Alaska Airlines is kicking off 2021 with a sale of up to 60% bonus.
Alaska Airlines is offering a whopping 60% bonus on its latest round of miles-buying offers, working out to a cost of US 1.85 per mile.
Again, these bonus offers are personalised for each member, so you will have to log and check what are you given.
This time round, here’s my offer:
Remember, if you are not an elite member, you can only be credited up to a maximum total of 150,000 miles (acquired through buying miles) in a calendar year, whether through purchasing miles or having it gifted to you. Given that this is the start of 2021, it’s unthinkable that you may have already hit the limit, but there’s no guarantee that there’s no better offer down the road.
The offer closes at 11.59pm Pacific Standard Time on 14 Feb 2021 (Sun), which is 3.59pm on 15 Feb 2021 (Mon), Singapore time.
What are Alaska Miles good for
This is still an incredible offer, given that Alaska Air has historically offered only up to 50% bonus miles before Covid-19. Even at 1.85 US cents per mile, the famed Singapore-Tokyo redemption on JAL business class will only set you by USD462 (S$613), or somewhere close to USD924 (S$1,226) for a roundtrip ticket, an incredible value for a business class mid-haul ride.
When travel do recover, there are also other decent redemptions you can make with your Alaska miles, such as:
Airline
Class
One way /Roundtrip
Routing
Mileage Required
Cathay Pacific
First
One way
Southeast Asia to USA
70,000
Cathay Pacific
Business
One way
Southeast Asia to USA
50,000
Korean Air
Business
Roundtrip
Singapore to USA
120,000
Qantas
Business
One way
Domestic Australia
20,000
Japan Airlines business class
Final thoughts
The key risk here is obvious: we still don’t know when the global travel economy is going to recover, and that has a hinge on flight capacity. Historically, airlines will prioritise revenue tickets over award tickets, so if there’s a situation where demand outpace the available air capacity, you could be left in a situation of too many miles, too few redemption options.
While Alaska Mileage Plan last for two years before expiring, bear in mind that Alaska is due to join oneworld later this year, so award prices may change by then.
In the midst of a world pandemic, airlines are desperately trying to conserve cash burn as they receive practically near-zero revenue given the halting of international travel.
Alaska Air has turned to its usual tactic to raise some money, by ‘selling’ future travel in the form of miles. This time, Alaska Air is offering up to 60% bonus miles, a never-seen-before offer.
Note that Alaska Air is currently selling these miles tax-free, so this brings the per-mile cost down to 1.72 US cents.
The offer
Alaska Air has targeted some members with the whopping 60% bonus. This is not a straight-off bonus, but tiered according to how much you buy:
Buy 10,000-19,000 miles: 20% bonus (i.e. 2.29 US cents/mile)
Buy 20,000-39,000 miles: 40% bonus (i.e. 1.96 US cents/mile)
Buy 40,000 miles and above: 60% bonus (i.e. 1.72 US cents/mile)
This is a targeted offer, so that means that your offer may differ from other people. As far as articles have suggested, there are two offers: one for 60% bonus, the other for 40% bonus.
The 40% bonus is a lot more sedated (and definitely not worth considering):
Buy 3,000-14,000 miles: 20% bonus (2.29 US cents/mile)
Buy 15,000 miles and above: 40% bonus (1.96 US cents/mile)
To find out what’s your offer, you will need to log into your account here.
Should you really be buying miles now?
This is no doubt an incredible offer, given that Alaska Air has historically offered only up to 50% bonus miles. At 1.72 US cents per mile, the famed Singapore-Tokyo redemption on JAL business class will only set you by USD429.70 (S$613), or somewhere close to USD860 (S$1,226) for a roundtrip ticket, an incredible value for a business class mid-haul ride.
The key risk here is obvious: we don’t know when the global travel economy is going to recover, and that has a hinge on flight capacity. Historically, airlines will prioritise revenue tickets over award tickets, so if there’s a situation where demand outpace the available air capacity, you could be left in a situation of too many miles, too few redemption options.
While Alaska Mileage Plan last for two years before expiring, bear in mind that Alaska is due to join oneworld in summer next year, so award prices may change by then.
Final thoughts
The worst of situations often brings out the best promotions, and this is probably one of those classic examples.
As the other mileage experts always say: don’t buy these miles speculatively. Only do it if you have a plan to use them in the near future.
Get up to 40% bonus miles in the first sale of 2020
Alaska Air Mileage Plan has launched its first sale of the year, offering up to 40% bonus miles. The sale runs from now till 17 February 2020, 3.59pm Singapore Time.
The offer given to me is as below, but do check your own account as the offers may be personalised:
Under 5,000 miles – no bonus
5,000 to 19,000 miles – 20% bonus
20,000 to 29,000 miles – 30% bonus
30,000 to 60,000 miles – 40% bonus
At the maximum purchase, you can buy 84,000 miles (60,000 + 24,000 bonus) at US$1,809.23 (tax included), working out to an average of 2.15 US cents per mile, or about 3 Singapore cents.
This is normally higher than what I’d recommend people to buy miles at, but there are good reasons to do so.
Price per mile has gone up
Alaska has quietly revised its prices for miles.
Previously, the base price of a mile is US$30 (S$40.50) per 1,000 miles before tax, but this has since gone up to US$30.25 (S$40.88), a 0.83% increase.
The increase is not linear though, as it varies accordig to how many miles you buy. For instance, the price previously was US$1,650 before tax for 60,000 miles, and this has since increased to US$1,683, a 2% increase.
With JAL trick gone, what is Alaska miles good for?
Pre-October 2019, the open secret out there is how you could use Alaska Air Mileage Plans for a cheap pseudo-roundtrip business class ticket from Southeast Asia to Japan, which will cost you under US$600 for the ride to Tokyo and back.
Despite that, there are still some pretty decent redemptions you can make with your Alaska miles, such as:
One-way first class trip from Southeast Asia to USA on Cathay Pacific – 70,000 miles
Intra-Australia Qantas business class – 20,000 miles (perfect for Perth to Sydney/Melbourne)
One-way first class trip from Australia to USA on Qantas – 70,000 miles
Final thoughts
This is definitely not a spectacular sale, but a good time to start planning your holidays in 2020 if you haven’t done so. Of course, as we always advise, do not buy miles speculatively if you have no immediate use for them.
Remember, sale ends 17 February 2020, 3.59pm Singapore time.
This follows the introduction of Singapore Airlines award tickets into the system.
Loyalists of Alaska Air will know that the programme is particularly generous in its award ticket rules, which has created some really interesting redemption tricks, including a (almost) roundtrip JAL ticket in business class for only 25,000 miles between Southeast Asia and Japan.
Many miles-chasers have snapping up Alaska Air Mileage Plan miles to take advantage of some of the loophole in their award inventory, particularly in Asia.
So here are some of the changes:
Singapore Airlines award chart update: China-Southeast Asia award tickets now cost more
For a start, Alaska Air has corrected the categorisation for China (including Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing), and now it is grouped together with Japan and South Korea. This results in an increase of Southeast Asia-China routing from 25,000 in business to a whopping 60,000 miles. In economy, the increase is still a good 50% increase, from 15,000 to 22,500 miles.
This has also been updated in the inventory:
The good news out of this is that, if you are travelling to and from China, you still get a one-stop option on JAL via Tokyo for 25,000 miles each way.
No more stopover for intra-Asia itineraries
More critical, Alaska Air has removed the option for a stopover for intra-Asia itineraries. Effectively, that means that the long-time trick of doing an almost roundtrip Japan trip on JAL in business class for 25,000 miles has been officially snuffed out.
The ’roundtrip’ ticket on JAL is no more
However, straightforward one-way Singapore-Japan itineraries in business class are still possible, and for 50,000 miles on Alaska Air Mileage Plan, it still comes up cheaper than the 94,000 Krisflyer miles on Singapore Airlines. If you were planning to use Alaska Air miles for SQ tickets to Japan, it will set you back by a cool 120,000 miles.
Final thoughts
These changes are definitely very disappointing for the Asian community who are big fans of Alaska Air Mileage Plan programme given the possibility of creating a backtracking stopover even on a one-way itinerary.
As with any loopholes, it’s a matter of time before they are discovered and patched, and unfortunately the moment has come as a result of the addition of Singapore Airlines as a redemption partner.
Having said that, Alaska Air is still pretty good value as a programme to credit your premium cabin tickets to (250% for SQ business class revenue fares!), and specific award routings are still fairly cheap. Looking forward, it may no longer be worth buying Alaska Air miles, but if you travel in premium cabins often for work (or leisure), it may still be worthwhile to keep accumulating the miles.
Update 16 Oct 19: Alaska Air has removed the ability to book a stopover for intra-Asia itineraries, and also adjusted the zones for Beijing and Shanghai. Read more here.
After a very long time, Alaska Air has finally added Singapore Airlines as an award partner.
Since two years ago, you could credit your Singapore Airlines flying with Alaska Air Mileage Plan, which gave excellent mileage especially if you are flying premium classes. For instance, if you are flying first class on a revenue ticket, you will earn 350% of the actual miles flown. Wow.
Alaska Air Mileage Plan earn rates for Singapore Airlines-marketed flights
Award charts are not great
Alaska Air has finally published some semblance of an award chart for Singapore Airlines flights, but they are rather disappointing.
[UPDATE] Following the update of the award chart, China is now classified under North Asia, resulting in a bump in the miles required.Hong Kong and Taiwan remains under “Southeast Asia”, requiring less miles.
Also, Alaska Air no longer allow for a stopover for intra-Asia travel, which means you effectively can’t get two tickets in one anymore.
Alaska Air Mileage Plan redemption table for Singapore Airlines flights(updated chart)
Note that Alaska Air has peculiarly categorised China, including Hong Kong and Taiwan as “Southeast Asia”, so that means that you can book a one-way ticket from Beijing to Sydney for 65,000 miles in Business.
The usual rule of one stopover is possible on a one-way ticket, so if you don’t want to do the USD100 stopover trick with your Krisflyer miles, you can also explore using Alaska Air Mileage Plan miles.
Alaska Air Mileage Plan miles are also particularly useful for backtracking (e.g. Tokyo-Singapore-Bangkok), since you can’t do that on SQ.
How does it compare to Krisflyer own redemption rates?
To sum it up: Krisflyer comes up cheaper.
The only bright spot in the entire chart is for itineraries involving China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. For some unknown reason, the three regions are considered as “Southeast Asia” by Alaska Air (now, no jokes about Americans not knowing where Singapore is), but this is clearly working in member’s advantage.
See below for the comparison chart (updated 17 Oct 19):
Comparison chart between Alaska Air Mileage Plan & Krisflyer. PDF available here.
[UPDATE] Alaska Air has revised some of the mileage required for award tickets over the last couple of days, including the Southeast Asia-China and Southeast Asia-India mileage, making the chart very unattractive in comparison to SQ’s own Krisflyer. Having said that, there are still rare cases where it makes sense to use Alaska Air Mileage Plan to redeem for SQ tickets, such as when you are travelling between the Middle East or US to Asia, or vice versa.
Also, as Alaska Air allows you to build in one free stopover in any one-way award, you can literally book two segments in a single award ticket, such as Beijing-Singapore and then Singapore-Hong Kong in business class for 25,000 miles. You will not be able to build such an itinerary using Krisflyer miles, so this is where Alaska Air comes up better.
Final thoughts
For Singapore based members, this new development on Alaska Air Mileage Plan is not overly impressive, particularly if you have a healthy stash of Krisflyer miles. With Krisflyer no longer adding surcharges to its award tickets, they may still make sense for simple, straightforward one-way redemptions.
If you compare most city pairs, Krisflyer still comes up a little cheaper in terms of miles. Given that there’s no easy way to earn Alaska miles, it might make a lot more sense to save them for your Japan getaways on Japan Airlines.
Addendum (17 Oct 19): Given the latest developments on Alaska Air pulling off the complimentary stopover for one-way itineraries within Asia, this has made Alaska Air Mileage Plan significantly less attractive as a programme. However, even with the ‘devaluation’ (I personally don’t see it as a true devaluation given that it was a loophole that was exploited to begin with), some redemptions are still good value: a one-way business class award ticket from Singapore to Tokyo for only 25,000 miles remain very competitive, compared to the 49,000 required by Krisflyer. The only caveat is how you accrue those miles: Alaska Air remains a rare partner for local banks, so your only way to get the miles is by actually flying.
