Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan

[RooFlyer]

Aren't we due for a bonus mile purchase offer soon? I have a stack of miles expiring (or at least suspending) soon (no account activity in 2 years, although I've been trying!!) so need to do a purchase. Although with the current poor FX, it won't be fantastic value anyway. Might have to do with a small regular purchase to keep the old miles current.

 

[Clayton]

Aren't we due for a bonus mile purchase offer soon? I have a stack of miles expiring (or at least suspending) soon (no account activity in 2 years, although I've been trying!!) so need to do a purchase. Although with the current poor FX, it won't be fantastic value anyway. Might have to do with a small regular purchase to keep the old miles current.

Mileageplan has a 50% bonus on Buy Miles right now, so its a great time to buy some. The bonus is dependant on how many your buy, so buying 40,00 or mare gets you the best bonus.

 

[RooFlyer]

Thanks, missed it . Point Hacks agrees that its a good deal - but its targetted; happily I can get the 50% level of bonus.

40,000 miles + 20,000 bonus is enough for a return trip Oz-HKG on CX. Cost A$1600.

CX biz return fare random time March next year A$3,400. Even with a poor FX, and with CX sale prices on occasion, good value.

But there is still that CX availability issue. But can always use them on other routes, non CX I guess.

Edit. Done, and miles instantly in the account

 

[ermen]

best use of miles these days on AS is to redeem some scenic intra Asia awards on JL like SIN - xNRT - BKK in J for a 1 way intra Asian fare

 

[Clayton]

best use of miles these days on AS is to redeem some scenic intra Asia awards on JL like SIN - xNRT - BKK in J for a 1 way intra Asian fare

Agree, that Asian Hub stopover in HKG or TYO on Mileageplan awards has it all over using Avios to explore Asia.

 

[RooFlyer]

How do you book either of those? Have put them into the miles redemption booking part, selecting one way and for every date I try it says unavailable, with an error message.

 

[ermen]

Agree, that Asian Hub stopover in HKG or TYO on Mileageplan awards has it all over using Avios to explore Asia.

how do you get a HKG stopover? AFAIK - CX dont allow HKG stopovers on the mileage pla awards

 

[ermen]

How do you book those? Have put them into the miles redemption booking part, selecting one way and for every date I try it says unavailable, with an error message.

You can just use the Alaska Airlines booking engine - i find it easier to use the multi city.
E.g for some dummy dates

1 March 2019 HKT - NRT
9 March 2019 NRT - BKK

Both in J is currently bookable for 25K AM + US$79 in fees

 

[RooFlyer]

Ah. When I chose multi city I saw that it wanted return flights. But I see if you ignore the return boxes, you get your one way result. Thanks

 

[Shikakui]

The possibility to redeem for Finnair flights has opened up some interesting possibilities.

You can fly one way in Economy from Malaga (AGP), Spain to Ivalo (IVL) in the very north of Finland for only 12500 Alaska Airlines miles.

And the best thing is that you can add a free stop over in Helsinki!

That is excellent value for literally crossing the whole of Europe.

 

[burmans]

The possibility to redeem for Finnair flights has opened up some interesting possibilities.

You can fly one way in Economy from Malaga (AGP), Spain to Ivalo (IVL) in the very north of Finland for only 12500 Alaska Airlines miles.

And the best thing is that you can add a free stop over in Helsinki!

That is excellent value for literally crossing the whole of Europe.

Thanks for that, its good to see I can always learn something new!! As you say Europe depending on how airlines interpret it can be a large expanse.

 

[Limewood]

Ive used AS miles many times for 2 x J CNS/HKG/CNS and ex to Europe and USA, but the last year its very hard to find these J award seats from OZ.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

As you say Europe depending on how airlines interpret it can be a large expanse.

Europe airfares can be complex - for example it can be that a return is substantially cheaper than a one way (throw away the return). In the example shikakui gives above, the cost of the flight via Alaska miles would be ~AUD300 for the miles alone (not including any fees or taxes), but you can purchase the one way outright with Finnair for AUD355 depending on the season (I'm sure it's much more than that in peak periods).

Worth shopping around and confirming availability before committing to purchasing. The current 60K return to HKG from AU, or 60K one way to the USA is great value, but not easy to book

 

[NZflygirl]

I looked up HKG-AKL on CX and found 1 date for J in an entire year recently. More PE released. Not really appealing availability wise.

I haven't looked at flying HKG-Oz but I don't think the trans Tasman part back to NZ would be covered so in that regard I'd be better off using AA miles to book QF/CX to HKG. At least that's the conclusion I've come to.

The flight I would take up is a day flight on an A350 so I'd be happy paying cash flying Y .... I think. Red eye back so would be keen for J on an award.

 

[The man with no name]

Mileageplan has a 50% bonus on Buy Miles right now, so its a great time to buy some. The bonus is dependant on how many your buy, so buying 40,00 or mare gets you the best bonus.

Just checked my account and found I'm only offered 35%

 

[appaz]

I've got a good amount of Mileage Plan points - recently booked 2x J HKG-PER for May next year. Cathay availability is definitely not what it once was, thats for sure.

Question: Has anyone credited domestic Qantas flights to their Mileage Plan account? I travel for work and the Qantas points on offer for discount economy these days is terrible.

According to Where to Credit | How Many Miles | Every Frequent Flyer Program you receive 100% of the miles flown on Qantas when crediting to Alaskan. PER-SYD-PER = 4k miles if thats correct. Surely better than 2900 QFFs - I have no interest in Qantas status, don't fly enough to get gold.

 

[Mattg]

Question: Has anyone credited domestic Qantas flights to their Mileage Plan account? I travel for work and the Qantas points on offer for discount economy these days is terrible.

According to Where to Credit | How Many Miles | Every Frequent Flyer Program you receive 100% of the miles flown on Qantas when crediting to Alaskan. PER-SYD-PER = 4k miles if thats correct. Surely better than 2900 QFFs - I have no interest in Qantas status, don't fly enough to get gold.

This is not something I personally do as I credit my Qantas flights to a Oneworld program in order to earn Oneworld status. But if points is what you're most interested in then yes, crediting to Mileage Plan can be a good idea.

Where crediting to AS wouldn't make sense is short flights like SYD-CBR which would earn 800 Qantas points (with minimum points guarantee) or only ~147 AS miles due to the short distance flown. Perth flights are another matter.

 

[andye]

If you are looking for points value rather than status its hard to look past AS for QF EK and BA

 

[extracta]

BOOKING EMIRATEs - has anyone had success booking emirates flights using mileageplan

 

[RooFlyer]

Just tried to book CX flights 331 days out, which I understood was the window opening for CX using Mileage Plan (re-inforced last week when I called to check).

Tried to get ICN-HKG and (separately) HKG-SYD or MEL. Not a cracker, any class, and nothing for past week. Then she said that 331 days was the AS window and that she didn't know when CX opened up on AS.

Can anyone say definitively when CX award flights should become available on Mileage Plan?