Alaska Airlines has previously launched a new Mileage Plan Buy Miles campaign at up to a 40% bonus that will expire tomorrow (February 22, 2019).
Alaska Airlines is not part of any global alliance but has ties with many airlines for earning and redeeming miles such as Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, Emirates, and Finnair.
You can access Alaska’s web page for buying and gifting miles here.
Alaska Airlines has instituted a maximum number of miles that non-elite members can purchase every calendar year (150,000). MVP, MVP Gold and MVP 75K can continue purchasing miles without any limit.
Here’s the bonus schedule under this campaign:
In order to earn the 40% Bonus you can buy as little as 30,000 miles (and a maximum of 60k):
The price of an Alaska Airlines mile purchased at the 40% bonus level is 2.11 cents each. If used right this is a decent value, but by no means cheap.
Alaska has, however, a very beneficial award chart and is one of the very few programs that still allows stopovers on awards so paying a little more for miles might be worth it.
Conclusion
Alaska Airlines miles are very useful for partner awards on premium cabins on airlines such as Cathay Pacific and JAL. Just make sure that the award availability exists through their online tool (for JAL), or by calling in for other partners, before you purchase the miles.
The Mileage Plan is also quite useful and a good value when flying over the Pacific to Asia and Australia. They recently opened up Finnair as a partner for awards to Europe and Aer Lingus ones should join at some point as well.
They sell miles several times throughout the year and the bonus maxes at 50%.
Here are the terms and conditions of this offer:
Transactions must be completed between 6:00 AM PST January 24, 2019 and 11:59 PM PST February 22, 2019 to be eligible for bonus miles.
Miles are purchased from Points.com Inc. for a cost of $27.50 per 1,000 miles, plus a 7.5% Federal Excise Tax*, and GST/HST for Canadian residents.
Miles are non-refundable and do not count toward MVP and MVP/Gold status.
You may purchase and gift Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles in increments of 1,000 miles to a maximum of 60,000 miles per transaction.
Your Mileage Plan account may be credited up to a maximum total of 150,000 miles acquired through Points.com in a calendar year, whether purchased by you or gifted to you. MVP, MVP Gold and MVP Gold 75K.
Mileage Plan member accounts have no annual limit on the number of miles which may be purchased or gifted through Points.com.
Offer is subject to change and all terms and conditions of the Mileage Plan Program apply.
*Points.com Inc. is collecting Federal Excise Tax on behalf of Alaska Airlines Inc.
Alaska Airlines Inc. has the obligation to collect Federal Excise Tax and remit the tax to the appropriate government agency.
