Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan is a popular program for its great deals on redemptions and frequent mileage sales.
With their current sale, you can earn up to 50% bonus miles on your purchase. This sale is on for just a short time, ending on 11:59pm PST on March 15, 2023, so be sure to capitalize on the offer before then if you’re interested.
Buy Alaska Miles with a 50% Bonus
Normally, Alaska Airlines sells miles for 2.75 US cents per mile, plus a 7.5% tax recovery fee, for a total of 2.96 US cents per mile. Luckily, Alaska frequently offers discounts on purchasing miles.
Alaska is known for running targeted “mystery bonuses.” It seems the best available offer is for up to 50% bonus on purchased miles, structured like so:
- 50% bonus when you buy 30,000–100,000 miles
- 40% bonus when you buy 10,000–29,000 miles
- 30% bonus when you buy 3,000–9,000 miles
Log in with your Mileage Plan account to see the exact breakdown of your bonus, as not all members are given the best available offer.
With a 50% bonus, you could buy 150,000 Alaska miles for $2,956.25 (USD) including tax, at a cost of 1.97 US cents per mile.
At our current valuation of 1.8 US cents per mile, that price is above our valuation, but could still represent an good deal if you have a specific use in mind.
Historically, Alaska tends to offer bonuses in the 35% to 60% range, although we’ve seen rare offers as high as 70%. This offer is in the middle range of the bonuses, so if you have your sights set on an aspirational redemption, be sure to take advantage of it if you stand to benefit.
How many miles can you buy?
Unless you have elite status with Alaska, each Mileage Plan member is limited to receiving 150,000 miles per calendar year from mileage purchases, whether buying for yourself or being gifted from someone else.
This limit only applies to base miles, although there’s a limit of 100,000 base miles per transaction. If you split your purchase up into multiple transactions, you could buy up to 225,000 miles including the 50% bonus, assuming you haven’t already bought or been gifted Alaska miles this year.
Which credit card should you use to buy Alaska miles?
Mileage Plan sells miles through Points.com. As you aren’t buying directly from Alaska Airlines, you won’t earn any bonus points for using an Alaska Airlines credit card.
The purchase won’t code as travel for the category accelerator either. Instead, you could consider any card with a high base earn rate, or one where you’re working towards meeting the minimum spend requirement.
The purchase will be charged in US dollars. To avoid extra costs, you should use a US credit card.
If you use a card with a Canadian billing address, you’ll be charged GST/HST on top of the Tax Recovery Fee, so even if you have a Canadian card with no foreign transaction fees, I’d recommend using it only as a last resort.
Who Should Buy Alaska Miles?
Buying miles can be a good way to top up your account if you’re keen to make a redemption soon.
Booking an Expensive Aspirational Flight
In late 2022, Alaska Airlines changed its award charts, moving from separate pricing for each airline to having two charts: one for North American redemptions, and one for international redemptions. While the pricing for the program’s sweet spots hasn’t changed, it has become less transparent, since the charts all list “starting from” prices instead of fixed prices.
With that in mind, Alaska’s award chart continues to offer some spectacular rates on exquisite First Class cabins.
A few examples from Canada or the US include Cathay Pacific First Class for 70,000 miles one-way with a stopover in Hong Kong, or Japan Airlines First Class for 70,000 miles one-way with a stopover in Tokyo.
Compared to the exorbitant cash prices, award tickets can be booked for absolutely wild value. 70,000 Alaska miles at 1.97 US cents per mile is worth $1,379 (USD). Compare this to a cash price $14,121 (USD) for Japan Airlines First Class, and you’re looking at the dictionary definition of outsized rewards!
Viewed another way, this redemption would be worth 20.17 US cents per mile, over 11 times the baseline value of a mile – and that’s before considering the option of adding a stopover for no additional cost.
At these rates, it would make sense to buy miles if you have a specific high-value redemption planned. Buying at around 1.97 cents per mile might sound steep, but not when you’re confident that the value will outstrip the cost many times over.
Even if you’re starting from scratch and need to buy all of the miles required for this ticket, with a 50% promotion the cost of the miles would be $1,379 (USD) including fees – a very modest premium on top of their baseline value, and a no-brainer compared to a revenue fare.
Of course, this only makes sense if you can find award space. Even though they can be booked online on the Alaska search engine, Japan Airlines First Class awards can be tough to snag as they’re notoriously popular.
I’d recommend ensuring that you’ve lined up your seats before pulling the trigger on a points purchase. You should also confirm that the seats are indeed available to be booked, and not just “phantom” award space.
Quick Top-Up for an Upcoming Redemption
If you’ve identified a good opportunity to redeem your Alaska miles at a value you like, but your account is just shy of the amount you need, you may find it palatable to pay above baseline value to make up the difference.
As long as you’re redeeming above the 1.97 US cents per mile cost of buying with this promotion, you’ll come out ahead.
Even if you redeem for less, it may still be worth it. After all, your miles are useless if you don’t have enough to make the bookings you desire. If the bulk of your miles were acquired at a very low cost, you can still get good value on the average cost of your miles, even with a slight premium for the instant gratification of a modest mileage purchase.
Book Before the Award Chart Changes
At the end of 2022, Alaska Airlines introduced a new “streamlined” award chart. While there weren’t any substantial changes to the program, the new chart leaves the door open for a move to dynamic pricing at some point in the future with all prices listed as “starting from” versus being fixed.
Therefore, it may be prudent to use up your miles now. After all, if any changes to the program are negative, then your miles will be worth less in the future than they are today under the current award pricing.
If you’re close to having enough Alaska miles for an aspirational redemption, perhaps on Japan Airlines First Class or Cathay Pacific First Class, buying miles to top up your balance may be a wise decision. Just be sure to look for award space before doing so, and then act quickly to book it once you’ve completed the purchase.
Other Ways to Earn Alaska Miles
Before rushing to buy miles at a promotional rate, I’d first look to other sources at lower costs, if you don’t need the miles immediately to make a booking.
Sadly, the Canadian MBNA Alaska Airlines Mastercards were discontinued as of November 7, 2022, leaving only Marriott Bonvoy and opportunities in the US to acquire Alaska miles cheaply.
US Credit Cards by Bank of America
If you have a social security number or ITIN, you can apply for Bank of America’s co-branded cards.
The Alaska Airlines Visa Signature currently has a welcome bonus of 70,000 miles after spending $3,000 (USD) in the first three months.
Meanwhile, the Alaska Airlines Visa Business offer is at an astounding 70,000 miles upon spending $4,000 (USD) in the first three months.
Both cards have frequent credits equivalent to a first-year fee rebate and occasional elevated points offers. Otherwise, at an annual fee of $95 or $70, respectively, the cost of acquiring points is 0.14 US cents per mile for the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature or 0.1 US cents per mile for the Alaska Airlines Visa Business.
Marriott Bonvoy
Marriott Bonvoy points can be transferred to Alaska Mileage Plan at a 3:1 ratio, with a 5,000-mile bonus when transferred in chunks of 60,000 Bonvoy points.
At our present valuation of 0.7 US cents per point, 60,000 Bonvoy points are worth $420 (USD). When transferred to Alaska Mileage Plan, this is equivalent to buying 25,000 miles at 1.68 US cents per mile.
This is still lower than the baseline Alaska redemption value of 1.8 US cents per mile, and cheaper than the promotional cost to buy miles outright. Depending on your Bonvoy balance and hotel redemption goals, you’ll have to weigh whether this is a better choice than paying cash for Alaska miles.
Mileage Plan Shopping
You can also turn to the Mileage Plan Shopping portal for bonuses on online purchases at many popular worldwide retailers ranging from technology to sportswear companies. High bonuses can often be found around big shopping days like Black Friday or Boxing Day.
In my experience, miles usually arrive within two weeks, although many stores have restrictions for purchases outside of the US.
Previous Promotions
As you weigh whether this promotion is a good opportunity for you to meet your travel goals, here’s a snapshot of Alaska Mileage Plan’s previous offers on mileage sales, covering all promotions during the past year:
|
Up to 50% more purchased miles |
|||
|
Up to 60% more purchased miles |
|||
|
Up to 50% more purchased miles |
|||
|
Up to 60% more purchased miles |
|||
|
Up to 60% more purchased miles |
|||
|
Up to 60% more purchased miles |
|||
|
Up to 60% more purchased miles |
|||
|
Up to 60% more purchased miles |
|||
|
Up to 50% more purchased miles |
Conclusion
Alaska Mileage Plan’s 50% bonus promotion on miles purchases is a great opportunity to push your balance over the hump for a dream trip. Make sure to take advantage in the coming days before March 15, 2023 to maximize this offer.
Alaska miles can unlock some of the most coveted flying experiences in the game, so be sure to take advantage of this offer and use up your miles before any possible further changes take place. With Japan and Hong Kong open to the world once again, now is as good of a time as any to book your trip.
