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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Quick maths check $2750 USD for 150,000 miles. If Hong Kong is 30,000 miles that’s 1/5 of $2750 = $550 usd. The Example itinerary shows this as $633 usd. Perhaps you used a calculation from an older 40% sale
Hi all,
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
I received the same reply. Apparently they don’t accept cards from anywhere except Us Canada or Mexico. I don’t know how others have ordered them.
What do you say Matt Moffitt?
Hi Keith, I just checked US (LAX, SFO, JFK, ORD, SEA) to Australia and NZ, and there is ZERO availability in premium cabins on Qantas between now and March 2020. Forget the advertised 70K (55K in J) miles US to Australia on QF published in the Alaska award charts. You’ll have to shell out at least 125K (and 225K in first) and fly EK or KE with long or awkward connections. Alaska award charts on QF = false advertising. Very disappointing.
I was buying Alaska award miles for years but not now, trying to find international J seats into or out of OZ virtually impossible, if this is you best of luck.
Hi there, anyone encountered problems buying points this time around using Aussie credit card?
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?
Hi, I’m an Australian resident and recently purchased some miles due to the promo. It’s been more than 72 hours and have not received any confirmation and points have not been allocated. I can see the transaction has gone through as an pre-authorisation hold. I’ve contacted Alaska Air twice and both times they advised me to email points.com. I emailed points.com and they advised they don’t handle this enquiry and advised me to contact Alaska Air again. I have checked that my profile matches with my credit card. Anyone know who to contact or how to get this resolved so I can book my award flight? Thanks.
Hi,
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
You need to call Alaska Mileage Plan to book Cathay Pacific (and a lot of other partner) redemptions.
Thanks for your reply Matt.
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!
Great! Thanks for sharing!
Great article. Thanks for sharing.
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,
Great deal—well done! Unfortunately, you can only use Qantas Points to upgrade seats that have been bought with cash or redeemed with Qantas Points in the first place, i.e. not with partner miles. More info on that here.
I’d recommend flying Business over and then maybe trying Premium Economy on the way back!
Hi Keith, thanks for your detailed articles! I have one question, hope you have the answer 🙂 I learned that alaska allow free stopover, what about stopover intra Australia? When i make a dummy booking from PER > SYD, the website showed nonstop flight and also flights with one stop, such as: PER > MEL > SYD, but when i tried to do multicity booking, the website won’t show results. Can we not do stopover intra Australia?
You can only get a free stopover when travelling domestically on Alaska Airlines, not on partners like Qantas. I have updated the article to clarify this.
So my recent experience with Mileage Plan was interesting, but eventually paid dividends. I wanted to take advantage of the latest bonus mile purchase. After finding QF availability to the USA on dates I was interested in on the AS website, I was pleasantly surprised to be able to sign up for a new mileage plan account and immediately purchase the required number of points with the points being credited 24 hours later. No waiting the rumoured 9 or 10 days.
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 sharing. Yep, always a good idea to confirm availability on a couple of websites before buying or transferring points for a redemption. This guide has more on where to search.
Is buying points worth it for domestic flights within the USA? Already have flights booked to the USA from Melbourne, wondering if using points to book say from Orlando to LA, which is a decent lengh flight, might be a good idea.
In my honest opinion from being based in the US, I’d say no. You can use 25,000 Alaska points for any one-way First (= Business) Class flight on Alaska or American within the US but their Business Class products are nothing special and you don’t get lounge access before an AA flight (you do on Alaska). Some people would disagree, though, so it’s totally up to you!
Hi Keith,
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
Nope, it seems to be open to everyone. Thanks for letting us know. I’ll update the guide with this new offer.
Hi Keith, I want to fly from Brisbane to Hong Kong with a stopover at Singapore (BNE > SIN > HKG) and return direct from Brisbane to Hong Kong (HKG > BNE) in the coming December. QFF website has the flights I want, but Alaska website doesn’t. I rang Alaska and the operator said she found nothing. Is there a way to get around this?
Thanks!
As per the Alaska award chart, you can only use Alaska miles to fly Cathay Pacific from Australia to Asia (strange, hey?!). So you might want to try using Qantas Points or Asia Miles for your Qantas flight to Singapore, and fly Cathay Pacific back from Hong Kong using Alaska miles.
Hi Matt, do you know if they can do Japan (Tokyo) to Australia?
Unfortunately, no. According to the award chart, Japan is part of Asia and the only carrier allowed between Australia and Asia is Cathay Pacific. What a shame, right?!
Hi
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
It’s really hard to find Business Class award seats on direct flights between Australia and the US. I’d recommend having a look at going with Cathay Pacific via Hong Kong, or Fiji Airways via Nadi and taking advantage of the free stopover!
The Jan 2018 bonus miles promotion must be targeted. I didn’t recieve any offer there.
BTW KLM and Air France are pulling out of their alliances with Alaska Airlines in the first half of this year.
Yes, the January 2018 promo is targeted. Thank you for letting us know about Air France-KLM—I have updated the guide.
The current offer in January 2018 seems to be targeted – did not get the same offer after logging in 🙁
Thanks for sharing. Have updated the guide.
Hey Keith,
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
Thanks for sharing, Baz!
Anyone having this issue? I purchased the miles but there is only a hold placed on my card for the amount of the purchase, not an actual charge, after a few days i get an email saying there was a purchase failure and that my card will not be charged. Alaska Air gave me conflicting reasons as to why this happened (Card Billing address did not match billing address on file, IP address is from a different country (i’m currently in singapore), points.com has to process and approve the miles, etc.)
I got this message as well as my partner’s account hadn’t been open 10 days. I did eventually get the money refunded to my credit card but it took 10 days. I would have preferred it if my card had not been charged in the first place since they weren’t able to process the transaction. My transaction went through though. We are based in NZ.
Can’t seem to find any award space on for TYO (HND/NRT) – SYD route, on either partner airline Qantas and JAL.
Are the Australia-Asia routes limited to Cathay?
As per the award chart, yes, it seems that that is the case—Australia – Asia routes are limited to Cathay. However, you could try searching for Japan Airlines award space on another site and then calling Alaska to double-check.
Hi. I found the 50% promo. Good news #1. I then found plenty of ‘apparent’ business availability on QF/EK/AA for SYD/MEL to LAX, but each business option showed as mixed class. When drilling in these mixed class options are pretty much all coach on the long haul and business on the domestic legs where applicable. Sorry if this has been pointed out above, but the Alaskan website seems to do this for everything I’m trying. No great bargains here. Any ideas??
Hey I have found PER to LAX availability Via Dubai on Emirates…. Yes it is costly in miles and I wouldn’t Use AS miles for the redemption. But from Aus to Dubai can be done with Emirates, So you can edit the post because it says you cant redeem from Aus to Dubai?
Hey Keith, on the Alaska website it looks like this promo is valid til July 1st, but the article states July 31st.
Hi Keith,
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.
Tony – adding an infant on a partner redemption booking will need to be done over the phone in that case.
Hey Keith, the article says this deal is on until July 31st, but everything I can see on Alaska’s website is that it’s til July 1st.
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
We got the date wrong, thanks Josh. Fixed.
PER-HNL – good question. Look for FJ availability via Qantas.com and then call Alaska if you found suitable flights you want to book.
as much as it looks good, alaska is just not showing award seats.
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.
Unfortunately Delta will no longer be an option for redeeming Mileage Plan balances in the very near future and the ability to earn with Delta is basically gone.
https://www.alaskaair.com/content/mileage-plan/how-to-earn-miles/airline-partners/delta-airlines.aspx
Purchased 70,000 miles under bonus offer… great. But then I try and book QF First class and i have been getting this:
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
Definitely give Alaska a call to try and book over the phone. Good luck!
Not happy Keith …called them and yes they showed availability in First class …consultant got all the way to the end and said that she could not confirm it … then said she could then it dropped out again… Very strange. She said I just had to keep trying! Not ideal
So frustrating when it seems like you are doing everything right :/
Super article, Keith! I am in Brisbane and signed up okay the other day. I have just checked, on the Alaskan website, BNE-LAX-JFK for November 2017 and can confirm business class availability for both legs.
Hi keith,
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
Ok, I figured out that I had to use a US address to register for Alaska Milage plan. They seem to be blocking Australian address. They are pretty much not showing any available flights out of SYD, wonder if giving them a call will do the trick? I read somewhere that they stopped accepting credit cards without a US billing address as well.
That’s a concern if they’re no longer accepting Australian addresses.
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.
Tried to join Alaska mileage plan but was given an error, and I tried on different computers with different browsers, still the same. Anyone had the same problem?
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
Hi Keith,
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
hi, thanks for this info, a couple of questions:- Flying BNE-YLW (Kelowna Canada), would that be all the way on a Qantas Bussiness for 55000 (BNE-SYD-YVR-YLW, the last leg on a codeshare)? The other option would be on Korean via ICN, you say 125000 return for Business return, but when I looked on the website it seems to be 125000 one way?
Thanks,
Richard
Hey Ric – BNE-SYD-YVR would be in Qantas business but SYD-YVR is only operated seasonally in January for skiers (and again in summer last year) and award availability is usually non-existent. Instead you would probably need to research BNE-LAX with Qantas and onwards on other carriers, or BNE-HKG-YVR with Cathay Pacific, or as you note, with Korean via ICN. This is 125k each way, you’re right – so I’ll fit that up in the article.
Thanks for the quick response! If we did the BNE-LAX, would the flights from there to YLW (Qantas codeshare presumably on Alaska Air themselves) be included in the 55000?
Sorry I didn’t touch on that clearly before. Mileage Plan doesn’t allow mixed carrier awards outside of Alaska Airlines plus a partner, so you need to get as far as you can on one carrier plus Alaska. It won’t be QF coded, will be AS coded.
RE CX Redemption US to Australia, it shows as 85k points o/w Biz on the CX website, not 60k as you’ve indicated for Standard Award 1. It then jumps to 110k o/w Biz when you go to check-out. Am I missing something here?
I assume if you are looking at the CX website then you are looking at the cost in Asia Miles, rather than Mileage Plan miles – so different currencies with different pricing.
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.
that’s what i thought. From other people i have spoken to AUS – TYO would run you 55,000 each way.
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)
Australia to Japan requires two awards.
The Australia to Asia chart specifies HKG only.
Any idea of Alaska miles needed for a return flight to TYO on Cathay in J class? It only quotes 30k each way to HKG but not the additional miles to Japan ?
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
Japan is within the Asia region – no additional cost to go from Australia to Japan, vs just Australia to Hong Kong. And you can add a stopover in HK as well.
No Alaska offer for me either, account is a few months old so no issues there, are you able to check ?
Yes, we looked at some other comments and seems like the offer is targeted. Article updated. Bummer.
seems to be targeted, i dont have the offer 🙁
Hi Keith, I have learnt so much from so it is with much pleasure that I reciprocate and advise that you can now book Emirates flights to Australia using Alaskan.
One question: When signing up to Alaskan’s FFP, how long before I can buy miles?
Good article BUT when ever I try to use my Alaska points on Qantas for business – there are never any seats available. What am I missing? Is searching Alaska.com the only way to use Alaska points on Qantas?
Hi Keith,
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
Hi Keith,
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
Awesome!
Yup, no luck. Only hiccup I can see is main departure City as Aus obviously isn’t on there. Any tips please? No reply to my email:(
I have used AS miles a few times but not on a stop over, so if I get this right could do JFK/HKG stop a week then JFK/BNE for 60,000 miles in J?
Long shot here – any way to purchase some points before the 10 day period? I thought I had signed up for milage plan months ago, but it turns out I had only signed up to Alaska airlines.
Hi Keith
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”
No idea! Still having problems?
I’m getting the same error message popping up!
I will wait until JAL (Japan Airlines) and Alaskan finalises their award redemptions policies later this year.
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.
And just to clarify by the statement “on potentially just two airlines” I meant if you only wish to redeem points one-way (like I do) as Korean and Delta charge the same round-trip price.
At 50% it presents excellent value but two things that I dislike about Alaska miles if you are based in Oz (as has been mentioned by a few people above).
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.
I had an issue buying AS miles outside continental US last year. Anyone face this?
Yes, there was an issue during one promotion. But that shouldn’t be the case now, would love to hear if you have more problems though.
Hey Keith
Yes with Qantas, or with Cathay – but I can’t find any availability no matter the date.
Might just be limited spots?
VERY Limited spots. They are never available in business from the US to Oz or Oz to US. Alaska advertises as Qantas being a partner but it is a little scam because getting a ticket in first/business on Qantas using Alaska points is impossible. The best I have done is premium economy.
Hi Keith,
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’re looking for availability with Qantas? I don’t think Alaska gets availability until 330 days…
Hi Keith
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 definitely wouldn’t be buying points for a trip in 2019. The earliest you could book would be 2018, and a lot can change in between now and then in terms of points values and prices.
“Take Cathay Pacific to the US via Hong Kong for example – this prices as Australia to Hong Kong, and then Hong Kong to the US. You are forced to make two redemptions and sum the cost in miles of both, so a stopover in Hong Kong is not possible – you are actually booking two tickets. You can of course have a break in Hong Kong on the way.”
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.
BE VERY CAREFUL!!!
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)
G’day Keith
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!
Hey jayjay!
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.
Thanks Keith!
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!
Hi, I just bought miles as BA.com showed availability.
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!
Argh, that sounds really frustrating. Normally BA and AS availability should line up, to my knowledge, but BA and CX are glitchy partners, in that BA sometimes shows phantom CX availability that’s not bookable (by anyone, not just AS). Yet if you are seeing it on Asia Miles as well, that seems odd… Sorry I can’t be of more of help, in all my reading I’ve seen I understand that if there is space with CX, then Alaska should be able to book it. Try again with another agent as well?
Hi – seems like a great offer – just signed up and got the 35% offer for buying 60000 miles .. which doesn’t seem quite as shiny as 50%….
Does it change? Has anyone logged back in a few days later and gotten a better offer? thanks in advance
The bonus is set per account and won’t change if you come back later, unfortunately.
We signed up for Alaskan Miles a few months ago, in anticipation of an event like this. Our balances are both zero (no transactions) – interestingly, I got the 50% offer, and hubby got a 40% offer. Not sure why there is a difference.
I did the same, and only got the 35% offer.
Will this be better than AA (35%) deal? Planning for my Europe trip in Jan 2017.. I got 50% bonus for Alaska miles but only 35% for American Airlines.
Hello, I bought a round the world ticket (economy) via a travel agency online. It involves QF, LH, SQ. The booking is shown on my QFF as one ticket. I am just wondering if I can purchase Alaska miles and get upgrade for the round the world trip? Sorry not sure if this kind of questions can be answered but I thought I d try.
No, Alaska Miles have no use for upgrades on Qantas and co. Outright redemptions only.
Hi Keith. I saw the promo email too, great deal!
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!
You’ll need to be careful with those Sydney – LA/SFO seats showing – they might be in Economy, and the MEL-SYD leg in Business.
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.
Just wondering how you can get the higher tier of 50% bonus, as opposed to 35% – I assume its based on your account activity or oneworld status?
It’s hard to say what specifically triggers the higher bonus – it could be completely random.
Hi Keith,
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
That’s right, I should update the article with that info. Sorry you missed out.
Do you know if one way CX LAX-HKG-BNE with LAX-HKG in F and HKG-BNE in J costs the higher amount of 80,000? There is no F on the HKG-BNE leg.
Hey Andy – you are charged for two itineraries with CX, one LAX-HKG (in First or Business) and the other HKG-BNE (in Business).
Wouldn’t the award booking be simply “First Between North America and Australia / New Zealand 80,000”? They don’t allow mixed cabin on the one?
I was hoping to book flights for three in biz from Melbourne to Tokyo, with Cathay so with a stopover of a few days in Hong Kong on the way over. I rang Air Alaska this morning and was told this wasn’t possible – the flights to and from HK is one redemption, and the flights from Hong Kong to Tokyo and back are a second redemption. This seems to contradict what we’ve been told about stopovers being allowed, or have I misunderstood something.
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.
Hey Adam – sounds like you got a bad agent. Bummer.
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.
Oh, I see – yes, that makes sense. I probably should have worked that out myself!
I’ve found that JAL availability is not always visible to the operators (Qantas or Alaska). When I tried to book JAL through Qantas, I could see availability on the BA website but they couldn’t see anything and said nothing was available. Called back and spoke to another agent and they could see most of them but not the specific one I wanted (ended up booking one of the ones they could see rather than call up and try again).
Not sure if anybody has mentioned this before, too lazy to read through all of the comments, but…
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.
Cheers, Keith.
Does anyone have any further information on stopovers? Can they be worked out online, or do you need to ring their call centre? How long can you stop over?
I think they will most likely need to be done over the phone. If you can have a stopover on an award the length of time should be unlimited as long as you book the onward flight at the same time
Keith,
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
Trying to find 2 bus class seats from SYD to
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
Yes, CX availability out of Sydney can be poor, but I find that it can open up closer to departure. Not great if you are trying to book a trip, but you should also research out of BNE, MEL, ADL etc to cover all bases.
Unbelievably, I tried to look for CX award space out of BNE, and I can’t find any direct flights to HKG even 11 months out! (I searched on ba.com, on dates starting from 12/2 and the week after that) Only 1 business class seat found on Thurs the 18 (and that is a flight with one stop over in CNS), not even economy. Most of the flights required transit in SYD and that is economy too!
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?
Hi Michael,
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.
I have had the same problem, can’t find any J/F from any AUS to US for truck loads of dates I’ve searched
If you are trying to find award seats on QF, all I can say is good luck. It’s a needle in the haystack, literally! Don’t get me wrong, it is there, but you really have to look hard, by that I mean check day by day. Qantas search engine on the monthly view is useless, as most of the dates that shows “availability” in business class, which you look into it, it’s those with a little “!” mark => “your flight between SYD-LAX will be in economy”!
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.
Nice tips Michael. CX can also be used to Europe as well as the US, which is pretty good value and easier to find.
BTW Keith, do you know if this promotion accepts AUS credit card? According to Ben Schlappig it seems that this time is restricted to American CCs.
I tested with AU Paypal and AU credit card in previous and this promotion, and both went through. Unless they limit it for large transactions, it should be usable.
So how are people looking at using these to get from Brisbane to London? I’ve got a trip planned coming up in September this year and for the life of me, I cannot find any real availability to travel that way using these points. I’ve rung AA who had 1 CX flight from HGK to London and that was it. I’ve even tried looking at award nexus and can’t really see anything with their partners.
I am a new to it all so happy to take any advice.
CX is probably your only option. But you have to redeem them as 2 separate redemption. One BNE-HKG, then HKG to LHR.
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.
There were a few deals previously on purchasing Alaska Airlines miles during their quarterly mileage sale, and using the bonus miles for other airlines’ bookings such as Emirates.
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!
Hey Ben – that experience from Emirates flat-out sucks. Blame should be laid primarily at Emirates for thinking you were on a staff fare with lower benefits when that’s plainly not the case. You are also right to raise it with Alaska, they don’t have much immediate power of recourse with Emirates but should at least compensate you (in points I imagine) for your poor experience with one of their partners. I would push this with them.
Hi All,
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.
Awesome, thanks for coming back and sharing your win!
Hi
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?
Yes, these won’t help with using your Qantas balance. You’ll need to buy enough to use them outright.
Immanuel – Alaska have some set regions which they allow awards and publish a price – for example, Europe to Emirates from Australia is not available using AS miles. Annoying, but it’s because their redemptions are generally US centric – hence the comment on having to go through North America, which isn’t technically the case.
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.
Tried searching for Melbourne – Nadi in Aug 2015 but all that is coming up is Coach. There’s a check button for J but couldn’t select this – was automatically set to Lowest availability. Am I doing something wrong or there isn’t any availability? Tried searching via Qantas and can book J straight away. @@
Give Alaska a call, they may have different availability to Qantas, or the booking engine may not be doing what you want.
What did the 72.5K points cost?.
Thought I’d share my recent experience, might be helpful to some readers:
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.
Thanks for sharing, great example. Interesting you had the paypal issue.
What do you think about banking these AS points for Dec 2015? looking for Melb – USA, and wondering if early Dec and return min Jan, is likely to be impossible in business via any carier. Any thoughts??
I personally am risk averse, and this isn’t a good enough deal for me to bank them without having a use in mind. You could look in December as the deal runs for a while, but maybe not quite long enough for your purposes.
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.
While I’ve used AS miles before for long Haul, can they be used intra Europe like CDG/VIE?.
Completely doable – http://www.alaskaair.com/content/mileage-plan/award-chart/award-chart-europe.aspx – but very poor value.
Hi Keith,
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!
This all looks spot on to me – I can’t see anything you’ve missed. The only other differences to consider are that:
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.
in exactly the same situation with my purchase. processed on the alaska website but nothing else has happened. been so psyched about finally getting these miles! how disappointing. such a pity
Hi Keith, I’ve only just started reading about these award point flights in the last few weeks. As soon as I ready about them, I set up multiple accounts, and my Alaska account appears to be allowing me to buy points now, after two weeks of denying access.
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?
Well… I’d look at hubs and see where, say, Cathay fly to in the US (or Europe), and match that against your travel preferences. Then start looking at availability options. Maybe using British Airways from the many different places in Asia they fly from to London as well as another option, after getting up to Singapore or Hong Kong.
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.
Hi Keith,
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!
Some people just seem to get unlucky – only way to be sure is to give Alaska a call. Let us know how you go.
im having the same issue. not getting the points. are you getting a rejection notice from alaska? or have you got any updates on your transaction?
i opened my account 10 days ago and have been trying since then to buy these miles. i see people saying it can take up to 10 days but still nothing! anyone having the same issue?
Hey,
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!
Hi Keith,
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.
This has happened before and is a sign of Alaska cracking down generally on cards from a specific region. But, not necessarily the case, would be interesting to know if others have the same issues.
Do your banks even see the attempt to charge the cards?
Hi, perhaps this is a dumb question, but I’m a first timer here…
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
Flights being available on Qantas.com is a good indicator, but not a guarantee, of them being available to partners. US Airways website I am pretty certain never displays Qantas award space, but I think US award space aligns more closely to that of Alaska for Qantas – so definitely give them a call. Alaska website I think is reliable (i.e. what they show you will match what is available over the phone) but again, give them a call to double check.
Keith thank you so much for this post.
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.
1. Yep – with either Qantas (direct) or Cathay (via Hong Kong).
2. Yes, or over the phone with them.
But check availability before buying points if you know your dates!
Actually…cancel that for a minute… am now just struggling with the HKG to LHR leg
I’m doing my best to figure this out with limited success. I’m looking to get a business class flight for an adult and infant under 2 Sydney to LHR departing mid feb, returning in late feb. I can only assume that the best route will be Syd -HKG- LHR with Cathay, but I’m having trouble finding availability… even with award nexus. Should I be looking at other routes? And what airline options should I be ticking? Thanks
This is a great deal and one I’m interested in pursuing next year should it reappear for a holiday in 2016 but I just did a mock search to see exactly how many business points it would be for a Sydney – LA flight for Aug 1 next year and an interesting thing happened and I was wondering if you could tell me if this is usual:
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??
I assume you are looking at 2015, not 2016 firstly?
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.
Yes the mock search was for Aug 1 next year as that’s nearly 353 days out that award seats are released at?? I actually searched via Alaska’s own website as that’s the points I would want to be using and wanted to know how many it would burn. Qantas have a much higher point requirement on their site but you’re saying when the time comes I find the seat availability on the Q site but ring to check business seat availability with Alaska and book through them with their lower point burn?…if it exists
Ah. Not 100% on this, but Qantas might only release seats to partners at 330 days.
My 2 purchases (on Paypal) of 40k and 39k points appeared within 5 minutes of the transaction
How long does it take for the miles to appear in the account once they are paid for?
Usually within 24 hours.
Thanks Guys, just snagged PER-SYD-LAX-MEL-PER all in Business June/July 2015 for 109,400 points + small cash – Netted out at A$2700 for trip – wow – more gambling money in vegas.
Nice one!!
Has anyone else had trouble buying miles with a newly created account? I am getting the error “The Mileage Plan account you specified is not eligible to purchase miles.”.
Sorry, just read above! Up to 10 delay can be expected.
The AS chart says Hong Kong to Europe, so can book CX using AS miles from HKG to CDG or MIL or FCO?.
Hi Guys – is there any way to combine this offer with Amex Reward points?
My understanding with using AS mile to fly CX is this: other than going to North America and HKG, you need to book 2 separate awards for Europe or other Asian destinations. Although the overall miles might be still cheap (eg. 75000 to Europe oneway), does AS issue the 2 award booking as one ticket (ie. same PNR) or two separate tickets?
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……
Hi Keith, great guide.
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
Great catches – updated!
Kerrod Forbes
Which ever city Cathay fly to that you’ll be closest to… Honestly. CX are pretty widespread across Europe now with Milan and Manchester as recent additions, alongside London, Paris etc and they have a great business class.
For those wanting to do some research on CX partner availability, I’ve found that the results shown on the British Airways Executive Club website seem to align the closest to AS availability (and AA availability for that matter). Whereas Qantas either shows “phantom” CX space (or perhaps space only available to QF) where BA does not, and vice versa.
If you need to do a bit digging I’d highly recommend investing in the KVS availability tool.
I also really like awardnexus.com too.
Purchased points in May and August this year…no issues..using my Aussie Visa. Have return PER – LAX via Hong Kong early next year all booked in J
I should add, booking accom. world wide via Rocket Miles (although not the cheapest ) can score thousands of AS miles
As noted above used AS miles 2 Pax to HKG return in J last May on CX after finding about the deal here last Dec. Then used QFF points onwards to Europe.
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?.
I didn’t realise AS had chart for CX to Europe. Thanks for pointing that out!
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 😉
Hi Keith,
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
Wow, interesting. A purchase on my account went through without issue, so I had assumed we were back in business again. But then, I didn’t get a blocked purchase attempt last time round (but I didn’t buy miles last time around).
Hmmm. Anyone else?
this needs an update “You could purchase 30,000 miles with a 12,000 mile bonus for enough miles for a return Business Class redemption.”
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
Thanks, I’ve taken that line out of the guide section so I’m not referencing an old promotion.
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…
I’ve been doing a little research for a trip next year and I’ve found they can be quite stingy releasing advance award space for SFO, YVR & YYZ, and they certainly haven’t released any space to/from BOS yet. But for other cities I still find their availability to quite good, particularly to LAX and ORD in Biz & First.
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.
The great thing about the Alaskan awards is the routing flexibility they give you (so long as your plan is to travel to the US, that is!).
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.
Hi Keith,
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.
Not far off, but not quite. You need to go through Alaska at all stages to be 100% sure of availability.
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.
A couple of q’s if anyone can help…
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
Hey Ben.
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.
Anyone else getting an error message saying their account is not eligible to buy points? Or any reports of success on the latest May 2014 promotion? My account is pretty new so it’s possible that’s the reason, but I also saw that other Aussies have had issues with previous promotions on Flyertalk (e.g. suspended accounts, etc.)
Yep. Mine. ;'(
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?
Hey mate – sorry to hear you’re having the same problems too! Is yours a new account (i.e. opened within the last couple of weeks) or is it an existing account you’ve had for a while? I thought maybe I couldn’t buy miles on my account as it was opened in the last couple of weeks – I’m waiting a little longer and hoping that purchases can go through before the promotion ends!
I opened my account late last year? Maybe october-nov?
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.
I did eventually manage to get through and buy miles through points.com. It initially went through – however, overnight I got an email from points.com telling me that the credit card information could not be confirmed and that they had cancelled the cards.
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.
By the way, the credit card was valid, I had just used it on an overseas trip, and I had even alerted the bank before the transaction so that they wouldn’t disallow it – so it’s either points.com or Alaska Airlines that is cancelling the transactions, not my bank. In fact, the credit card still has an authorisation hold on it so I can’t even access the funds.
oops – typo in the first paragraph as well – it should say “the credit card information could not be confirmed and that they had cancelled the TRANSACTIONS” (not cards)
Yeah. Just noticed my account is blocked also when I tried to make a dummy booking. Hmmmm?… Will have to ring them I guess? – Lets hope I at the very least get my money refunded as I dont particularly want to be out of pocket $5k. ;'(
This is all pretty disconcerting to hear, and no consistent reason applied to why some accounts are having issues. Hopefully, fallback of having to work with your credit card co on a chargeback won’t be necessary…
Hi Keith,
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.
How old is your account?
Indeed. Main thing to note is that Alaska don’t publish prices, and therefore don’t allow bookings, between certain regions. It’s not that all flights have to transit the US, they just don’t publish an Australian – SA points price with Qantas. So not a great option for that case – check out the US Airways deal instead.
I was planning a trip to South Africa , seems like a very long way to get there
To where Munro ?
Called Akaska Airways and was advised that flights need to go through/via a US city if traveling from Australia – is this your understanding ?
in your opinion is this a better deal than the double point promotion that life miles is doing?
Oh that’s nothing then cool!!
I dont think using this for economy is worth it. Its cheaper to find economy on sale and buy direct. this really only works when you start looking at business or first.
Taxes were $235.50 USD for both tickets.
Once you buy the points through Alaska Air, how would you redeem them on a partner website such as Qantas or Cathay?
I Suppose for business class it’s still great.
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?
Steve Nicholas are the airport taxes roughly $500 per ticket?
Do you have to be a member AS for any period of time prior to purchasing the miles?
Its worth knowing that US Airways have also just started a Buy/Gift miles with a 100% bonus promotion.
I’m new at this, can you use them for economy tickets as well? If so how many points would you need for a return to trip to LA or New York?
Can you book MEL-HKG-TLV using CX/LY through Alaskan mile redemption?
You can book a redemption tkt for whoever you like.
We are currently in HKG arrived via AS 120Kmiles (2 pax) on CX J and will return to CNS in few weeks, today on our way to Europe on EK using QFF points. Out for lunch with ex pat Aussie Mates yesterday was telling them about AS miles, as of today they will jump on it.
thanks for the notice Keith. good to see its open for Aussies again!
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.
I’ve been trying to top up my account for the last couple of weeks, but have been unsuccessful. As of now, my account comes up with message saying my milage plan account is not eligible to purchase miles. Weird. Will be interesting to see if other australians have any luck in purchasing miles.
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…
Has it? That probably explains why 🙂 once the word was out, people rushed to buy points and redeem flights, so they had to put a cap on it.
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.
Point Hacks – your thoughts?
Michael Erickson yes, with Cathay Pacific via Hong Kong or Qantas
Yep…its $1187.50 for 54,000 points. You need 55,000 for AUS – USA each. So $2375 plus taxes. So all up 2,500….2,800 AUD
Awesome deal ..again.. Just picked up Perth – Los Angeles in Feb 2015. $2500 in business class x 2. Now to find the way home 🙂
Bit late I know, but may be useful in future. The Alaska Airline ban on mileage purchases from Australian credit cards is easily circumvented by just using a PayPal account. cheers.
And the bonus is open again! Thanks for the heads up too,
Australia–United States Free Trade Agreement provides for free trade (no barriers) on a range of things including financial services – an interesting choice they AA or Points.com have made in disallowing AUS credit cards.
My reply from points.com yesterday clearly states its a policy change by AS, non USA, Canada & Mexico residents cannot buy AS miles anymore, it really had nothing to do with CC knock backs.
Hi everyone – just wondering if flights to and from the UK or Dubai and Australia an be covered by these points?
AS deal is a dead duck, out the window, kaput as of past few days, anyone outside USA & Canada can’t buy miles with bonus anymore. I confirmed this with a test buy yesterday and direct phone call to them. Glad I got mine for my J seats when I did.
What did they say was the reason in the call?
Too many from OS buying miles with bonus, it was meant for regular customers was the gist I received, so AS are knocking back OZ CC’s.
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.
Agree on all points. Wonder if a prepaid card like Qantas Cash when it has a US $ balance might work? Regardless, will update the post tonight with a large warning.
I’m sure someone cover at AFF tried Q cash card, was no go, they can tell from the numbers on a card what country its from I believe.
I’m hoping we can at least still buy AS miles without the bonus. Like SYD/HKG/SYD for instance in J on CX is still only AUD$2 grand to buy 60K miles.
I think it’s probably 100% dead to be honest.
Oh man… every time a customer gets a slightly advantage, the airlines close the door.
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?
Hi Wizard,
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?
No credit card limit, if you have an Aussie address or Aussie credit card it will be knocked back because this is the reason…
“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”.
Hay Wizard, thanks for getting back.
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.
People are reporting it’s USA/Canada only. I mean, it doesn’t hurt to try – the purchase will just get (eventually) denied, but it’s very unlikely to go through with a non US card by the sounds of things.
There are ways to get around it Keith, but I’m just not 100% sure if it would work.
Let me know what you’re thinking by email if not through comments : keith @ you can guess the rest
Potentially alive again for next time around!
https://twitter.com/AlaskaAir/status/456079840048066561
I’m planning a trip for 4, from Perth to the US via Hong Kong. We’re looking at a one month trip starting late June, in 2016 (yes, it’s far I know, but it’s hard to organise dates).
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!
This deal opened back up, and I noticed I never replied to your comment.
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.
Hi, Could I ask why you wouldnt bank this offer for future travel? we already have a trip booked to the US in Sept, so it would probably be another year or two before another trip. I cant see a better deal ever for flying business to the US.
Just risk vs reward. I’m risk averse, you may be less so – I think there are always going to be offers out there to take advantage of, so if you’re not looking to book in the near future, why stress? But, that’s me personally and fully respect those who buy and bank the miles without a use in mind.
Hi Keith (and others),
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?
As per http://www.alaskaair.com/content/mileage-plan/earn-use-miles/award-chart-australia.aspx the award chart on Qantas to the US is most definitely 55k in Business, one way, 110k return. Delta is 2.5k miles cheaper, each way. Strange that you are getting a different cost. What’s the routing / flight numbers?
I think you have missed something major here, when you look up award flights with Qantas on the AA website it does show $55K each way business + tax however it is a mixed class ticket and the international Melb – LAX section is coach/economy! so actually it is not business it is enconomy!!!
Alaska do this if there are no business seats available. It’s annoying and you have to watch out for it. If there were business seats free, you’d see them come up at the same price.
Thanks, any tips on when, where or how to find business seats? I have looked on a lot of dates and doesn’t look like there are ever any available?
What are your rough plans that you’re looking at travel for?
yes the little Icon on the chair means its only business between Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane, but the long haul is economy.
I am trying to work out any way of purchasing these miles to use for a business class AU-US trip, I can’t seem to find any award seats, any way I swing it? can someone talk me through it?? Sorry, newbie! Thankyou!
Best place to start I think is often over the phone with Alaska – they should help you workshop some option with your intended dates. For AU-US you may need to route via Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific to find availability – fine if travelling to the East Coast, bit longer travel time but still only two flights to Chicago or New York.
Hi! I need to go to Hawaii in October. Would buying these miles be of benefit to me? I could fly in and out of Sydney or Melbourne… I’m confused by all the tables and T&Cs. Thanks!
In theory it would work. In practice it wont as the only way to use Alaska Miles in a humane way is directly to and from Honolulu on Qantas’ Sydney flight, and points seat availability is so rare on this route.
Better off keeping an eye out for a Jetstar starclass sale fare I reckon.
Hi, just discovered your site and am very intrigued by this and will become a frequent reader!
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!
OK, one 1 – seems anecdotally yes, they do have differing allocations. 2 – 24 months is the official rule – but only if you’d had no other activity in your account in that period. 3 – as per your point 1. Need to check CX availability via Alaska to be 100% sure they have availability with AS miles.
Thanks!
I’m not 100% sure whether mileage plan has access to all of CX’s awards, but I did a quick search on CX award availability and found that, AU-HK seats, 30k in J, you fly QF to Perth, and then CX Perth-HK. And then connect HK onwards to EU-USA.
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.
Although BA and CX partner in a variety of ways, I am pretty certain that this partnership won’t mean anything when looking at the Alaska mileage plan award chart which is pretty specific in terms of airlines available to redeem on and the regions available for points redemptions with those airlines. So, don’t think this will be a goer, you’d be trying to cut across different charts to accomplish this which wouldn’t be allowed, Feel free to prove me wrong though, give AS a call and check.
yeah i think its wishful thinking that they would allow that redemption.
But wishful thinking is the mother of innovation, so keep at it…
Just be a bit careful when you are looking at flights, the little icon of the chair is Mixed cabin, and if you try to book AUS – USA in J, it ends up being Melb/Bris – Sydney in domestic J, and Syd-LAX/NYC in Y. But they will still charge you 55k points.
Good tip.
Yep, I almost made the mistaken of booking of these. would have been a big waste of points 🙂
Hi, can anyone tell me if they have found any business class fares from Australia to America using these points. Cant find any!
From OZ to USA in J virtually impossible to get, but go via HKG different story and can miss LAX too.
<- what Wizard said!!
Hi, I just opened an Alaska Account and tried to buy the miles.
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??
There’s just a waiting period of a couple of days before you can purchase miles with new accounts. Some times it takes up to 10 days, but I’ve heard of two being the norm.
Hi Sam. I had the same problem. 10 days is the expected delay.
Thanks for the great update as usual, Keith!
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!!
Nice, jealous! Love CX business class.
Hi There, lurker here. Just wondering if it is possible to work out the booking class before booking the flights? I am looking JFK – SYD on business and I can find the fare rules but not the fare class – would you have an idea? Thanks anyhow – really love the website.
Thanks! Couple of quick questions – where are you looking for availability (what system/site) and why do you want the fare class?
Hi Keith, such a quick reply! AWESOME!
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!=
OK, do check with AS, but I think their rules are more liberal than Qantas. Looking at http://www.alaskaair.com/content/mileage-plan/frequently-asked-questions/faq-redeeming.aspx the only fee is $125 if changing/cancelling within 60 days of departure, with full mileage/taxes refund. You would also lose the initial booking fee of $25 from memory. But do double check with them.
“You could purchase 30,000 miles with a 12,000 mile bonus for enough miles for a return Business Class redemption at a cost of $887 USD.” Except 30k miles only come with a 9k bonus!!
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
Great catch, thank you. Price for 40k miles with current promo is $916 USD. Corrected.
No worries. Great article, have shared it on my FB page! Teaching my “uneducated” friends how to fly J cheaply. Cheers
When I booked my CX flightsI didn’t give AS my QFF number, would this help in viewing the flight details online, as my other onward flights on CX & EK are on there.
CX flights normally do appear in Qantas ‘Your Bookings’ section if you have you QFF number in there. However you won’t be able to make changes to the booking via Qantas.com. But if it helps you to have it all in one place, give it a try. You should be able to add your QFF number via cathaypacific.com manage booking, rather than having to call.
AS booked CX flights not showing on my QFF account, only those booked direct from Qantas for onward journey, looks like I’ll have to call AS then.
Great article. I am trying to purchase the miles but the system says “The Mileage Plan account you specified is not eligible to purchase miles” Any ideas?
David – assume this is probably a new AS account? Normally it can take 24-48 hours for new accounts to be able to do miles purchases.
Thanks Keith!
Hey Keith,
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.
What are the stopover rules for Alaska? Are you only allowed to stopover at hub/gateway cities?
So I’m new to all this but I want to fly with my wife to Europe next yr from aus, can this benefit me? Can I use our current qantas ff points with the Alaskan? Aim would be business return in august next year.
Andrew, on
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.
Hey, I’m new to your website and love all of these articles. Thanks for putting up such great info. Do you know if there is anyway to upgrade an exisiting Qantas booking using miles.
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.
Thanks Zach! Upgrading an existing booking with Qantas is only available using Qantas points, unfortunately. You’d have to book outright in Business using the Alaska route.
How can these be used for trans tasman?? Had a look on AS site and not available? Thks to clarify..
May not be bookable online but pretty sure this is doable as per above over the phone. Call and ask, they have a good call centre.
It’s worth noting the Qantas redemption chart on Alaska’s website (see http://www.alaskaair.com/content/mileage-plan/earn-use-miles/award-chart-australia.aspx) now refers to ‘Intra Australia’ flights, without reference to ‘Intra Australia and Intra NZ” (as shown in the chart above). Seems to suggest the ‘sweet spot’ for long trans Tasman crossings (e.g. Perth to Auckland) has been closed. Any thoughts?
Trans Tasman doesn’t work. I tried simple SYD – AKL and only got error message.
East coast to Perth is useful, although Qantas domestic is not really “business” but more PE.
Haven’t been travelling recently? Qantas domestic business suites are excellent
Why is it that CX is not available on AS online?, are their systems not compatible?.
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!.
Nice summary for us AUS based folks, if only you could redeem on EK J/F transtasman on a QF codeshare…
If only…
Wait why can’t we fly Emirates from Oz to US?