Alaska Airlines Has Extended Its 40% Bonus Mileage Sale

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Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles are one of my favorite airline currencies but, as I don’t fly Alaska very often and as I credit my American Airlines flights to BA (for the purpose of earning status), I’m left with little option but to hope for a decent mileage sale….like this one.

The current Alaska mileage sale has been running since the middle of May and was scheduled to end on 3 July but, for some reason, Alaska Airlines has extended the purchasing deadline to 13 July 2018.

As the headline says, this Alaska Airlines mileage sale is offering a bonus of 40% for anyone prepared to buy at least 30,000 miles and the promotion doesn’t appear to be targeted.Alaska miles may not be an obvious currency for most people to collect but they can be extremely useful if you’re trying to book premium cabin awards on airlines like Cathay Pacific, Korean Air or even LAN.

The flexibility and value that Alaska Miles offer are the main reasons 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.

Note: Mileage Plan isn’t a program that only works for US-based flyers – it can be very useful to those based in Europe too – follow this link to find out why.

Alaska Airlines Mileage Sale – Headline T&Cs’s

• Mileage Plan accounts need to have been active for at least 10 days to participate in this promotion (you still have time to participate in this promotion if you sign up now).
• The promotion runs until 11:59pm PST on 13 July 2018
• All purchases of Alaska Miles are processed by Points.com so you won’t earn a credit card category bonus when buying miles.
• Miles must be purchased in increments of 1,000.
• There is no limit to how many Alaska miles you can buy in these sales. You can only buy up to 60,000 miles (+ bonus) in a single transaction but there’s no limit to the number of transactions you can make.

Link to the Alaska Mileage sale

The Promotion & The Math

• Buy 0 – 9,000 Alaska Mileage Plan miles and earn no bonus
• 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

If you were to purchase the full 60,000 miles you would net 84,000 miles (after adding in the bonus) for 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.

This isn’t exactly an earth-shattering offer but it’s still an offer you should take very seriously because, used correctly, it can help you buy great premium cabin flights for a lot less than their cash value.

Why Alaska Mileage Plan (and its miles) Can Be Great Value

1. Alaska Airlines is not be part of any big airline alliance (oneworld, stat alliance or SkyTeam) but it does have a good set of airline partners with whom Mileage Plan Miles can be used.

2. Alaska’s Mileage Plan has some of the most flyer-friendly rules around and these can be used to great effect.

Here are ones which may be of interest:

1. Mileage Plan allows one free stopover on award tickets – even when booking one-way awards.
2. There are no charges if you cancel an award and re-deposit the miles as long as you’re more than 60 days away from departure. Status doesn’t come into play here so this rule applies to anyone who books an Alaska Mileage Plan award.
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 one promotion or even in a calendar year.

A Look At The Better Awards You Can Book

Roundtrip Business Class Awards (and the 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 but, in most cases, they’re not significant.

Roundtrip First Class Awards (and the 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.

Importantly, Alaska Mileage Plan doesn’t charge fuel surcharges on award tickets listed and that’s part of what makes these redemptions very attractive indeed.

I should mention that American Airlines is also an Alaska Mileage Plan partner and, technically, can be a very good option on routes like Europe – Hawaii (115,000 miles for roundtrip Business Class)…..but award availability is a real issue.

I’ve said this a lot of times in the past but it’s worth saying again – American Airlines Business Class saver awards are so scarce nowadays that I can’t justify including them in the list above. I suspect that most people will struggle to find any saver award availability unless they’re very flexible with dates and also very lucky.

Should You Buy Miles In This 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 sale allows you to buy as many miles as you need so you don’t need to have an existing mileage balance to get started.

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 (a reasonably easy award to find), LAN Business Class from the US to South American and Korean Air Business Class between the US and Asia.

Bottom Line

All the examples I’ve provided above would allow you to fly in First & Business Class cabins for considerably less than the cash price of that cabin and that’s part of what makes Mileage Plus Miles such an attractive proposition.

It’s worth remembering that Alaska Mileage Plan occasionally offers bonuses of up to 50% so it may be possible to purchase miles for slightly less than the 2.11 cents they’re being sold for in this sale (at some point in the future)….but 50% bonuses don’t come around very often and, when they do, they’re usually targeted offers.

This promotion may “only” offer a 40% bonus on miles purchases but, at 2.11 cents/mile, you can still get great value out of it and, as long as you check that the awards you’re hoping to book are actually available (never stockpile miles), you can’t go too far wrong.

Link to Alaska Mileage Plan Buy Miles Promotion