Alaska Mileage Plan selling miles with up to 60% bonus

Alaska Mileage Plan has launched a new sale, which offers up to a 60% bonus on miles purchases.

While the programme still has some sweet spots, it’s well worth a reminder that earlier this year, Alaska pulled a no-notice devaluation of Japan Airlines awards, doubling prices in some cases. It wasn’t the first time this happened; they did something similar with Emirates awards back in 2016 (then blamed “travel hackers” for making them do it)!, so it’s very much a case of buyer beware.

You should only be buying Alaska miles if you see an available award that you plan to book immediately!

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

Check your Mileage Plan offer

From now till 21 August 2023, 2.59 p.m SGT, Alaska Mileage Plan members can buy miles with a targeted bonus. You’ll need to sign-in to your account via this link to check what yours is. 

If you’re targeted for a 60% bonus, it’ll look something like this:

• Buy 3,000-24,000 miles: 40% bonus (2.11 US cents/mile)
• Buy 25,000-44,000 miles: 50% bonus (1.97 US cents/mile)
• Buy 45,000+ miles: 60% bonus (1.85 US cents/mile)

I personally was only targeted for a 40% bonus, which tiers like this: 

• Buy 3,000-9,000 miles: 30% bonus (2.27 US cents/mile)
• Buy 10,000-14,000 miles: 35% bonus (2.19 US cents/mile)
• Buy 15,000+ miles: 40% bonus (2.11 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, but it’s unlikely that anyone based in Singapore has this. 

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?

Alaska Airlines joined oneworld on 1 March 2021, and at the end of 2022 unveiled its unified award chart for oneworld partners. This replaces all existing award charts for individual airline partners.

The key thing to note is that pricing reflects the “starting from” 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.

Crucially, 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, and the price is whatever Alaska says it is! That lack of transparency is what allowed them to pull off a no-notice devaluation- they just tweaked the prices on the back end. 

Here’s a few sweet spots that still exist with Alaska Mileage Plan.

JAL hack: Fly Singapore to Tokyo for 30,000 miles

One quirk about Alaska’s repricing of JAL awards is that not all intra-Asia routes were affected equally. While Singapore to Tokyo in Business Class doubled from 25,000 miles to 50,000 miles, other routes like Taipei/Manila to Tokyo had much milder increases of “just” 5,000-10,000 miles. 

There’s a way to make this work to your advantage. 

First, navigate to the book a flight page and select the multi-city option. Put Singapore and Tokyo (use TYO so it searches both HND/NRT) as the first pairing, and Tokyo and Jakarta (or Manila) as the second pairing. Make sure both flights are on the same date (you can’t build a stopover into a one-way JAL award, ever since October 2019). 

If you’re lucky with award space, something like this may appear.

Look at the first option (JL38/JL729), SIN-HND/NRT-CGK. 

This costs 30,000 miles + US$79 in taxes, and involves an airport change in Tokyo. If a passenger were so inclined, they could terminate their journey here, effectively flying from Singapore to Tokyo for only 5,000 more miles than before. And since Haneda and Narita don’t send luggage to one another, passengers will be able to collect their bags on arrival at Haneda.

Alternatively, if they have no bags to check, then the second option (JL712/729), SIN-NRT-CGK, would also work- simply skip the next flight.

A word of warning: this “throwaway ticketing” is frowned upon by airlines, to put it mildly. Do it too often, and your account could be shut down, with remaining miles confiscated. The only people who should consider doing this are those who wish to empty out their Alaska Mileage Plan account and walk away from the programme.

Fly Cathay Pacific within Asia for 22,500 miles

If you’re travelling within Asia and don’t mind a one-stop flight, then Cathay Pacific Business Class awards still cost a reasonable 22,500 miles + US$86 via Alaska Mileage Plan (or Economy Class for 12,500 miles).

Award space is plentiful, and I can find connection times in Hong Kong as short as one hour, which won’t add too much inconvenience to your trip.

Fly Cathay Pacific to the USA for 50,000 miles

Cathay Pacific awards between Asia and the USA remain at 50,000 miles + US$77 in Business Class, so assuming you can find award space, you could book a good value SIN-HKG-SFO/LAX itinerary. 

The problem is that award space is close to non-existent. I couldn’t find anything out of Singapore, but here’s an example starting from Jakarta (thanks to MileLion reader Eric for hunting it down).

It might be easier to find award space starting from Hong Kong. 

Fly Korean Air to the USA for 120,000 miles (RT)

Korean Air only allows the booking of round-trip awards via Alaska Mileage Plan, but if you can find the space, then 120,000 miles + US$84 for a return Business Class ticket isn’t terrible.

Be advised, however, that flights from Singapore are on the B777-300ERs- while I’m quite sure they use the newer APEX suites (shown in the photo above), there’s a remote chance an equipment swap might land you with the older Business Class seats which are far from ideal. 

Fly Finnair to Europe for 60,000 miles

Finnair awards between Singapore and Helsinki (or Europe for that matter) cost 60,000 miles + US$59 in taxes, which looks like very good value to me. 

This would be an opportunity to try Finnair’s new non-reclining Business Class seat, which per the reviews is a lot more comfortable than it sounds. 

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: 

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 as MCC 7399  ((i.e. they won’t code as airline transactions). Here’s the best cards to maximize the miles earned on your purchase:

Card	Earn Rate	Remarks
Citi Rewards Apply	4 mpd	Cap of S$1K per s. month
UOB Visa Signature Apply	4 mpd	Min S$1K, max S$2K FCY spend per s. month
SCB Visa Infinite Apply	3 mpd	Min spend S$2K per s. month
HSBC TravelOne Card Apply	2.4 mpd	No cap
UOB PRVI Miles Apply	2.4 mpd	No cap
S. Month= Statement Month | C. Month= Calendar Month

Remember, you can always pair the Citi Rewards Card with the Amaze Card to earn 4 mpd on Points.com purchases, enjoying lower foreign currency transaction fees compared to banks.

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. 

For some other limited-time foreign currency spending offers, refer to the post below (and make sure the offer is valid for online spending; some are in-person only!)

What card should you use for your overseas holiday?

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, it might be worth considering. 

However, you should make it a point to always check pricing and availability beforehand, and redeem any purchased miles straight away. Holding on to miles or buying them speculatively can leave you vulnerable to stealth devaluations, as we saw recently with Japan Airlines. 

Golden rule with Alaska miles: Earn and burn, not buy and hold.