Buy Alaska Mileage Plan miles with up to a 60% bonus

Expired

From now till 21 February, buy Alaska Mileage Plan miles with up to a 60% bonus, or 1.85 US cents each. Sweet spots still available!

From now till 21 February 2023, 3.59 p.m SGT, Alaska Mileage Plan is offering up to a 60% bonus on miles purchases. 

This marks the first Mileage Plan sale since Alaska unveiled its unified partner award chart at the end of 2022. To everyone’s surprise, existing sweet spots for partners like Cathay Pacific and Japan Airlines were maintained, although the award chart’s ambiguous language did leave the door open for potentially higher pricing in the future, without any notice. 

If you plan to buy miles during this sale, be sure to burn them as soon as possible!

Buy Alaska Mileage Plan miles with up to 60% bonus

Check your Mileage Plan offer

Alaska Mileage Plan miles bonuses are tailored to each member, and you’ll need to sign-in to your account via this link to check what bonus you’ve been targeted for.

My account was targeted for a 40% bonus, but other members have reported getting offers of up to 60%. 

My 40% bonus is tiered like this:

  • Buy 3,000-14,000 miles: 30% bonus (2.27 US cents/mile)
  • Buy 15,000-100,000 miles: 40% bonus (2.11 US cents/mile)

If you get a 60% bonus, the tiering may look something like this:

  • Buy 3,000-19,000 miles: 40% bonus (2.11 US cents/mile)
  • Buy 20,000-39,000 miles: 50% bonus (1.97 US cents/mile)
  • Buy 40,000-100,000 miles: 60% bonus (1.85 US cents/mile)

Mileage Plan members can buy a maximum of 100,000 miles (pre-bonus) per transaction, and a maximum of 150,000 miles (also pre-bonus) per year. MVP, MVP Gold, and MVP Gold 75K members have no purchase cap.

However, since Mileage Plan tickets can be redeemed for anyone, there’s nothing stopping a family member from opening another account, buying miles and redeeming them on your behalf.

Is it worth buying Alaska Mileage Plan miles?

You can redeem Qatar Airways flights with Mileage Plan miles…but it’s not the best use of them!

Alaska Airlines joined oneworld on 1 March 2021, and has finally unveiled its unified award chart for oneworld partners. This replaces all existing award charts for individual airline partners. 

Prices reflect one-way pricing

The key thing to note is that pricing above reflects the “starting at” amount, which means awards could possibly cost more than this, depending on dates and partner airline. In other words, what you see above is the lowest cost potentially available on any partner airline- not necessarily the one you want. 

Unfortunately, Alaska has not published an award chart for point to point travel outside the US and Canada, such as Singapore to Tokyo. You’ll need to run a manual search to view pricing. The lack of an award chart is particularly concerning here, because it means that prices could change at any time without notice.

But, for the moment, existing sweet spots on Cathay Pacific and Japan Airlines have been left untouched.

Japan Airlines

Japan Airlines B77W Business Class

Japan has now fully reopened to visitors, and the opportunity to redeem 25,000 miles for a one-way Business Class ticket to Japan is very good value indeed. If you’re having difficulty finding awards from Singapore to Tokyo, a simple trick is to search for award space to places like KIX, ITM, or CTS instead. That will bring up options that transit through NRT/HND, and whether or not you take the final leg is up to you.

You can read more about this in the article below. 

How to find award space to Tokyo on Alaska Mileage Plan

Other sweet spots include 65,000/75,000 miles for a one-way Business/First Class award between Singapore and the USA.

Cathay Pacific

Cathay Pacific B77W First Class

 Alaska Mileage Plan charges just 50,000/70,000 miles for a one-way Business/First Class award between Singapore and the USA on Cathay Pacific. 

Review: Cathay Pacific B77W First Class HKG-SFO

Alternatively, you can fly between Singapore and Tokyo for 22,500 miles on Cathay Pacific. Unlike the Japan Airlines option above, however, you’ll have to do a stopover in Hong Kong. 

Cathay Pacific has improved its connectivity to Singapore ever since Hong Kong’s full reopening, which presents more connection opportunities. What’s more, you can now book awards online (it was previously necessary to call up customer service). 

Others

Alaska Mileage Plan has a wide variety of redemption partners, some of which may be useful for flying point to point outside of Singapore: 

✈️ Alaska Mileage Plan Partners
  • Aer Lingus
  • Air Tahiti Nui
  • American Airlines
  • British Airways
  • Cathay Pacific
  • Condor
  • El Al
  • Fiji Airways
  • Finnair
  • Hainan Airlines
  • Iberia
  • Icelandair
  • Japan Airlines
  • Korean Air
  • LATAM
  • Malaysia Airlines
  • Qantas
  • Qatar Airways
  • Ravn Alaska
  • Royal Air Maroc
  • Royal Jordanian
  • Singapore Airlines
  • SriLankan Airlines

Other sweet spots you can consider include:

  • 55,000/70,000 miles for a one-way Business/First Class award between Australia and the USA on Qantas
  • 70,000 miles for a one-way Business Class award between Europe and the USA on Finnair
  • 120,000 miles for a round-trip Business Class award between Singapore and Hawaii on Korean Air (one-way redemptions not allowed)

There are no fuel surcharges on Mileage Plan awards, except on British Airways, Hainan Airlines, and Icelandair.

What are Mileage Plan’s change fees?

One great thing about Alaska Mileage Plan is it no longer has any change or cancellation fees for award tickets, which gives you the option to lock in speculative awards, and change them as needed.

Should you need to cancel, you’ll get the full amount paid back, less a US$12.50 partner award booking fee (charged each way, i.e. US$25 for a round-trip booking).

When do Mileage Plan miles expire?

Alaska Mileage Plan miles do not expire.

However accounts which have been inactive for more than two years will be automatically locked. Should that happen, you’ll need to contact Guest Care to verify your identity, following which the account will be reactivated with all miles intact.

What card should I use?

Purchases of Alaska Mileage Plan miles are processed by Points.com in USD (i.e. they won’t code as airline transactions). Here’s the best cards to maximize the miles earned on your purchase:

CardEarn RateRemarks
Citi Rewards
Apply
4 mpdCap of S$1K per s. month 
UOB Visa Signature
Apply
4 mpdMin S$1K, max S$2K FCY spend per s. month
SCB Visa Infinite
Apply
3 mpdMin spend S$2K per s. month
UOB PRVI Miles
Apply
2.4 mpdNo cap 
S. Month= Statement Month | C. Month= Calendar Month

Remember, you can always pair the Citi Rewards Card with the Instarem Amaze Card to earn 4 mpd on Points.com purchases, without foreign currency transaction fees. 

I generally don’t advise using the DBS Woman’s World Card for Points.com purchases, as past data points have indicated issues with getting the bonus points credited. 

Conclusion

Check your Mileage Plan offer

Alaska’s latest Mileage Plan sale offers up to a 60% bonus, and if you were targeted for one of the larger offers, now’s a great time to buy and burn. 

My advice would be the same as always: if you plan to buy Alaska Mileage Plan miles during one of their frequent sales, always check pricing and availability beforehand, and redeem them straight away. Holding on to miles or buying them speculatively can leave you vulnerable to stealth devaluations, which are all the easier now that the award chart (where it exists) only states the minimum possible price.

Aaron Wong
Aaron Wong
Aaron founded The Milelion to help people travel better for less and impress chiobu. He was 50% successful.

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Dex

How long do miles take to credit after bought?

Dex

Thank you!

Jay Wow

Just happened to me. What would be the best course of action in this case? Use the same card to retry or try with another credit card?

Jem

Hi Aaron, to your knowledge are Alaska miles any good for Singapore-Australia combo? Thanks

Jem

Thanks!

David

is 40% bonus worth buying?

monday blues

That will bring up options that transit through NRT/HND, and whether or not you take the final leg is up to you.

Just to confirm, luggages will not be check through right? As I remember for flights into Japan, we’ll need to re-check in our luggages for domestic.

monday blues

Thank you for the confirmation. I bought return ticket though, so I guess when returning I have to take the first leg and transit in HND.

Mike

Hi Aaron, which card to use for redemption booking fees?

Cel

I couldn’t find any partner business options for SIN to US (LAX and NYC). Is there a trick to it?

Chris

Hi Aaron, thanks for the heads up. Are Alaska miles good for travel between SG & China (via Cathay or other airlines?) especially when one is travelling with kid/s? TIA

Jimmy

Tried to sign up for mileage plan account but dont seems to work because one of the field is asking which US state for primary departure? How to get pass this?
Need to sign up for an account to buy the discounted miles right?

Many thanks!

Ron

How to find first class Cathay availability on Alaska? Or do I need to call in?

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