Mileage Plan is the frequent flyer program of Alaska Airlines, and a very powerful tool to get discounted premium cabin flights if you know how to use it properly.
In the space of the last 30 days, we’ve already seen two Mileage Plan sales: a 3-day flash sale that offered up to a 50% bonus and a week-long sale with a 40% bonus. Now, we’ve got a third sale that lasts for a month and ends on 1 November 2019, 3 p.m SGT.
The offer I got was for a 40% bonus, although you’ll want to log into your account to see what you were targeted for. Some users have been targeted for an “Early bird bonus” of up to 50%.
Here’s the breakdown of how my bonus tiers (yours may be different depending on offer)
- Buy 10,000-19,000 miles= 20% bonus (2.46 US cents per mile)
- Buy 20,000-29,000 miles= 30% bonus (2.27US cents per mile)
- Buy 30,000-60,000 miles= 40% bonus (2.11 US cents per mile)
Get up to a 50% bonus on Mileage Plan miles here
Alaska now caps the maximum miles you can purchase in a year to 150,000 (I always thought this was including bonuses, but based on what I’ve been hearing it’s apparently before bonuses). However, since you can redeem Mileage Plan tickets for anyone there’s nothing stopping you from opening another account to buy more miles. MVP, MVP Gold and MVP Gold 75K Mileage Plan members have no such cap.
Should I buy Mileage Plan miles?
As long as you’re not buying miles speculatively, buying Alaska Mileage Plan miles at a 40% bonus is a good price (but not the best- that’s usually 50%).
Mileage Plan is one of my favourite FFPs because you can…
- Get a free stopover, even on one-way awards (which allows you to fly “almost” round-trip Business Class to Japan for just under US$600)
- Get access to unique partners that you wouldn’t normally be able to access in Singapore, like Hainan Airlines, Icelandair and Fiji Airways
- Get great value First and Business class award redemptions out of Singapore with certain airlines like Cathay Pacific and Korean Air
- Avoid fuel surcharges on redemptions, and redeem tickets for anyone you please
What do I do with them?
Mileage Plan’s key strength is the sheer variety of options you have for premium cabin redemptions.
| Update (16/10): Alaska has killed off the JAL one-way trick, effective immediately. Please don’t buy miles if this is your intended use. |
For a mere 25,000 Mileage Plan Miles you can do a “round trip” journey from Singapore to Tokyo in business class on JAL, which works out to ~US$530 if you buy miles at 2.11 US cents each. Even after you factor in the ~US$60 of taxes and the one-way ticket to or from KUL, you’re still looking at an extremely cheap “round trip” Business Class journey.
You’re not limited to just flying to Tokyo- you can even do a destination/origin open jaw as shown below for 25,000 Mileage Plan miles in Business Class. In the example below you fly from SIN-NRT, find your own way between NRT and KIX and then fly KIX-BKK, all in Business Class for 25,000 Mileage Plan miles. Do note that KIX-BKK may not have lie flat seats, based on recent trip reports.
Other useful Mileage Plan awards on JAL include Singapore to North America (75,000 miles in First Class, 65,000 in Business Class).
You can also redeem great value Cathay Pacific awards at 50,000/70,000 Mileage Plan miles each way for Business/First Class between Singapore and the USA. Alternatively, you could do Hong Kong to Europe at 42,500/70,000 miles each way for Business/First class (you can’t start from Singapore if you’re flying to Europe- or rather, you can but you’ll be charged both a Singapore to Hong Kong and Hong Kong to Europe award which makes this poor value)
Note that you cannot book Cathay Pacific awards online through Alaska’s website and will need to call up Mileage Plan customer service to get this done. You should be able to use the British Airways award search engine to check what space is available on CX Business and First before calling up Mileage Plan- have a read of that tutorial here.
Alaska’s full list of redemption partners includes:
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With the exception of Cathay Pacific and LATAM, all of the above partners can be booked online.
What card should I use?
Alaska Mileage Plan purchases are processed by Points.com in USD, so here’s the best cards to maximize the miles earned on your purchase:
- OCBC 90N Card- 4.0 mpd, no cap
- UOB Visa Signature- 4.0 mpd, min S$1K max S$2K of foreign currency spending in a statement period
- Citibank Rewards Visa or Citibank Rewards Mastercard- 4.0 mpd, max S$1K a month
- DBS Woman’s World Card- 4.0 mpd, capped at $2K per month, but may require that you write in to DBS to get the bonus 7X credited (3X, or 1.2 mpd will be awarded as base points)
- BOC Elite Miles World Mastercard- 3.0 mpd, no cap
- Standard Chartered Visa Infinite– 3.0 mpd, minimum S$2K spending a statement period
When it comes to Points.com purchases, some people may run into issues using a Singapore-issued card. I can’t quite explain why this happens, because some don’t encounter any issues and others never seem to be able to get their transactions through. Your best bet is to use an Alaska Mileage Plan account that is at least 10 days old, and try a different card if your transaction doesn’t go through the first time.
Other important things to note
Alaska charges a US$125 fee for changes or cancellations, regardless of how far away you are from departure. Alaska Mileage Plan miles do not expire so long as you credit or redeem at least one mile every 24 months.
Given the frequency of these sales the contention ratio for awards will be sky high. That apart, the recent AA breakup is a cause for concern. Though I typically never miss 50% sales, I am thinking about it this time. IMO, the real clincher for AS are the less common routes in the US like SFO-BOS (typically easier to redeem than United or JetBlue) or SJC-AUS (no non-stop competition) or SFO – DCA (you don’t want to wish IAD on your worst enemy). With AA, connecting to these flights becomes much easier. One can argue that ex-Virgin capacity is a… Read more »
good points. however, if your main use case for AS is to redeem the one-way JAL trick (which I’m sure it is for a lot of people in SG), then arguably the value is still there because award space is plentiful. I’ve never actually used AS miles for anything else. i can imagine these developments adversely affecting those in the US more than those over here
Aaron, just want to update you that DBS Woman’s World Card no longer gives DBS points for AS points purchased. I was recently told by DBS customer service. Maybe you like to check.
thanks- people sometimes get them on appeal. it really seems to vary on a case by case basis. had a recent report that someone appealed and got, so there’s no consistency here.
Quick question – during the booking for SIN-Tokyo-KUL, they did not ask for passport details. That’s normal right?
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Looks like they got smarter and restricted the one way JAL trick. Just less than 1 week difference, I am not able to find any available dates. Except when both dates are 1 day apart, I can find some available flights
Unfortunately, based on other miles bloggers it seems true that Alaska Mileage Plan has just devalued the program by stopping their free stopover for intra Asia flights. Read from other websites that some of the good value flights have also been adjusted to a higher miles requirement.
I was so close to booking my cheap round trip to Japan via JAL…