Alaska Airlines has returned their offer allowing members with existing wallet funds (cash from canceled tickets) to convert them to miles at 1 cent/1 miles ratio for the next five days until November 13, 2020.
This offer is intended to apply only to wallet funds which existed prior to November 3, 2020, and is not intended to apply to wallet funds created on or after November 3, 2020.
You can access Alaska Airlines here.
This time around Alaska has created a fraud gap and only allows wallet funds to be converted if they existed prior/on November 3rd. You can no longer buy a refundable ticket, cancel it and dump the wallet funds into the conversion!
Here’s the announcement from Alaska:
Alaska Airlines is offering a new incentive to its Mileage Plan members who have wallet balances. Members will be able to convert their wallet credit into miles for future travel – a $100 wallet credit converts into 10,000 miles.
Every $100 = 10,000 bonus miles*
Go places with one of our best offers ever. Roundtrip flights start at just 10,000 miles. Hurry – convert 100%, 75%, 50%, or 25% of your funds to miles by November 13, 2020.
Miles never expire as long as you keep your account active – and taking advantage of this offer counts as activity – giving you more time to use miles already in your account, too! This is yet another way we are giving guests ultimate flexibility for benefits and postponed trips impacted by COVID-19.
With the oneworld® partnership on the horizon, seamless global travel is within reach and you’ll have the miles in the bank to take advantage.
This conversion opportunity is significantly lower than what Alaska miles usually go for during sales although at the moment both availability and demand for awards is pretty much at the bottom of the market.
It’s unclear when travel will pick up again and one attractive redemption option – Emirates First Class Awards – will be off the table soon as Emirates has announced they will restrict access to First Class when it comes to their partner airlines mileage redemptions including Alaska Mileage Plan.
Conclusion
For Alaska the immediate benefits are that they would just convert cash value to miles instead of refunding cash or keeping these wallet funds active as a dollar value. If this is a good strategy in the long term is another question, it pretty much depends how people are using these miles and what the reimbursement value to the partner airlines are.
This is the lowest price that Alaska has ever offered its miles for which will be even more valuable next year when the airline becomes part of the Oneworld alliance. Let’s hope that they don’t devalue their award charts in the process or that other partner airlines follow Emirates move and restrict availability.
Here are the terms and conditions of this conversion offer:
Wallet balance as of November 3, 2020.
Offer valid November 6 through November 13, 2020 11:59 pm (PT): Qualifying members can exchange Alaska wallet funds in increments of 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100% of their current wallet balance for Mileage Plan™ bonus miles at an exchange rate of 100 miles per $1. Bonus miles are redeemable for award travel, but do not count toward elite status qualification. All wallet exchanges for miles are final, and wallet credit once redeemed is not refundable. If wallet balance at the time of debit is below what is needed to cover the exchange, the exchange will be canceled. Offer cannot be combined with any other offer. All Mileage Plan terms and conditions apply. Mileage Plan miles do not expire, but if a Mileage Plan account is inactive for 2 years, Alaska Airlines may close the account; miles in a closed account can be reinstated for a fee for up to 1 year after closure. Exchanging wallet credit for Mileage Plan miles pursuant to this offer does qualify as account activity, so your Mileage Plan account will remain active for at least 2 years after the effective date of the exchange.
This offer is intended to apply only to wallet funds which existed prior to November 3, 2020, and is not intended to apply to wallet funds created on or after November 3, 2020. If you acquire wallet credit due to acquisition or receipt of a gift certificate which was purchased on or after November 3, 2020, or due to canceling travel which was booked after November 3, 2020, and exchange that wallet credit for Miles in violation of this condition of the offer, we will reverse the transaction, remove the Miles from your account, and re-issue the amount exchanged as wallet credit.
*Award travel starts at 5,000 miles one-way, plus taxes and fees starting from $5.60. Award travel space is subject to availability and pricing may vary. The purchaser of an award ticket is responsible for all applicable taxes, fees, and checked baggage charges imposed by the transporting carrier(s) or U.S. or international authorities. Mileage Plan terms & conditions apply.
