Great deal: Buy Alaska Miles at 1.27 US cents each, via Hawaiian Airlines

Back in December 2023, Alaska Airlines announced plans to acquire Hawaiian Airlines in a US$1.9 billion deal. The merger cleared the various regulatory hurdles and was completed in September 2024, and now there’s a great opportunity to purchase Alaska miles at a steep discount.

In short, Hawaiian Airlines is currently offering a 100% bonus on HawaiianMiles purchases, which can be converted into Alaska Mileage Plan miles at a 1:1 ratio. Do the math, and it works out to 1.27 US cents per mile.

For context, the lowest price we’ve ever seen Alaska sell miles is a 70% bonus, or 1.74 US cents per mile. At 1.27 US cents per mile, this would be equivalent to Alaska offering a 130%+ bonus!

While it’s certainly true that Alaska Mileage Plan is not the awesome programme it was a few years ago, it still offers great value in the sub-1,500 miles bracket, which is what I’m aiming to redeem.

Buy Hawaiian miles with a 100% bonus

Buy Hawaiian Miles

From now till 16 November 2024, 6 p.m SGT, Hawaiian Airlines is offering a 100% bonus on miles purchases, with a minimum purchase of 3,000 miles in a single transaction.

A maximum of 100,000 miles (pre-bonus) can be purchased per transaction, so if you maxed out this promotion, you’d be purchasing 200,000 miles for US$2,540, or 1.27 US cents per mile.

There is no annual limit on the number of miles that a member can buy, though I should insert my usual caveat about not buying miles speculatively.

Do note that miles purchases may or may not be credited instantly. My understanding is that if the card you’re using to pay has not been used for a Points.com purchase before, it’s normal to have to wait about 24-72 hours for your miles to be credited. This is an anti-fraud measure that Points.com has in place.

However, if you use a credit card that has made a successful Points.com purchase previously, you should be able to get your miles instantly.

On the other hand, Matthew reports that he used a brand new card with Points.com and got his miles credited instantly, so YMMV. 

Transferring Hawaiian miles to Alaska Mileage Plan

Once your Hawaiian miles have been credited, you can visit this link to transfer them at a 1:1 ratio to Alaska Mileage Plan instantly, without fees. 

• Transfers are made in increments of 50 miles
• You are limited to transferring 500,000 miles per transaction, though there’s no limit to the total number of miles you can transfer overall
• The names must match on both accounts for a transfer to go through

What can I do with Alaska Mileage Plan miles?

Alaska Mileage Plan now uses 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)

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

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. 

Alaska Mileage Plan’s revised award charts for Asia and Europe have a significant jump in award rates between the lowest distance band of <1,500 miles and the subsequent 1,501-3,000 miles band.

So to the extent you’re able to find awards on the upper end of the <1,500 miles boundary, snagging them for 7,500/15,000 miles in Economy/Business could represent great value. 

Here’s some examples of itineraries that would fall into this category:

• Cathay Pacific’s daily fifth freedom flight between SIN and BKK
• STARLUX Business Class awards between Taipei and North Asia, such as TPE to NRT/DAD/HAN
• Domestic Japan flights with JAL, as well as shorter international flights such as TYO to ICN on JAL and Korean Air
• Domestic Australia flights with Qantas, such as SYD-MEL and PER-ADL
• Finnair flights between HEL and LHR- be sure to pick the flight operated by the Airbus A350-900, which comes with the highly-rated AirLounge Business Class seat

A special shout out for Cathay Pacific’s fifth freedom flight between Singapore and Bangkok, because Alaska Mileage Plan offers the lowest cost routing for Economy and Business Class, beating Qatar Privilege Club (9,000/16,500), Asia Miles (10,000/28,000) and British Airways Executive Club (12,000/30,000), to name a few.

Of course, you need to factor in the reality that it’s much easier to earn miles with these programmes in Singapore than Alaska, which requires an explicit out-of-pocket cost to purchase miles. Also, Cathay Pacific Business Class space remains elusive on Alaska Mileage Plan. While I can find Economy Class seats on the SIN-BKK route, Business Class seats are a different matter.

Also, if you want to try Japan Airlines’ new A350-1000 Business Class, here’s a little teaser for you (credit to Matthew for digging this up)…

As for me, I’m planning a trip to Iceland in May 2025, and managed to use Alaska miles to redeem an Icelandair flight between Helsinki and Reykjavik for just 7,500 miles + US$85 per person, which I’m quite chuffed about. This would have cost me US$344 had I paid cash, and would be non-refundable. 

I’m now going to redeem another flight from Reykjavik to London to position myself for my flight back to Singapore, and buying miles is again cheaper than paying cash, plus I get free cancellation if my plans change.

Make sure award space is available on the route you want before buying Alaska miles. Do not purchase miles in anticipation of award space appearing!

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 Hawaiian 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 use to maximise miles on this 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
Maybank World Mastercard Apply	3.2 mpd	Min. S$4K per c. month, no cap
Maybank Horizon Visa Signature Apply	3.2 mpd (till 31 Jan 25)	Min S$800 per c. month, no cap
SCB Visa Infinite Apply	3 mpd	Min S$2K per s. month, no cap
UOB PRVI Miles Apply	2.4 mpd	No cap
S. Month= Statement Month | C. Month= Calendar Month

Remember, you can pair the Citi Rewards Card with Amaze to earn 4 mpd on Points.com purchases, while paying lower FCY fees than 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. 

If you have a DBS Altitude Card and have registered for the 5 mpd FCY spend promotion, you can also use that for this transaction. Remember, a minimum spend of S$1,000 per calendar month applies to trigger the 5 mpd rate, and there’s also a cap of S$2,000 per calendar month. 

Conclusion

Buy Hawaiian Miles

Alaska has completed its merger with Hawaiian Airlines, which allows for 1:1 transfers between both programmes. Since you can now purchase Hawaiian Airlines miles with a 100% bonus, you can effectively buy Alaska Mileage Plan miles at 1.27 US cents each, a steep discount to the usual pricing.

My goal with Alaska miles is to look for the sub-1,500 miles sweet spots, as the 7,500/15,000 miles for Economy/Business Class works out to just US$95/US$190 under this deal.

(HT: OMAAT)