Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan buy miles bonus is back and they are offering up to a 60% bonus until late May (The bonus will vary by member). Plus if you buy miles during this promotion they will offer you an up to 70% bonus for the next promotion. If you don’t need miles now, strategically speaking you may want to buy a small amount with this promotion to get the higher bonus next time.
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.
The up to 60% bonus
Receive up to 60% Bonus Mileage Plan Miles when you buy or gift miles. Valid until May 23, 24 Click here to buy Alaska Airlines Miles
- Buy 3,000-19,000 miles, get 40% more.
- Buy 20,000-39,000 miles, get 50% more.
- Buy 40,000-100,000 miles, get 60% more.
Does it make sense to buy Mileage Plan miles?
Yes in many cases it does! Those cases tend to be for premium cabin redemptions (business or first class) on Alaska’s partner airlines like JAL, Korean and Condor.
For example, here is a round trip business class flight between Edmonton and Frankfurt with Condor this July:
You can redeem 110,000 Mileage Plan miles + US$205.40 for these flights. If you had to buy all 110,000 miles it would cost you US$1925.00 as you would buy 70,000 miles and receive 42,000 bonus miles with the 60% bonus:
Convert that to C$, add in the GST on the miles purchase and then the fees on the redemption and you are looking at spending around C$3000 (price is dependent on which province you are in for GST/HST and what US$-C$ conversion rate you get). That’s a big purchase and a lot of money but when you compare it to the actual cost of the flight – it provides over $700 savings over the current price:
Definitely not for everyone but something to consider if you are in the market for this type of opportunity!
Another potential future option will be using the miles for Porter Airlines. Sometime later in 2024 Porter Airlines will become a full redemption partner for Mileage Plan. Once they do we’ll start comparing cash costs vs. mileage amounts and buying miles to see if this will become a viable option!
Click here to learn and/or to buy Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles
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