Alaska Mileage Plan selling miles with up to 70% bonus

Alaska Mileage Plan has launched a new sale which offers up to a 70% bonus on miles purchases, the largest offer we’ve ever seen.

This would be exciting, but for the fact that the programme will be overhauling its award pricing this month– the changes were slated to take place in March 2024, and while they haven’t come into effect yet, it could happen at any moment. 

If you do plan to buy miles, you’ll want to redeem them immediately- make sure the space you want is available!

Buy Alaska Mileage Plan miles with up to 70% bonus

Check your Mileage Plan offer

Alaska Mileage Plan offers are targeted, so you’ll need to sign-in to your account via this link and check what your offer is.

I was targeted for a 70% bonus, so from now till 16 March 2024, 2.59 p.m SGT, I can buy miles at the following rates:

• Buy 3,000-14,000 miles: 40% bonus (2.11 US cents/mile)
• Buy 15,000-29,000 miles: 55% bonus (1.91 US cents/mile)
• Buy 30,000+ miles: 70% bonus (1.74 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 holds that status.

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 Mileage Plan will soon adopt three distance based award charts:

• The Americas (covers travel from the USA to the Americas, and within the Americas)

• Europe, Middle East, Africa (includes travel from the USA to EMEA and within EMEA)

• Asia Pacific (includes travel from the USA to Asia Pacific, within Asia Pacific, and between Asia Pacific and EMEA)

Alaska claims that with these new award charts, 60% of partner nonstop routes in economy class and 64% of routes in business class will start at a lower price point. That may be true, but the existing sweet spots for Singapore-based members are going to change dramatically:

With the exception of STARLUX Business Class awards between Taipei and North Asia (which remain excellent value at 15,000 miles), everything else is going up in price.

Some of the changes look brutal, like what’s happening to Cathay Pacific awards where prices are more than doubling in some cases. But then again, it’s also true that some of these sweet spots are more theoretical than anything else, since award space on Cathay Pacific has been virtually non-existent for months. What’s the use of a sweet spot you can’t actually redeem?

For what it’s worth, even though prices are quoted as “starting at”, these are the actual prices you’ll pay if there is saver level award availability. Moreover, all partners, whether oneworld or otherwise, will have the same pricing assuming saver award availability. 

It remains to be seen when this new pricing comes into effect, but until then, here’s the sweet spots (theoretical though they may be) for Alaska Mileage Plan.

STARLUX

Alaska Mileage Plan redemptions on STARLUX started in July, and initially, there were some incredible sweet spots. You could fly from Los Angeles to Taipei for just 60,000 miles, or from Los Angeles to Singapore for 85,000 miles.

Sadly, this didn’t last for long. Within 48 hours of launch, award prices shot up to ridiculously high levels (think 200,000+ miles), and suffice to say there were a lot of very angry people out there. 

So what’s left?

Well, travel between Taipei and North Asia (e.g. Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul) costs just 15,000 miles in Business Class. This could be useful for those visiting Japan or South Korea and wanting a small taste of STARLUX.

You can also redeem Business Class awards from Singapore to Taipei (50,000 miles) or Tokyo (60,000 miles). I’m relatively lukewarm about the former, and though the latter might be worth considering for those who don’t mind very long connection times. 

Japan Airlines

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.

Cathay Pacific

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. 

Korean Air

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. 

Finnair

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 Card 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 S$2K per s. month
Maybank Horizon Apply	2.8 mpd	Min. S$800 per c. 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. 

Conclusion

Check your Mileage Plan offer

Alaska’s latest Mileage Plan sale offers up to a 70% bonus, the biggest we’ve ever seen.

As alluring as this may be, remember that Mileage Plan will be updating its award prices imminently, so don’t buy the miles for future use- buy them for redemptions now. The cynic in me says they’re only giving such a big bonus because an award price hike is just around the corner!

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