Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan is currently offering up to 60% bonus miles on all purchases made before 22 February 2022. These promotions are usually tailored, and the actual bonus may be slightly different for you (mine is 40% this time). With a 60% bonus, you’re still getting a pretty good return for your points.
For example, a transcontinental flight with Qantas requires only 20,000 Mileage Plan miles, rather than 41,500 Qantas Points. Buying US$885.19 (~AU$1,240) worth of miles will enable you to fly Qantas Business return anywhere within Australia.
Or if Hong Kong is more your style, just 30,000 miles will get you there in Business from Australia. You can buy these miles for US$591.25 with a 50% bonus. With taxes added, you shouldn’t need to pay more than AU$932 one-way! And that’s just the tip of the iceberg – read more about the best uses of Alaska Airlines miles.
The current Mileage Plan purchase miles promotion
| Expiry: 3:59 pm AEDT 24 December 2021 (11:59 pm PT, 23 December 2021) |
- Offer: 40% – 60% off (tiered, may vary for different users).
- Buy 3,000 – 19,000 miles = 40% bonus.
- Buy 20,000 – 39,000 miles = 50% bonus.
- Buy 40,000 – 100,000 miles = 60% bonus.
- Valid until: 22 February 2022 (23 February 2022 in Australia).
- Book awards online: most partners.
- Book awards over the phone: for some partners, such as Cathay Pacific and LATAM, you can only book over the phone. You may be charged a US$15 fee. Our tip? Ask the phone agent to waive it if you weren’t able to book online.
This promotion yields a decent per mile price of ~1.85 US cents when buying exactly 160,000 miles for US$2,956.25 (~AU$4,150). You can easily get far more value than that when redeeming for Business and First Class flights.
Purchase Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles here →
Offer history
Keeping an eye on the rhythm of mileage purchase offers can help you be more informed about when to buy. Note there is a 12-month gap since we didn’t cover overseas offers during that stage of the pandemic.
| Date | Bonus offer (%) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| February 2022 | 60 | highest (but targeted) |
| November 2021 | 50 | |
| October 2021 | 60 | highest |
| July 2021 | 60 | highest |
| June 2021 | 50 | |
| June 2020 | 50 | |
| April-May 2020 | 60 | highest and targeted |
| March 2020 | 40 | |
| January-February 2020 | 40 |
Summing up
Australia and New Zealand-based flyers can still enjoy well-priced sweet spots with Mileage Plan. For example, 30,000 miles for a Cathay Pacific Business Class flight from Sydney to Hong Kong is a steal. It works out to be about AU$932 each way with a 50% bonus – including taxes and fees in USD.
(Remember, you need to call Mileage Plan to book Cathay Pacific awards. The number is +1 206 244 0751).
But if you’re eager to spread your wings in 2022 and see what lies beyond our borders, Mileage Plan miles can get you there. Just be mindful of border restrictions, and book close to the date of travel where possible. Check out our dedicated guide on how and why you should buy Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles.
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I am just joined this forum.
I signed up to an Alaska account 20+ days ago.
I tried to buy miles (54k excluding the bonus) using my ANZ travel adv credit card (to make use of no fx fees). It showed up as pending on my cc, but 24 hours later, got an email from Alaska that roughly said Posting error – please try again
I have checked my bank and they can see the transactions as pending and there is no block on the card. Alaska asked me to contact points.com and points.com asked me to contact Alaska and I am caught in this never-ending loop.
Has anyone got this before and how you managed to overcome this issue??
Thanks
What do you say Matt Moffitt?
I purchased some points 2 nights ago and this morning received email to say transaction is cancelled and to please call customer care if you have queries. Spoke to first person and said foreign cards might not be acceptable and maybe mechanisms in place to avoid brokers of points. Suggested perhaps try a smaller purchase amount.
I called my bank as well and was told that every thing was good on our the issuing card’s end.
Anyone had any issues?
I’m looking at purchasing some miles to redeem 2x CX business class seats from Brisbane to Hong Kong. I have searched through QFF to find availability and using those dates to search on Alaska, however I can not find any seats availability at all.
Is it possible to book CX online or can it only be done via phone?
Thanks in advance
Linda
I actually managed to find a Qantas reward business class seat on a flight from LA – Mel via Brisbane by searching on the Qantas website and checking ‘flexible with dates’. The flight isn’t available when searching on the Alaska site however; as the article noted not all partner airline reward seats show up. So I booked it through Qantas for 96,000 QFF points and about $450USD.
There seems to be much more availability on LA – Brisbane flights and the stopover is only short so I recommned people living in Melbourne or Sydney check this option!
I successfully booked a one-way flight from Melbourne – LAX on qantas for 70,000 miles, which cost me just over $2,100AUD including taxes. Great deal!!
There is no availability on business and first class for Qantas flights around the dates I want to return, however there are premium economy flights available.
My question is, if I use Alaska Miles to book a premium economy Qantas award seat, am I then able to apply for a points upgrade to business via my Qantas account?
thanks,
I’d recommend flying Business over and then maybe trying Premium Economy on the way back!
This is where it got interesting. I went to book the flights through the AS website and was able to get to the payment page where it bombed out with an error that the partner airline (QF) didn’t have redemption space despite it showing available on the AS website. Apparently this is a common problem. The AS website can display phantom QF redemption availability (perhaps other airlines as well). After a few phone calls, the availability was there, but it was only for point of sale in Australia while I was trying to (obviously) purchase from USA.
Moral of the story is always check with AS first or through the JAL FF website as apparently this displays accurate availability for AS partner airline redemption (not sure why) before buying points. A few more phone calls later and I have been able to pick up a trip from MEL to east coast US and return in high season oneway in PY and the other in J for a few hundred dollars more than Y. Well worth it IMHO.
Thanks for information.
After reading your article, I went across to the Alaska Airlines’ website and signed up. After signing up I clicked purchase miles and it they were offering me the 40% bonus.
Here is the information on the page:
“Your travel dreams can come true with up to 40% bonus miles on your purchase. The more miles you buy, the larger the bonus. Offer ends April 9, 2018.”
Not too sure if they are offering this to everyone or just new members who have signed up to Mileage Plan
Cheers,
Thomas
Thanks!
are there any direct flights on business class for the SYD-SFO or SYD-LAX (and return) route? I only see non direct so only part of the route is available on business class, usually the shorter route. I’m new to this so appreciate some help. Thanks
BTW KLM and Air France are pulling out of their alliances with Alaska Airlines in the first half of this year.
I was looking for a low cost MEL-LAX J class fare on fairly specific dates, departing in April, returning in May 2018. I didn’t want to dip into my QF, VA or AMEX membership reward accounts and VA didn’t have any Business Saver redemptions available, so I couldn’t purchase an upgrade from a flexi economy fare anyway.
The cheapest commercial MEL-LAX J class fare I found was on NZ for AU$4780 via AUK. This would have credited points but not status credits to my Velocity account.
I found availability on the Alaska Mileage Plan award booking site for a MEL-LAX QF F class seat outbound and a LAX-MEL QF W class seat inbound. Only F and W class were available on my required weeks of travel. This would require the purchase of 117500 Alaska Mileage Plan points in two transactions using the current 40% bonus for US$2611 (~AU$3613 @ 0.7227) plus charges. I would have also needed to purchase an airfare from LAX to Memphis or somewhere nearby to get to my final destination.
Thinking a bit more broadly I looked again at the Alaska Mileage Plan booking site for availability of MEL-DFW rtn flights (Dallas is driving distance to my final destination) and found a more favorable alternative. QF J MEL-SYD, connecting with QF F SYD-DFW rtn. for 140k Mileage Plan points plus charges. At 40% promotion bonus the points cost AU$4,026 plus a further AU$219 for all charges (AU$4245 total). Booked an early flight out of MEL for a nice breakfast on the way to SYD and to be able to spend 3 hrs in the F lounge prior to a 12.30 departure. Delayed the SYD-MEL leg to a lunchtime flight to get be able to get in, have a shower and relax prior to flying home while enjoying a nice lunch. The only negative I can see in the whole trip is the less than superior F lounge at DFW. First world problem!!
In comparison, commercial QF fares for the same flights departing April, returning in May in AU$ are: Y $2,069, W $4,614, J $7,904, F $17,574
I was able to make the purchase with my AMEX Reserve Platinum card so picked up almost 8,500 membership rewards points. A small consulation for not being able to earn any frequent flyer points or status credits on the flights.
With ready availability of fares like this (booking J/F fares in December for travel in April/May) it makes me wonder why I continue to maintain VA GFF status to have the option to upgrade from Y to J using points, that is if VA even make them available 1 year out!!
Hopefully this option of purchasing low cost fares will not be devalued and continue for some time.
Thanks for putting the savvy travelling community on to Alaska Mileage Plan.
Cheers
Baz
Are the Australia-Asia routes limited to Cathay?
Do you have the experience to book with an infant? I want to book a ticket for 2 adults and 1 infant but there is no option to add an infant on booking. Thanks.
Also, are there any tricks to redeeming PER-HNL with Fiji Airways via Alaska? I only found Qantas results when searching via the Alaska website. Is it a case of having to call Alaska for Fiji Airways award bookings?
Thanks,
Josh
PER-HNL – good question. Look for FJ availability via Qantas.com and then call Alaska if you found suitable flights you want to book.
I did a test, HKG – SYD on 20/05/17. QF website shows there is a J seat (CX101), but alaska returned:
We could not fulfill your request. This could be due to one or more of the following reasons:
– There are flights, but all award space is taken.
– There are no flights for the city pair entered.
– There are no flights operating on the specific day of the week entered.
– The routing requested may not be allowed.
Please change your search.
Error Code: -1580
Wonder if giving them a call will make a difference.
https://www.alaskaair.com/content/mileage-plan/how-to-earn-miles/airline-partners/delta-airlines.aspx
The request was not successful. See the red message(s) below. Space on partner flights cannot be confirmed. Please change the dates, cities, or flights of your original request.
-1620
Even though there is clearly inventory available. ARGhhhhh
Top website mate. Interesting.
Signed up to alaskan airlines about 11 days ago and can sign in fine with my milage plan number but when i try to buy miles it says invalid mile plan number? Any ideas on that ? And can anyone still buy miles from aus. As at 18th march
When you say they are not showing available flights out of Sydney, are these for award flights that you’ve confirmed availability for elsewhere, e.g. Qantas frequent flyer website? Also – can you link to the posts you’ve seen where they’ve stopped accepting credit cards without US billing addresses? They did this for a while a few years back but then resumed accepting Australian credit cards (https://www.ausbt.com.au/alaska-airlines-freezes-out-aussie-frequent-flyers-in-credit-card-fraud-crackdown in 2014)
Hopefully they’re not in the process of changing their policy around accepting bookings from overseas again. That would be a sad day.
Error Encountered
Our web server encountered an internal error. It was logged to aid our staff in finding a solution.
Please try your transaction again. If the problem persists, call Alaska Airlines Reservations at 1-800-ALASKAAIR (1-800-252-7522).
Server Name:
Server Time: 3/1/2017 4:44:08 AM
HTTP Request User Host: IP address
Error ID: 9AD1D923-DB83-4C78-986D-9C326F0D2DE9
Is it possible to book say Brisbane to Bangkok via Hong Kong on CX Business Class for 30,000 miles or would this break into two awards?
cheers
Thanks,
Richard
The jump in Asia Miles required is an annoying quirk of the Asia Miles / CX websites – they quote the price for a direct flight even if it’s not available in the first set of results, but then show the correct price a page or two later. It’s a bit shonky.
the sweet spot is still inter-aus travel. I purchased 40,000 miles (916.44 USD) for a long way around to HBA on QF. Retail sells for $3663 which is a considerable saving when buying miles depending on the exchange rate
PER – SYD (332)
SYD – MEL (332)
MEL – HBA (717)
HBA – MEL (717)
MEL – BNE (738)
BNE – PER (332)
The Australia to Asia chart specifies HKG only.
You can now book EK with Mileage plan from Australia. A quick search would reveal PER – JFK on EK would cost 120k point each way in business class
One question: When signing up to Alaskan’s FFP, how long before I can buy miles?
Thanks for sharing these articles! I brought air Alaska miles in the August promotion and flew Business on CX197 HKG-AKL on 23 Nov. After costs – points & booking fees – it cost $100 more than the cheapest comparable (direct) flight in economy – well worth it for us NZers who don’t get a lot of point options. Would definitely do it again.
Thanks,
Charles
I just wanted to give you a shout out! I am about to board a first class flight from JFK -> HKG then Business return HKG->SIN then Business SIN->ADL with a combination of Alaska milage points and Qantas.
Keep up the great work!!
Matt
I have been trying to sign up for several days and receive this message. Any ideas what I could be doing wrong? Thanks for any help:)
“Error Encountered
Our web server encountered an internal error. It was logged to aid our staff in finding a solution.
Please try your transaction again. If the problem persists, call Alaska Airlines Reservations at 1-800-ALASKAAIR (1-800-252-7522).
Server Name: R_26
Server Time: 8/17/2016 8:05:56 PM
HTTP Request User Host: 192.30.3.153
Error ID: 98DCF6A5-080D-4ACB-A9EB-B3FA99A22660”
If the points amount needed to redeem a JAL flight is reasonable (And Aussie customers can at least fly from Australia to Japan ) then i will buy these points for sure.
Can’t redeem them for a AUS->Europe ticket – must act as a split transaction and even then it’s only on Cathay ex HKG. Would be great if you could access Emirates etc.
Can’t redeem AUS->South America or AUS->Africa.
It says you can redeem for AUS->Asia but only with CX and only as far as HKG. So if you want to go elsewhere you again are paying more (even though you are within the same region).
Qantas availability in Business across the Pacific as we know is poor at the best of times. Cathay is better but your buying points to use on potentially just two airlines. Finding anymore than 1 or 2 seats will be a struggle, even very far out.
I think the united and lifemiles promos offer better flexibility and importantly availability and I rate these as better value propositions from Australia (even if they cost a couple of hundred dollars more) as you can normally find great availability on one of the following; United/Air NZ/Air Canada/Thai/ANA/Air China/Air India etc etc.
Just my personal preference I guess.
Yes with Qantas, or with Cathay – but I can’t find any availability no matter the date.
Might just be limited spots?
No matter what dates I search e.g. 355 days out, etc I can’t seem to find any redemptions from SYD > HK or SYD > NRT?
Not sure if I am doing something wrong and obviously I don’t want to purchase the points before finding availability.
You mentioned only to buy points if you have a specific route in mind or planned upcoming trip. What is the safest amount of time to hold onto purchased points. I know there is no security with the FF program as it can fold at any time. The reason I ask is I have a family trip planned for US in two years Sept 2019. Is it safe to start purchasing points? Many thanks in advance, great site.
I posted before and your response was:
“Hey Andy – you are charged for two itineraries with CX, one LAX-HKG (in First or Business) and the other HKG-BNE (in Business).”
Just FYI that information is incorrect and it is charged as one itinerary.
Alaska Airlines recently changed the number of points required for redemption on Emirates without any notice – points went up from 100,000 to 180,000 for a first class seat (SE Asia / Middle East to USA).
Alaskan cannot be trusted to notify upcoming changes…!
Also Cathay Pacific award space visible on say BA website cannot necessarily be accessed through Alaskan (or AA)
Virgin to this points game. So if I want to buy enough points to get a first/ business ticket via Alaskan’s partners, do I
a) Need an Alaskan frequent flyer sign up?
b) Purchase and pay online or call USA to do so?
c) Use which frequent flyer programme to search and book the award flight?
Thanks!
a) yes
b) purchase is doable only online
c) depends on the airline you intend to travel… If Qantas, check on Qantas.com or BA.
I am looking to book on Cathay as Alsakan’s programme count LHR-HKG-SIN as one leg of a journey as HKG is a stopover, am I correct? I understand I have to ring Alaskan to book the award.
Is there anyway to search for the dates before I ring them? I am not on BA/ Qantas programme so unsure if there is a way to search for it without a login.
Thanks mate!
Now I am trying to book 2 CX J seats with Alaska Airlines miles.
Flight:
HKG-LHR in July 2016 on CX 239 (leaving HKG at 1220):
BA.com shows 4 seats but Alaska Airlines could only see 1. I booked that one but still looking for another one. BA.com shows 3 seats now but Alaska still can’t see it.
What’s going on?
Is this normal? Will CX release another seat to AS (if yes, when)? Or should I just bite the bullet and book the other seat with Asia Miles (which shows plenty space).
Sorry if this is a stupid question. I did a lot of research and thought if it shows on BA, AS should be able to book it.
Thanks in advance!
Does it change? Has anyone logged back in a few days later and gotten a better offer? thanks in advance
I noticed the availability of business class flights to the US on Qantas from Melbourne cannot be found using Alaska’s website. The search do allow for a business class stopover in Sydney before flying out to LA or SFO.
Do you know if there is any method to get business class seats on Qantas to US?
Thanks mate, great website!
Best way to search is to look for the business seats on Qantas.com and then try and get the Alaska online search / phone agent to book the same.
With Qantas Business seats over to the US rare to come by unless you book far in advance, it could be a tough one.
I’m assuming you already had to be a Mileage Plan member prior to the deal being announced?
I just joined and went to purchase mile and got the following error “The Mileage Plan account you specified is not eligible to purchase miles”.
Thanks
Matt
It was all rather academic, since the availability of three seats I found on the BA site – and confirmed on the Qantas and JAL sites, couldn’t be seen by the woman I was speaking to. She could see only one.
Incidentally, it may have just been the operator I spoke to, but Alaska air seems very reluctant to lift a finger to help. The overall impression I got was that they really can’t be bothered with all of this. The woman I spoke with didn’t even know the correct redemption rates.
They were correct about it being two redemptions – Sydney to Tokyo crosses tw0 awards in the Alaska award chart. You can have a stopover when an award between two regions in an award chart requires two flights, but the Alaska award chart is for Australia – Hong Kong and then Hong Kong – Asia so requires two awards.
North America for most partner airlines includes Hawaii. Alaska will also include a flight on their metal from your gateway city to your final destinations.
Add it all up, it means you can use 60k miles to not only fly Cathay to North America, but take your stopover for your actual holiday, then also get a flight onwards from there to Hawaii in Alaska first class to get you much of the way home. The rules about where you can have your stopover city on such an itinerary don’t seem to be published, but the general rule seems to be west coast only (including Vancouver and Anchorage), has to be a Cathay destination or Alaska hub. You could try your luck with JFK/EWR/BOS/YYZ/ORD, but I wouldn’t bet on being successful.
This is also a good way to get a “free” Hawaii mini holiday on your way home. 48k QF points for a JQ Starclass 787 daytime flight home from there is good value.
This is very timely for me as I’ve just emptied my Alaska mile account booking a one-way from Milan to Anchorage (with a stopover in Seattle). Emirates Business to Seattle and then last hop on Alaska. The stopover was a great incentive to go with Alaska miles even though from Milan we have to fly to Dubai where we connect for the direct Seattle flight. Just have to prepare myself for all the bling in the Emirates premium cabin 😉
TPJ
HKG on CX but availability looks really bad nearly every month but esp for sept when I need to go. Looked up JAL and BA, am I missing something Good from HKG to LON
Thanks. D
I read somewhere that CX award space is supoosedly wide open but this is not what I can see. Unfortunately AS only has access to CX space 331 days out, so it looks like most space have been taken by the time AS has access to CX? Am I missing something here? Or is it just CX has been stingy with award space to Australia, just like every other airlines in the world? Making Australia the hardest region to redeem award space?
This is the problem I have been having. I would love to use the AA miles to book and was happy to book BNE-HGK, HGK-LON and then return.
I cannot find anything out of Brisbane on any partner using AA miles. I’ve come across some limited avails from HGK – LON, but nothing back.
Pulling my hair out. Wondering what other ways I might be able to attempt this with other mileage programs.
To improve the chances, I suggest looking at departure on Tues/Wed, and and BNE-LAX as these days and route tend to have more seats.
Otherwise you need to look into CX, which has more award seats but unfortunately won’t show on Alaska’s search engine. You need to use BA’s search engine or simply call in.
Occasionally you can also find seats on Fiji or Korean, but they are also hard to find.
Put it this way, Australia to US in F/J is the hardest award to redeem. That is widely recognized problem by frequent flyers. So despite it being a good value, I find Alaska miles not that useful.
I am a new to it all so happy to take any advice.
The problem with Alaska’s program is that it’s North America-centric. Many of the partner airline’s redemption will require US/Canada as origin or destination, and they won’t allow you to mix partner’s airlines in one award. (You can only mix Alaska plus one partner). It is not a program for residents outside of North America. (In fact, do they accept OZ credit card this this time?) So unless you have USA/Canada in your itinerary, it will be hard for you to redeem with Alaska miles.
If you are looking at heading to Europe, I would recommend that you look at USDM.
Took this method and booked a business class round trip via Dubai to America (LA inbound, JFK outbound) back in Oct last year, and arranged for chauffeur transfers. Our first leg was late Jan; 2 days before we flew out from Singapore to Dubai we logged in to check in on our seats, and realized all pre-arranged transfers were erased, and we no longer had the option to rebook. The missus called Emirates and was told the tickets were booked under Alaska Airlines and we should communicate any queries thru Alaska. Called Alaska and were told to call Emirates as all services associated with the business class tickets were already booked thru, and any changes would have came from Emirates. Getting abit annoyed now, the missus called Emirates and asked to talk to a supervisor; was told back in Jan they had a policy change and partner airlines tickets were no longer entitled to chauffeured transfers. Had we not called Emirates 2 days before departure to check, we would be waiting like silly fools for an airport transfers that will never materialize.
On our outbound at Changi airport, we wanted to visit the business lounge only to be asked if our tickets were staff tickets. After a few calls here and there, was told even though we had business class tickets, we are not entitled to use the lounge.
On arrival to Dubai, there was no chauffeur transfer waiting for us at the airport, so we had to take a cab to our hotel. Lo and behold, on our outbound day where we are supposed to fly to LA, an Emirates chauffeur turned up 3 hours at our hotel lobby, and we had to turned him away because we already paid for a transfer from our hotel. We arrived at the Dubai airport, after checking in we head straight to customer service and asked for clarifications. Was told (1) yes the policies had changed for partner airlines redemption, (2) our transfers were all still in the system with the exception of the Singapore outbound transfer,and the rep printed the transfers for us, (3) no partner airlines redemption are not entitled to lounge usage.
Fast forward 4.5 weeks later; we are now in NYC and departing JFK in the next few days to Dubai on our return back to Singapore. Even with the printout that the Dubai Emirates rep gave, we decided not to take any chances and called to confirm the transfer to JFK. Guess what; the rude contact centre rep said it was not on their system! This was getting tiring with the back and forth. I was staring at the logged in itinerary and the transfers for Dubai were in the system, only the JFK had been erased.
1- Passing the buck: We paid for the miles thru a legit manner, only for Alaska Airlines to tell us there was nothing they could do, and for us to go thru Emirates. Emirates tried to shove us to Alaska saying the tickets were purchased thru Alaska and we should go thru them for queries. Absolutely no ownership here once the money changed hands.
2- Thru the mileage programme, we purchased legit business class tickets from Alaska Airlines. Now without zero perks ie lounge access or transfers and being treated like second class customers whenever we called both airlines, it’s seems more like a sham; selling business class tickets thru miles, and getting bare minimum treatment. We thank god that we managed to get seats in the business class section, for we are fearful Emirates would even go as far as to downgrade us to economy seats.
3. What gets me is – if ya gonna give the transfers, give it! Don’t freaking give it, then take it away without even the basic courtesy to call or email us. Had we not call to confirm/ check, we would be idiots waiting at the hotel lobbies for the airport transfers that will never turn up.
Key lessons:
For all you folks who purchased the Alaska miles, and planning to use it on Emirates; CHECK AND DOUBLE CHECK your bookings, I wouldn’t be surprised if Emirates decidedly change your booking to Economy without telling you.
And don’t bother buying from Alaska Airlines mileage programme, zero customer service after they get your money!
Good luck and safe travels!
I booked a successful ticket using my Alaska miles to Australia. LAX to BNE on Qantas in Business and SYD to HKG to YVR to NYC on Cathay Pacific in Business on the way back.
The Alaska site can be a little persnickety at times, and does not always choose the best route, so I looked on the American Airlines and British Airways sites to confirm availability and then called the Award help desk and got it all sorted and booked.
Can’t wait for my trip later this year.
I’m saving for a qantas rtw business trip, can these miles help?
I think you need all the miles in one scheme tho? ie. FF?
You could use Cathay Pacific via Hong Kong – you would price two awards (unsure of total price, but check http://www.alaskaair.com/content/mileage-plan/award-chart/award-chart-australia.aspx and http://www.alaskaair.com/content/mileage-plan/award-chart/award-chart-europe.aspx), one for PER-HKG and the other for HKG-destination.
But that’s a bit of a backtrack. It could be this doesn’t work out well for you from PER.
1. Purchased miles via PAYPAL: waited for a few days with no response and then contacted points.com
-for some reason did not go through, they said ‘it automatically got cancelled’. not sure what that means.
2. Purchased again via Australia AMEX, points credited within 24 hours
3. Used the points to book the following, all in J:
CX SYD-HKG
CX HKG-CDG
72,500 points, approx USD 158 taxes and fees
Very happy with the result.
Having said that, if you are going to be relatively flexible with your dates, there would be a good shot of finding availability, say on Cathay via Hong Kong, but no guarantee.
For a Business Class ticket to London from Sydney, which programme or Airline would offer the best value – Dividend Miles of US Airways or Alaska’s Mileage Plan, in your opinion?
USDM is still offering the opportunity of buying 125,000 ( 80 K + Bonus 45 K) for US $ 2572. Presumably, one can get a return ticket from Sydney to London with that?
Availability is of course an altogether different matter!
On the other hand, Alaska requires 145,000 miles (60 k for Sydney-Hong Kong – Sydney & 85 k for Hong Kong-London-Hong Kong) for the same ticket, I think.
This may entail buying say 162,000 miles via three (maximum) transactions of 54,000 each and the total cost of these would be US $ 3547.50 (admittedly, leaving 17,000 miles or points to be utilised in future)
So, when I compare both their current promotions, I still reckon that USDM is over a third (over 37% actually) cheaper!
Have I got my arithmetic right or am I missing/miscalculating something?
Would be wonderful to get your thoughts in detail.
THANKS!
1. You can put US Airways flights on hold for up to a few days, before buying points / allowing time for your purchased points to Alaska. This is pretty helpful vs Alaska.
2. US Airways only allow return redemptions, not one ways. This is pretty unhelpful vs Alaska.
Hopefully you have already looked at availability, but US Airways should be more flexible given more oneworld partners and routing options to Europe.
I’m looking for one-way flights between Melbourne and London – firstly one for my in late November, and another for my partner in January as we’re looking at moving over there if I’m successful in getting a job I’ve applied for.
I’ve signed up to the KVS tool to get access to CX award availability, but the November availability is obviously a bit sketchy at the moment.
Assuming I get the job, I’m looking to travel between 16-23 November, and I’m open to multiple stops or a creative itinerary that would allow me to stop along the way and see something different. Are you able to provide any tips on booking awards that jump around? For example, routing through the US might give me greater availability because there are more partner airlines, but do I need to literally search through every US city to find availability? How would you approach a task like this?
In terms of search tools, the British Airways website is a good starting point for CX, BA, Qantas and other oneworld availability. I actually prefer using a paid tool – awardnexus.com – which scrapes a range of different sites and you can automate daily email alerts if seats come up. It’s a massive time saver as well – search many dates, many routes and classes of travel all at once.
I have a 6-month old account, and tried buying points last night. I didn’t get an error message, but my points aren’t yet credited, my CC hasn’t been debited, and I don’t have a confirmation email. I know the points can take a couple of days to credit, but do you recall if you received the email and/or your account was debited immediately? Getting a bit anxious!
Yes, the transactions have been pending for over 10 days, and as far as the bank is concerned the transaction was successful. However, Alaska say that none were successful and but cannot provided any explanation… it’s very confusing!
If anyone else has had similar issues it would be great to hear from you!
This is a great guide, thank you so much!
Just wondering if anyone else with a new Alaska account is having trouble purchasing miles? I bought three lots of points over the weekend, and just found out that two transactions were cancelled. Alaska suggested using another card, but I’ve tried half a dozen credit and debit cards, and each one comes up saying the card is declined.. has anyone had a similar problem/figured out how to sort it out? Alaska insist it’s an issue with my banks, but I think this is unlikely given I tried cards from many different lenders.
Many thanks for any insight.
Do your banks even see the attempt to charge the cards?
I have looked into the Alaskan Airlines and US Airways deals. But their websites are always showing no availability for any flights that aren’t Aust > USA, no matter what I select.
However the Qantas website shows plenty of availability (sporadically of course). I then have tried to find those same flights on the Alaska/US websites, and they come up as “Not found”
So if i find flights available on the Qantas website, should i ring up and try to snap up these flights? Wee bit confused
Two questions:
1. If I purchase points via this can I book flights to Japan?
2. Do I book the flight via the Alaskan website?
Thanks in advance.
2. Yes, or over the phone with them.
But check availability before buying points if you know your dates!
Only connecting flights via Melb or Bris show up with business class being available with points cost of 55,000 but the domestic flight is the business seat and the international sector is economy or premium economy if you’re lucky- not one flight has business class on the international flight.
So I then checked Bris or Melb to LA on the same date and ALL the business availability then re route via Sydney with the SAME deal: business seat for the domestic flight and then economy or premium economy for the international leg if you’re lucky.
Have I interpreted this correctly ,that there is no way of flying business class all the way to LA?? And if there is what is the costs in points??
Award seats in Business Class across the Pacific are particularly hard to come by, especially for multiple seats on the same flight. You can use either Delta or Qantas, and the easiest way to be sure you’re getting Business Class would be to call Alaska and get them to search for you.
The online booking engine is showing the long haul flight as Economy likely purely due to availability reasons.
The reason for asking is that there is always a risk of 2 separate tickets that if the incoming flight delays or cancels, the second leg will be considered as no show.
I’ve been thinking about buying AS miles for a while now, but the lack of flexibility to destinations other than North America makes it not a very useful FFP……
A few updates needed though I believe –
Redemptions on Qantas now only show “intra Australia” – don’t think we can use Trans Tasman anymore?
Also Delta redemptions went up a whole lot 🙁 now 160k return in Business.
Cheers
If you need to do a bit digging I’d highly recommend investing in the KVS availability tool.
It says on the site can go Hong Kong to Europe using CX, does this mean one can use AS miles say from HKG to CDG, CFO etc?.
You’d have to imagine that includes all European destinations, both continental and UK. But I suppose it’d be worth a call to CS to confirm that. Although I’d probably steer clear of FCO to avoid the dreaded coffin class seats 😉
Thanks for the updated info! I created my account the last time this offer was available and withdrawn and it seems like I am unable to purchase miles this time around.
It states:
Please correct the following errors:
The Mileage Plan account you specified is not eligible to purchase miles.
Are you sure it is available to Australian members?
Cheers
Hmmm. Anyone else?
as only 30% bonus for 30k mile purchase.
have been doing a bit of reading about this program however some commentary on the interwebs suggest CX availability has diminished greatly – any anecdotes here?
cheers
CX availability – I think I’ve probably read the same articles. I don’t have first hand experience though, I haven’t done any recent award research on Cathay. However I don’t think the generally good availability close to travel has been affected, unless you’ve read otherwise…
Ex Aus they only seem to release a few seats in advance but closer to the departure date they sometimes release a bunch of award seats in W & J if the cabins aren’t filling, as far as 3 weeks out from departure. For example I noticed on 19th August they released 12 J seats SYD-HKG across 2 of the flights on 11th September. I must admit I haven’t been watching this closely enough to verify the regularity of this.
However within 36 hours of departure the general trend seems to be that they’ll release all but 4 of the remaining seats in J availability permitting. Not sure about W though.
For example, I recently redeemed 80k miles one way for a Sydney to Chicago trip in a mix of Biz/First, and not only can I route via Asia on Cathay and avoid the scrum at LAX, but I can also stopover in Hong Kong for a couple of nights along the way. With AA miles, this itinerary would require two separate award bookings, adding 23k miles to the total.
Add in the return in Biz and for about US$3364 round-trip you’re getting lie-flat seats with Krug thrown in for an amount only slightly more expensive than the cheapest QF premium economy fare.
Great article! I am very new to all of this and still a bit confused. Looking to book BNE-HKG-XMN round trip on Cathay. If I have understood correctly, the procedure is to:
1. Purchase necessary points on AA (providing my Asia Miles No.);
2. Search for award flights on Cathay;
3. Purchase award flights using AA points on Cathay website.
So first up, search for availability before making a commitment to purchase, unless you are sure you know what you’re doing. To do this, use Alaska Airlines website OR call them directly. For speed, you can also try and look at availability on Qantas.com or on cathaypacific.com, but this may not match to what Alaska sees 100%.
Then:
1. Purchase Alaska Airlines points, using your Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan number, where they will land in your account.
2. Book flights directly with Alaska, either online at their site or over the phone.
You can then update your ticket with a different frequent flyer program number for status benefits if you wish.
1. How do I calculate the number of miles required for Sydney to London with the various partner airlines (or should I just use Cathay?) I only see the US routes listed?
2. How do I work out what the fees/charges/taxes will be in addition to the points?
3. How does this work if you are travelling with an infant? What if the infant is yet to be born? Can you add their details to the booking later?
4. We would be looking to travel 12 months from now… does that mean that if I’m vigilant in checking availability is less likely to be a problem?
I hope that these aren’t inane questions… would appreciate the advice. Have registered for a membership just in case this can all work out.
Thanks
1. You’ll need to reference Alaska’s award charts (linked in the article), or use their online booking tool (if it brings up availability).
2. Either in the online tool or by calling Alaska.
3. Not sure of Alaska’s specific policy here, but unborn infants are generally handled by adding them into the reservation as soon as they have a name and birth date. I’ve done this with several airlines award tickets and paid fares in the past.
4. For sure, the more time you have, the more flexible you can be, and the better chance of finding availability you’ll have too. Only risk is holding miles in case Alaska decides to devalue.
Not inane at all, great questions.
I’ve not tried using the miles on my account so I’m uncertain if the account has been suspended? – I have access to the account so I really hope it hasn’t been suspended…
Might be worth trying to make a dummy booking to see if everything is OK?
I’ve got 216,000 sitting there hoping I’ll be able to use them for a US trip next year. I’ve not tried a dummy booking or anything yet, but hopefully there wont be any issues with using the points (even if there are topping up my account). Fingers crossed.
I was simply hoping to top up my account with some more points as the au-us award with cathay will cost 240,000 for my partner & i. We can try qantas, but even that will require an additional 4k which I dont have.
Here’s an example from FlyerTalk of an Aussie who successfully bought miles (and transferred SPG points) and then tried to use them three months later and found they had restricted her account – she eventually got it all refunded and wore the cost on the conversion fees
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/alaska-airlines-mileage-plan/1526900-account-audited-asking-proof-address.html
So no joy so far 🙁 Hope you get your end sorted – let us know how you go.
Just tried the Alaska deal using my Sydney address Sydney and got this response:
Please correct the following errors:
The Mileage Plan account you specified is not eligible to purchase miles.
I was just able to get 1500 points for $22.5 AUD And you can repeat that every day.
Point Hacks Anywhere I can email you to swap ideas?
Buying for travel in the near future, yes!
but I totally agree with you about hoarding points for travel in 2015/2016 or beyond, its risky, particularly for Alaskan Airlines because they recently surveyed their frequent fliers and asked them if they would trade a frequent flyer program for a 10% discount on all flights?
🙂 of course it was only a survey, but you gotta wonder what Alaskan Airlines management are thinking, in light of the recent devaluations at Delta, United, American Airlines/US.
Hopefully my window to start booking flights will open in the next week or two (mid april 2015). I am very keen to get this over and done. The last deal was posted on ozbargain & I feel that has probably led to a huge spike in interest from aussies, and possibly led to the troubles of people not being able to buy miles from here. (?)
Here’s hoping things work out…
I haven’t tried buying with Alaskan yet since the troubles back in Feb.
I would suggest you try with a paypal account, if you have your credit card verified on paypal already.
Its very weak they don’t have this noted on the site, one goes through all the ordering process to find out next day its not on, poor business practice if you ask me. If they did it this way in OZ they’d be drawn over the coals.
Also the current deal finishes on 15th March with 40% bonus why not change the rules after then, not mid stream like they have done.
It could still be done by using USA or Canadian friends or family or possibly use a USA debit card, but how to load that from OZ I have no idea.
The bonus is not available to only AUS residents? Or can you have an EU/Asia credit and it will work?
Or strictly USA/Canada only?
So it is just credit card limited or do they limit bonuses based on the physical address of the buyer they have on their system?
“Please note that Alaska Airlines has made the decision to no longer allow any Alaska Airlines members who reside outside of the US, Canada and Mexico are not eligible to purchase Alaska Airlines miles”.
Yes it seems they will continue to allow awards originating from Australia (for now), because on the site it still shows up.
Just no ability to buy the miles anymore, unless we “reside” in USA/Canada/Mexico.
There are ways to still buy points… I’m sure AS read Keith’s site, so I won’t state publicly.
https://twitter.com/AlaskaAir/status/456079840048066561
The plan is for my mother/father to enjoy J, while my brother and myself tag along in Economy/Premium Economy.
We’ve calculated the cost of 2x J and 2x Y from PER-HKG-‘USA’ return to be approx $9500 AUD, by buying all the points in advance. So my two questions:
1) Do you think it’s a good idea to buy $9,500 AUD worth of points now, with the plan of redeeming them in July 2015, for travel in June 2016? Things to consider include devaluation of points (bad), or change in USD/AUD rates (potentially good or bad).
2) What’s the chance of getting 2 (or 4) J seats on CX in the June/July periods? We’d be booking as early as possible, of course.
3) Is it possible to do multi class bookings (e.g. 2 people in J, 2 people in PE) on one itinerary?
Thanks in advance for any advice!
1) No. Hold on. There will always be other offers. Risk is just too high.
2) 2 seats – I’d say decent. 4 – tough, but potentially doable. CX isn’t too stingy with their space.
3) Nope.
4) CX fly out of Vancouver, New York, LA, San Francisco and Chicago. I’d pick San Fran, great city and easy airport.
Love to read all your travel tips. One question about the 55k outbound and 52.5k inbound by Daniel…
I’ve searched Qantas and can’t seem to find how this is possible. By using points to fly to LAX rtn in Business, it shows me it would take @120k points. Am I looking at the wrong area?
Better off keeping an eye out for a Jetstar starclass sale fare I reckon.
Am a novice at this so forgive the dumb question:
(1) given that you have to book CX flights via AS, does that mean they have much smaller allocation than a normal awards redemption w/ CX/AsiaMiles?
(2) what’s the expiry period? I’m assuming the flights that can be redeemed will only be for non-peak season, but i don’t think i can make 2 non-peak trips to HK in the next 12 months.
The reason i ask is that for the price of $1,200 to get the 40k miles + bonus, and to be able to use that to get 2 return tickets (@ 25k miles each) for Aust (Syd?) to HK is pretty awesome.
Also, the 2nd comment by Wizard wrote:
“I purchased AS miles and booked 2 pax CNS/HKG/CNS in J for May next, later wanted to depart 1 or 2 days earlier, either PE or J, looked up CX Marco Polo & QFF sites found both dates available, called AS they advised they didn’t have them, said they only get a small allocation, how strange what you see is not what is there. So having to always call for CX seats is a bit of a pain.”
What does the underlined sentence mean? Is he saying although AS may not have it, you can still get what’s available if you call CX separately? Or is it suggesting that it’ll be a battle to get seats per my (1) above?
Thanks very much for your help. Look forward to reading more of your articles!
Thanks!
Mileage plan is partners with both CX and BA and on CX’s award site, it shows that you can book seats to NYC, option 1. direct HK-NYC or option 2. HK-LHR-NYC, where CX flies you to LHR and BA flies from LHR to NYC.
So essentially, that’s a mini RTW trip. you get a free stopover in London to/from USA.
Whereas booking a QF flight from Melb-NYC, would cost 55k points, and an onward flight from NYC-LHR is another 60k with BA.
Even a CX reward seat for HK-LHR costs 42.5k, so basically for an extra 17.5k points, you can skip across the pond in J.
Mind you… BA’s fuel surcharges are like $300-500 bucks or something crazy like that.
So yeah… I wonder with mileageplan would allow you to book that CX award, since its a CX/BA flight, and both airlines are partners of mileage plan.
It says “The Mileage Plan account you specified is not eligible to purchase miles.” Do i have to travel first on a sector to be able to purchase miles??
I have just returned from a CX J trip to Hong Kong which used this method and can say that it all worked perfectly! Would not hesitate to do it again if the need arises. Thanks for giving us this info!!
I am looking through Alaska Airlines – the qantas rewards. My concern has to do with changing days – I know that it will be subject to availability, I just would like to know the rules in detail. I assume it would be similar to classic award rules for qantas? But that being said. Flying business class for $1100 back to Australia (well, all the way to ADL for me) I don’t think you could beat that offer!!
Once again, great work on the site!=
Per below
Buy 5,000 – 19,000 miles: get a 20% Bonus
Buy 20,000 – 34,000 miles: get a 30% Bonus
Buy 35,000 – 40,000 miles: get a 40% Bonus
Love your site and so glad I found an Australian centric travel points one. I may need to go to Singapore this month and given all the points related stuff I’ve been reading, I was wondering if it is ever common to purchase miles for economy class travel?
Keep up the great work.
1. yep, can definitely benefit you. Cathay fly Aus-HKG-Europe. You can book Aus HKG return as one booking, HKG-Europe return as another, and come out well ahead of the cash cost for a paid fare by buying miles. 2. No, you can’t combine points currencies on one person’s booking. You’ll need to look at Alaska or Qantas, but if you have enough Qantas points, you could book individual flights using those alongside Alaska for your partner. Need to research points availability for 2 seats, of course.
I have a booking from Melb – LAX on June 1 flying Qantas in economy. I just wanted to know if it was possible to upgrade to business using miles I bought? The same flight is still available to book in both economy and business on the Alaska webiste.
East coast to Perth is useful, although Qantas domestic is not really “business” but more PE.
I purchased AS miles and booked 2 pax CNS/HKG/CNS in J for May next, later wanted to depart 1 or 2 days earlier, either PE or J, looked up CX Marco Polo & QFF sites found both dates available, called AS they advised they didn’t have them, said they only get a small allocation, how strange what you see is not what is there. So having to always call for CX seats is a bit of a pain.
But saving about $10 grand put a big smile con my face!.