Update: Please note that Qantas awards are currently unavailable to book through Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan.

Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles are a valuable currency. You can redeem Alaska Airlines miles to fly with around 25 different airlines including most of the Oneworld members. You can also redeem Alaska miles to fly with some niche partner airlines like Aer Lingus, Icelandair, Starlux, Korean Air and Condor.

Award tickets can be excellent value, particularly on short-haul and premium cabin redemptions. There are also no fuel surcharges when booking award tickets with most partner airlines – instead, you’ll just pay a USD12.50 partner award fee.

Although Alaska Airlines has been part of the Oneworld alliance since 2021, it’s not that easy to earn Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles in Australia.

The good news is that you can buy Alaska Airlines miles in bulk, directly from the airline. Plus, Alaska Airlines offers regular promotions on buying miles.

Buying Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles

You can buy Alaska Airlines miles on the Alaska Airlines website.

Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles start at USD29.56 per thousand, excluding any discounts or bonus miles. This price includes the U.S. federal excise tax. The price incrementally becomes slightly cheaper as you buy more miles and there is a purchase limit of 100,000 miles per transaction (excluding bonus miles).

There is an annual purchase limit of 150,000 miles per member (excluding bonus miles). This limit is waived for Mileage Plan members with MVP, MVP Gold or MVP Gold 75k status.

Current deal: Up to 60% bonus Alaska Airlines miles

The latest promotion on buying Alaska Airlines miles offers up to 50% bonus miles from 12-26 June 2024 (this offer expires at 11.59pm PST).

Note that the offers are targeted and vary between accounts. Your offer may be for a different amount of bonus miles, e.g. up to 60% bonus.

You would need to buy at least 3,000 miles to get access to bonus miles, and at least 20,000 miles to get the highest rate of bonus miles.

This offer may not be available to new Mileage Plan members. If you’re not already a member, sign up now to avoid missing out on the next promotion!

It would cost USD2,956.25 (including tax) to purchase the maximum 100,000 miles during this promotion. For this price you would receive 150,000 miles (including 50,000 bonus miles) if you had a 50% offer.

The previous offer ran during April-May 2024 and gave 60% bonus miles on purchases of at least 15,000 miles.

Redeeming Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles

You can redeem Alaska Airlines miles on around 25 partner airlines. This includes all of the Oneworld member airlines:

You can also use Mileage Plan to book award flights on the following non-Oneworld partner airlines:

• Aer Lingus
• Air Tahiti Nui
• Condor
• El Al (until August 2024)
• Fiji Airways
• Hainan Airlines
• Icelandair
• Korean Air
• LATAM Airlines
• Ravn Alaska
• Singapore Airlines
• STARLUX Airlines

Award flight pricing

For travel on Alaska Airlines itself, Mileage Plan uses dynamic award pricing. Redemptions on partner airlines are priced according to the partner airline award charts that take into account the region and distance you’re flying. That said, Alaska does sometimes use dynamic pricing for awards on Qatar Airways, Icelandair and Air Tahiti Nui.

For example, this is the partner airline award chart for travel to, from or within Australia as of April 2024:

Mileage Plan’s extensive list of partners and relatively low redemption costs make this a competitive program. Award flights are especially great value on routes under 1,500 miles including Sydney-Auckland and Brisbane-Queenstown.

With Mileage Plan, there are no fuel or carrier surcharges except when redeeming miles for Hainan Airlines, Icelandair or British Airways flights.

How to book award flights with Mileage Plan miles

Most Mileage Plan awards can be booked on the Alaska Airlines website. If you can’t book online, you can call Alaska Airlines on on +1 (800) 252 7522. The Alaska Airlines call centre is open from 5am to midnight, California time. (It is closed during the evening in Australia.)

You can discuss the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan program on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan

Want to learn more about buying points for cheap premium cabin flights?

Australian Frequent Flyer offers a comprehensive training program which includes an entire course on buying points for discounted premium travel! This course covers 8 frequent flyer programs in detail, including Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan. View course →

Become a frequent flyer points expert!

Learn all the tricks to travel better, for less, with our Frequent Flyer Training courses. The first two courses are free for all AFF members.

View Courses

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.