Alaska Airways’ Mileage Plan has a number of options that you just received’t discover with nearly all of competing airways. Issues like distinctive companions and beneficiant stopover insurance policies catapult the worth of Alaska Airways miles increased than some other airline mileage forex, per TPG valuations.
Understanding this system’s intricacies will help you get most worth out of your miles. As we speak, we’ll focus on six issues it is advisable to learn about Mileage Plan.
Alaska Airways is a part of Oneworld — however has extra companions, too
For a few years, Alaska Airways was not affiliated with one of many three main airline alliances (Oneworld, Star Alliance and SkyTeam). And whereas solely flying a relatively meager community of home routes, the airline managed to construct some of the worthwhile airline loyalty applications by inking offers with luxurious worldwide airways from each nook of the globe — together with Qantas, Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airways.
In March of 2021, Alaska Airways joined the Oneworld alliance. This vastly elevated the variety of airways with which you’ll guide award flights with Alaska Airways miles. Importantly, Alaska preserved its relationship with a lot of the airways it partnered with earlier than becoming a member of Oneworld.
Listed below are the non-Oneworld companions it affords:
- Aer Lingus.
- Air Tahiti Nui.
- Condor.
- Hainan Airways.
- Icelandair.
- Korean Air.
- LATAM Airways.
- Ravn Alaska.
- Singapore Airways.
It’s additionally partnered with Mokulele Airways and Southern Airways Specific, although you possibly can’t guide flights with Alaska miles.
Associated: Your full information to Alaska Airways companions
Stopovers are allowed on one-way award tickets
Stopovers on award tickets are uncommon on the earth of journey rewards, and Alaska is without doubt one of the few airways to supply them freed from cost even on one-way awards.
That is an extremely customer-friendly profit that lets you see two locations for the value of 1 — with few restrictions. Right here’s what it is advisable to keep in mind:
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- You possibly can fly a most of 1 accomplice in addition to Alaska Airways.
- Not all accomplice flights are bookable — you possibly can simply see which of them qualify with a fast award search by way of the Alaska Airways web site.
- You possibly can’t add a stopover if you happen to’re flying inside a single worldwide area, corresponding to inside Europe.
- You don’t need to fly out of the airport you arrive at. For instance, in Tokyo, you would arrive at Haneda Airport (HND) and fly out of Narita Worldwide Airport (NRT).
- When flying internationally, your stopover will usually need to be on the hub metropolis of the accomplice airline you’re flying. For instance, stopovers with Cathay Pacific will likely be in Hong Kong.
Associated: The way to guide free stopovers with Alaska Airways Mileage Plan
The excellent news is you possibly can guide most stopovers on-line by looking for a multicity award ticket.
There are a variety of methods to get artistic with this perk. For instance, you would construct a stopover in Hong Kong earlier than using Cathay Pacific’s in depth route community to hook up with one other metropolis in Southeast Asia (Singapore, Bangkok, and many others.).
Associated: The entire information to maximizing stopovers and open jaws on award tickets
It’s acquired among the highest-value candy spots of any airline forex
Alaska Airways miles are among the many most dear rewards currencies — not to mention airline miles. It constantly ranks close to the highest of TPG’s month-to-month valuations, and are at the moment pegged at 1.8 cents per mile.
There’s a easy purpose for this: It’s acquired wonderful candy spots for quite a lot of routes. Some are admittedly a bit area of interest, however others are additionally award traveler bucket checklist gadgets.
One well-known instance is utilizing Alaska’s stopover coverage: You possibly can guide a first-class flight from the U.S. to Hong Kong and a business-class flight from Hong Kong to Johannesburg on Cathay Pacific — all for simply 85,000 miles. This flight can fairly simply value over $12,000 — which means you shouldn’t have hassle getting a price of greater than 14 cents per level. This award ought to return when Cathay Pacific’s Johannesburg route returns this summer season.
These seats are exceptionally troublesome to guide, as they’re scorching commodities within the factors and miles world — and Cathay Pacific doesn’t launch many premium award seats to companions.
Different nice offers which you can guide with Alaska Airways miles embrace:
- Enterprise class on Qantas to Australia for 55,000 miles.
- Enterprise class on LATAM to Chile with a stopover in Brazil for 45,000 miles.
- Firstclass on Japan Airways to Southeast Asia with a stopover in Japan for 75,000 miles.
- Enterprise class to New Zealand on Cathay Pacific for 60,000 miles.
Associated: The 6 finest airline award chart candy spots
Be careful for mixed-cabin itineraries
Regardless of the a number of warnings Alaska now has on the web site when reserving award tickets, many vacationers proceed to unknowingly guide mixed-cabin award tickets.
If you happen to guide a multisegment award ticket and no less than one of many segments is in a premium class, the complete itinerary will worth on the higher-cabin mileage fee and seem within the premium cabin column of the search outcomes. Here is an instance of a route from New York to Taipei, Taiwan, displaying business-class area:
Nonetheless, you will discover a blue recliner seat icon subsequent to the $48 in taxes and costs. This icon denotes that it is a mixed-cabin award ticket with the precise following lessons of service:
On this case, you are paying a 25,000-mile premium to fly home top quality solely on the New York-to-Seattle leg, after which you will spend the lengthy flight from Seattle to Tokyo after which on to Taipei in coach.
When doing all of your preliminary searches for award area and once more when finishing the reserving, Alaska makes it clear which lessons of service you are reserving, so please listen.
Associated: The way to redeem miles with the Alaska Airways Mileage Plan program
Make the most of Alaska Mileage Plan companions
Basically wherever you wish to fly, Alaska has a accomplice or its personal service that has you lined.
You in all probability know you should utilize Alaska miles on standard companions like American Airways and Singapore Airways, however how a lot are you aware about Condor, Hainan Airways and Fiji Airways? Listed below are a few tricks to know when using Mileage Plan accomplice airways:
- Simply because a accomplice airline flies a route does not imply you possibly can guide it with Alaska miles.
- There could also be blackout dates for journey on sure companions relying on the zones you’re touring.
Associated: Maximizing redemptions with Alaska Airways Mileage Plan
Guide award flights on lesser-known routes to Hawaii
Availability is at all times tight on these routes, so as a substitute I like to recommend looking out Alaska’s lesser-known routes to the Hawaiian Islands — it’s possible you’ll be stunned on the availability you discover.
Alaska flies from quite a lot of West Coast cities to almost each Hawaiian vacation spot, together with San Jose, California, and Portland, Oregon. Not solely do you’ve gotten many extra routing choices to select from, however award area is mostly a lot simpler to come back by.
Simply word that Mileage Plan is definitely not the most cost effective strategy to guide these awards, and you would be higher off reserving with Alaska’s Oneworld accomplice British Airways. British Airways expenses simply 13,000 Avios every means in economic system for flights from the West Coast to Hawaii, which is without doubt one of the finest candy spots you will discover in North America.
Associated: Greatest candy spots with Alaska Airways Mileage Plan
The way to earn Alaska Airways miles
Alaska Airways would not accomplice with any of the 5 main applications with transferable factors (Bilt Rewards, Chase Final Rewards, American Specific Membership Rewards, Citi ThankYou and Capital One), making Mileage Plan miles among the hardest to earn. Fortunately, there are just a few good choices you possibly can depend on:
- Join an Alaska Airways bank card. Financial institution of America points each a private and enterprise card. The Alaska Airways Visa® bank card at the moment affords 70,000 bonus miles, plus Alaska’s Companion Fare from $122 ($99 fare plus taxes and costs from $23), after you spend $3,000 or extra throughout the first 90 days of account opening.
- Enterprise house owners can open the Alaska Airways Visa® Enterprise card, which affords 40,000 bonus miles plus Alaska’s Companion Fare from $121 ($99 fare plus taxes and costs from $22) after making $2,000 or extra in purchases throughout the first 90 days of account opening.
- Switch factors from Marriott Bonvoy at a 3:1 ratio, with a 5,000-mile bonus for each 60,000 factors transferred. In different phrases, 60,000 factors will get you 25,000 Alaska Airways miles.
- Purchase Alaska miles throughout a promotion. We’ve seen bonuses as much as 60% lately, dropping the price of miles to 1.85 cents apiece. We do not suggest shopping for miles speculatively for a redemption, however if you happen to’ve already discovered the award area you are on the lookout for, this is usually a whole lot.
- You possibly can credit score paid accomplice flights to your Alaska account and doubtlessly see bigger returns than you will get crediting to different applications. Every accomplice has its personal earn chart based mostly on the fare class you are flying, so make sure you realize what share of flown miles you’ll earn.
Associated: The way to earn miles with the Alaska Airways Mileage Plan program
Backside line
If you happen to grow to be acquainted with the above ideas, you will rapidly notice the potential worth of Mileage Plan and will strongly take into account crediting paid accomplice flights to your Alaska account. After you have sufficient miles for an award ticket, attempt to use this system’s free stopover program to maximise accomplice award tickets and get two journeys for the value of 1.
