Buying Alaska Miles – Headline T&Cs’s

• Mileage Plan accounts need to have been active for at least 10 days to participate in this promotion (if you don’t currently have an account there’s still time to sign up and hope your account is targeted).
• The promotion runs until 11:59pm PST on 9 April 2018
• All purchases of Alaska Miles are processed by Points.com so there are no credit card category bonuses to be had with this deal.
• Miles must be purchased in increments of 1,000.
• There is no limit to how many miles you can buy in Alaska Mileage Plan promotions

Link to the sale

The Offer & The Math

• Buy 10,000 – 19,000 Alaska Mileage Plan miles and earn a 20% bonus
• Buy 20,000 – 29,000 Alaska Mileage Plan miles and earn a 30% bonus
• Buy 30,000 – 60,000 Alaska Mileage Plan miles and earn a 40% bonus

Buying 60,000 miles would see you net 84,000 miles at a total cost of $1,773.75:

84,000 miles at a cost of $1,773.75 works out to ~2.11 cents per mile.

While not an amazing offer it’s still one that can be used very effectively for some great redemptions.

This Is Why Mileage Plan Can Be Great

1. Alaska Airlines may not be part of any big airline alliance but it does have an impressive set of airline partners with whom you can use Mileage Plan Miles.

2. Mileage Plan has some flyer-friendly rules which offer good mileage redemption opportunities.

Here are the main ones:

1. Mileage Plan allows one free stopover on award tickets – even when booking one-way awards.
2. There are no charges for cancelling an award and re-depositing the miles, regardless of your status, as long as you’re more than 60 days away from departure.
3. Mileage Plan allows members to buy as many miles as they need – there are no restrictions on the number of miles that can be bought in a calendar year. You may only be able to buy 60,000 miles (plus the bonus) in one transaction but there’s no limit to the number of transactions you can make.

Here are some of my favorite Mileage Plan redemptions:

Roundtrip Business Class Awards (and cost to buy the miles needed in this sale)

• Cathay Pacific: USA – Asia costs 100,000 miles ($2,110)
• Cathay Pacific: Europe – Hong Kong costs 85,000 miles ($1,794)
• JAL: USA – Asia costs from 120,000 miles ($2,532)
• Korean Air: USA – Asia costs from 105,000 miles ($2,216)
• LAN: USA – South American costs 90,000 miles ($1,899)
• Qantas: USA – Australia costs 110,000 miles ($2,321)

Note: Taxes and surcharges will need to be factored in.

Qantas 787 Dreamliner Business Class

Roundtrip First Class Awards (and cost to buy the miles needed in this sale)

• Cathay Pacific: USA – Asia costs 140,000 miles ($2,954)
• Cathay Pacific: Europe – Hong Kong costs 140,000 miles ($2,954)
• JAL: USA – Asia costs from 140,000 miles ($2,954)
• Qantas: USA – Australia costs 140,000 miles ($2,954)

Note: Taxes and surcharges will need to be factored in.

JAL 777-300ER First Class

Alaska doesn’t charge fuel surcharges on the award tickets listed out above and that’s part of what  makes these redemptions very attractive indeed.

American Airlines is also an Alaska Mileage Plan partner and, technically, a very good option if you’re looking to use Alaska Miles (e.g. Europe – Hawaii roundtrip Business Class for just 115,000 miles). Sadly American Airlines Business Class saver awards are so scarce nowadays that I can’t justify including them in the list above.

Is This  Good Sale?

Because Mileage Plan allows you to buy as many miles as you want (in batches of 60,000 at a time excluding bonuses), this promotion allows you to buy as many miles as you need at a cost of around 2.11 cents each.

This means that there can be some great value to be had if you select the right redemption options – like Cathay Pacific in Business or First Class between Europe and Asia (not a hard award to find), LAN Business Class from the US to South American and Korean Air Business Class between the US and Asia.

If you find the unicorn that is an American Airlines Business or First Class saver award then that can be a great deal too….but the first word of this sentence is the important one here.

Bottom Line

All the example awards I’ve provided in this post would allow you to fly in premium cabins for considerably less than the cash price of that cabin…and that’s what this hobby is all about.

It’s worth bearing in mind that Alaska Mileage Plan occasionally offers bonuses of up to 50% (Joanna was targeted for this a few months back ) but, in my experience, this doesn’t happen all that often and, when it does, not all that many people get targeted for the deal.

Most people may “only” be offered a 40% bonus in this promotion but you can still get great value out of this and, as long as you check that the awards you’re looking to book are actually available (never stockpile miles), you can’t go too far wrong.

Link to Alaska Mileage Plan Buy Miles Promotion