The Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan buy miles bonus is back and
once again we see it up at the 60% level which continues to be new
normal for the airline. The bonus is tiered in that if you buy 3,000 to
19,000 miles you’ll get a 40% bonus, 20,000 to 39,000 you’ll get a 50%
bonus and the 60% kicks in at the 40,000 mile level.
At 60% you’ll be buying Mileage Plan miles for as little as 1.85 US
cents each. This used to be 1.72 cents but we see the U.S. tax recovery
fee reinstated now. Still it so easy to pull well over 2 cents per mile
value out of Mileage Plan that buying them for 1.85 cents US is a really
good deal.
Offer details:
Receive up to 60% Bonus Mileage Plan Miles when you buy or gift miles. Valid until May 23, 22
Buy 3,000-19,000 miles, get 40% bonus miles.
Buy 20,000-39,000 miles, get 50% bonus miles.
Buy 40,000-100,000 miles, get 60% bonus miles
Does it make sense to buy Mileage Plan miles?
Yes
in some cases it does! Those cases tend to be for premium cabin
redemptions (business or first class) on Alaska’s partner airlines like
JAL and Cathay Pacific. For example, here is a round trip business class
flight between Vancouver and Tokyo on JAL this September:
You can redeem 120,000 Mileage Plan miles + US$95.49 for these
flights. If you had to buy all 120,000 miles it would cost you US$2,217.19:
Convert that to C$, add in the GST/HST on the miles purchase and then the fees
on the redemption and you are looking at spending about C$3,000 –
C$3,200. That’s a big purchase and a lot of money but when you compare
it to the actual cost of the flight it provides about a 20% savings over the current price for these flights:
Definitely not for everyone but something to consider if you are in the market for this type of opportunity.