40% Bonus When Buying Alaska Miles Through 7 February [Targeted]

Some links to products and travel providers on this website will earn Traveling For Miles a commission which helps contribute to the running of the site – I’m very grateful to anyone who uses these links but their use is entirely optional. The compensation does not impact how and where products appear on this site and does not impact reviews that are published.

Alaska miles can be used to great effect if you’re looking to book premium cabin awards on the likes of Cathay Pacific, Korean Air and even LAN and that’s why it’s one of the few currencies that I still find myself tempted to purchase every time there’s a reasonably good bonus on offer.

Right now Alaska Mileage Plan has a targeted offer running in which members can earn a bonus of up to 40% when buying miles through 7 February 2017.

Importantly, as I’ve discussed before, Mileage Plan isn’t just a program that works for US-based flyers as it can be of great benefit to UK and European based flyers too.

Buying Alaska Miles – Headline T&Cs’s

• Mileage Plan accounts need to have been active for at least 10 days to participate in this promotion (if you don’t currently have an account there’s still time to sign up and hope your account is targeted).
• The promotion runs until 11:59pm PAT on 7 February 2018
• All purchases of Alaska Miles are processed by Points.com so there are no credit card category bonuses to be had with this deal.
• Miles must be purchased in increments of 1,000.
• There is no limit to how many miles you can buy in Alaska Mileage Plan promotions

You can fly to French Polynesia with Alaska Mileage Plan Miles

The Offer & The Math

• Buy 20,000 – 60,000 Alaska Mileage Plan miles and earn a 40% bonus

Buying 60,000 miles would net you 84,000 miles (after you account for the bonus) at a total cost of $1,773.75:

84,000 miles at a cost of $1,773.75 comes to approximately 2.11 cents per mile.

That’s not a stunningly great deal but it’s definitely something you can work with.

What Makes Mileage Plan An Attractive Option?

1. Alaska Airlines doesn’t belong to a major worldwide alliance but it has built up an impressive range of airline partners with whom you can use Alaska Miles.

2. Mileage Plan has some very flyer-friendly rules which offer good mileage redemption opportunities.

Here are the main flyer-friendly rules:

1. Mileage Plan allows one free stopover on award tickets – even when booking one-way awards.
2. There are no charges for cancelling an award and re-depositing the miles, regardless of your status, as long as you’re more than 60 days away from departure.
3. Mileage Plan allows members to purchase as many miles as they need – there are no restrictions on the number of miles that can be bought in a calendar year. You may only be able to buy 60,000 miles (plus the bonus) in one transaction but there’s no limit to the number of transactions you can make.

Here are some of my favorite Mileage Plan redemptions:

Roundtrip Business Class Awards (And Cost If You Buy Miles In This Promotion)

• Cathay Pacific: USA – Asia costs 100,000 miles ($2,110)
• Cathay Pacific: Europe – Hong Kong costs 85,000 miles ($1,794)
• JAL: USA – Asia costs from 120,000 miles ($2,532)
• Korean Air: USA – Asia costs from 105,000 miles ($2,216)
• LAN: USA – South American costs 90,000 miles ($1,899)
• Qantas: USA – Australia costs 110,000 miles ($2,321)

Note: Taxes and surcharges will need to be factored in.

Qantas 787 Dreamliner Business Class

Roundtrip First Class Awards (And Cost If You Buy Miles In This Promotion)

• Cathay Pacific: USA – Asia costs 140,000 miles ($2,954)
• Cathay Pacific: Europe – Hong Kong costs 140,000 miles ($2,954)
• JAL: USA – Asia costs from 140,000 miles ($2,954)
• Qantas: USA – Australia costs 140,000 miles ($2,954)

Note: Taxes and surcharges will need to be factored in.

JAL 777-300ER First Class

Alaska doesn’t charge fuel surcharges on the award tickets I’ve noted above and that makes those redemptions very attractive indeed.

American Airlines is also an Alaska Mileage Plan partner and, technically, a very good option if you’re looking to use Alaska Miles (e.g. Europe – Hawaii roundtrip Business Class for just 115,000 miles). Sadly American Airlines Business Class saver awards are so scarce nowadays that I can’t justify including them in the list above.

Should You Buy Alaska Miles?

Because Mileage Plan allows you to buy as many miles as you want (in batches of 60,000 at a time excluding bonuses), this promotion allows you to buy as many miles as you need for an award at around 2.11 cents each.

This means that there really is great value to be had out of those options – especially Cathay Pacific in Business or First Class between Europe and Asia (not a hard award to find), LAN Business Class from the US to South American and Korean Air Business Class between the US and Asia.

All the examples I’ve provided would allow you to fly in premium cabins for considerably less than the cash price of that cabin

Bottom Line

Alaska Mileage Plan has been known offer bonuses of up to 50% (Joanna was targeted for this a few months back ) so, if you’re not convinced you should be buying miles now (i.e there aren’t any awards available right now), you may want to hold out to see what Alaska offers in the New Year.

Having said that, you can still get some great value with the promotion as it stands and, as long as you check that the awards you’re looking to book are actually available (never stockpile miles), you can’t go too far wrong.

Link to Alaska Mileage Plan Buy Miles Promotion