Buy Alaska Miles with a 60% Bonus

Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan is a popular program for its great deals on redemptions and frequent mileage sales.
With the current sale on Alaska miles, you can earn up to 60% bonus miles on your purchase , and you can also unlock an even greater promotion later this year by taking part in this round. This sale ends on 11:59pm PST on May 21, 2023,  so be sure to capitalize on the offer before then if you’re interested.
Buy Alaska Miles with a 60% Bonus
Normally, Alaska Airlines sells miles for 2.75 US cents per mile, plus a 7.5% tax recovery fee, for a total of 2.96 US cents per mile. Luckily, Alaska frequently offers discounts on purchasing miles.
Alaska is known for running targeted “mystery bonuses” every now and then, although this time around, it seems the offer is fairly consistent across accounts for up to 60% bonus on purchased miles:

60% bonus when you buy 40,000–100,000 miles
50% bonus when you buy 20,000–39,000 miles
40% bonus when you buy 3,000–19,000 miles


Log in with your Mileage Plan account to see the exact breakdown of your bonus, as not all members are given the best available offer.
In addition, by taking part in this promotion, you’ll also have the opportunity to buy Alaska miles with up to a 70% bonus later this year, between October 5–30, 2023.  Keep in mind, of course, that there’s a risk that Alaska Mileage Plan may make unfavourable changes to the program by that date. 
With a 60% bonus, you could buy 160,000 Alaska miles for $2,956.25 (USD) including tax, at a cost of 1.85 US cents per mile.
At our current valuation of 1.8 US cents per mile , that price is above our valuation, but could still represent an good deal if you have a specific use in mind.
Historically, Alaska tends to offer bonuses in the 35% to 60% range, and we’ve seen rare offers as high as 70%. This offer is definitely among the highest bonuses we’ve seen recently, so if you have your sights set on an aspirational redemption, be sure to take advantage of it if you stand to benefit.
How many miles can you buy?
Unless you have elite status with Alaska, each Mileage Plan member is limited to receiving 150,000 miles per calendar year from mileage purchases (excluding bonuses), whether buying for yourself or being gifted from someone else.
There’s also a limit of 100,000 miles purchased per transaction (excluding bonuses). If you split your purchase up into multiple transactions, you could buy up to 240,000 miles including the 60% bonus, assuming you haven’t already bought or been gifted Alaska miles this year.
Which credit card should you use to buy Alaska miles?
Mileage Plan sells miles through Points.com. As you aren’t buying directly from Alaska Airlines, you won’t earn any bonus points for using an Alaska Airlines credit card.
The purchase won’t code as travel for the category accelerator either. Instead, you could consider any card with a high base earn rate, or one where you’re working towards meeting the minimum spend requirement.
The purchase will be charged in US dollars. To avoid extra costs, you should use a US credit card .

If you use a card with a Canadian billing address, you’ll be charged GST/HST on top of the Tax Recovery Fee, so even if you have a Canadian card with no foreign transaction fees , use it only as a last resort.
Who Should Buy Alaska Miles?
Buying miles can be a good way to top up your account if you’re keen to make a redemption soon.
Booking an Expensive Aspirational Flight
In late 2022, Alaska Airlines changed its award charts , moving from separate pricing for each airline to having two charts: one for North American redemptions, and one for international redemptions. While the pricing for the program’s sweet spots hasn’t changed, it has become less transparent, since the charts all list “starting from” prices instead of fixed prices.
Indeed, most recently, Alaska devalued Japan Airlines First Class awards without notice , increasing the price point from 70,000 miles to 85,000–100,000 miles  for a one-way First Class flight between North America and Japan. 
The best remaining sweet spot is most likely Cathay Pacific First Class for 70,000 miles one-way with a stopover in Hong Kong, although it’s anyone’s guess how long it’ll last before it, too, is subject to a devaluation.
While the trend of no-notice devaluations is highly disappointing, an award ticket on these routes still represents great value. Purchasing 70,000 Alaska miles at 1.85 cents per mile would cost $1,295 (USD), which is far below the regular cash fare in this class of service – and that’s before considering the option of adding a stopover in Asia for no additional cost.
Japan Airlines First Class
At these rates, it would make sense to buy miles if you have a specific high-value redemption planned. Buying at around 1.85 cents per mile might sound steep, but not when you’re confident that the value will outstrip the cost many times over.
Of course, this only makes sense if you can find award space. Even though they can be booked online on the Alaska search engine, Japan Airlines First Class and Cathay Pacific First Class awards can be tough to snag as they’re notoriously popular.
It’s best that you’ve lined up your award seats before pulling the trigger on a points purchase. You should also confirm that the seats are indeed available to be booked, and not just “phantom” award space .
Quick Top-Up for an Upcoming Redemption
If you’ve identified a good opportunity to redeem your Alaska miles at a value you like, but your account is just shy of the amount you need, you may find it palatable to pay above baseline value to make up the difference.
As long as you’re redeeming above the 1.85 US cents per mile cost of buying with this promotion, you’ll come out ahead.
Even if you redeem for less, it may still be worth it. After all, your miles are useless if you don’t have enough to make the bookings you desire. If the bulk of your miles were acquired at a very low cost, you can still get good value on the average cost of your miles, even with a slight premium for the instant gratification of a modest mileage purchase.
Cathay Pacific First Class
Book Before Further Award Chart Changes
At the end of 2022, Alaska Airlines introduced a new “streamlined” award chart . While there weren’t any substantial changes to the program, the new chart leaves the door open for unannounced changes at any time, with all prices listed as “starting from” versus being fixed. 
Most recently, we saw an instance of this when Japan Airlines First Class awards were devalued without notice .

Therefore, it may be prudent to use up your miles now. After all, if any changes to the program are negative, then your miles will be worth less in the future than they are today under the current award pricing.
If you’re close to having enough Alaska miles for an aspirational redemption, perhaps on the remaining sweet spot of  Cathay Pacific First Class for 70,000 Alaska miles one-way, it might be a wise decision to buy miles to top up your balance. Just be sure to look for award space before doing so, and then act quickly to book it once you’ve completed the purchase.
Buy Miles with a 70% Bonus Later in 2022
As part of this current round of Alaska’s mileage sale, you can unlock the ability to buy miles with a larger 70% bonus later this year (between October 5–30, 2023) by taking part in the current promotion of a 60% bonus.
Note that the terms specify that you must purchase at least 30,000 miles this round to unlock the larger 70% bonus later in October.

Whether or not this is an attractive opportunity depends on how regularly you’d anticipate buying Alaska miles and taking advantage of the program’s sweet spots. If you anticipate needing to buy Alaska miles again in the near future, it’d definitely be worthwhile to participate in this round to unlock a higher bonus later on. 
However, given the somewhat speculative nature of buying miles on sale in general, the promise of a higher bonus in the future shouldn’t be a factor that sways you into making a purchase this time. Instead, as usual, only purchase miles if you have an immediate plan to put them to good use.
Other Ways to Earn Alaska Miles
Before rushing to buy miles at a promotional rate, it’s best to first look to other sources to acquire Alaska miles at lower costs, if you don’t need the miles immediately to make a booking.
Sadly, the Canadian MBNA Alaska Airlines Mastercards were discontinued as of November 7, 2022, leaving only Marriott Bonvoy and opportunities in the US to acquire Alaska miles cheaply.
US Credit Cards by Bank of America
If you have a social security number or ITIN, you can apply for Bank of America’s co-branded cards.
The Alaska Airlines Visa Signature  currently has a welcome bonus of 7 0,000 miles after spending $3,000 (USD) in the first three months. 
Meanwhile, the  Alaska Airlines Visa Business  offer is at an astounding 7 0,000 miles upon spending $4,000 (USD) in the first three months.
Both cards have frequent credits equivalent to a first-year fee rebate and occasional elevated points offers. Otherwise, at an annual fee of $95 or $70, respectively, the cost of acquiring points is 0.14 US cents per mile for the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature or 0.1 US cents per mile for the Alaska Airlines Visa Business.
Marriott Bonvoy
Marriott Bonvoy points can be transferred to Alaska Mileage Plan at a 3:1 ratio, with a 5,000-mile bonus when transferred in chunks of 60,000 Bonvoy points.
At our present valuation of 0.7 US cents per point, 60,000 Bonvoy points are worth $420 (USD). When transferred to Alaska Mileage Plan, this is equivalent to buying 25,000 miles at 1.68 US cents per mile.
This is still lower than the baseline Alaska redemption value of 1.8 US cents per mile, and cheaper than the promotional cost to buy miles outright. Depending on your Bonvoy balance and hotel redemption goals, you’ll have to weigh whether this is a better choice than paying cash for Alaska miles.
Mileage Plan Shopping
You can also turn to the Mileage Plan Shopping portal for bonuses on online purchases at many popular worldwide retailers ranging from technology to sportswear companies. High bonuses can often be found around big shopping days like Black Friday or Boxing Day.
In my experience, miles usually arrive within two weeks, although many stores have restrictions for purchases outside of the US.
Previous Promotions
As you weigh whether this promotion is a good opportunity for you to meet your travel goals, here’s a snapshot of Alaska Mileage Plan’s previous offers on mileage sales, covering all promotions during the past year:
Bonus Cents per point (USD) Start Date End Date Up to 50% more purchased miles 1.97 March 9, 2023 March 15, 2023 Up to 60% more purchased miles 1.85 January 18, 2023 February 20, 2023 Up to 50% more purchased miles 1.97 November 14, 2022 December 23, 2022 Up to 60% more purchased miles 1.85 October 10, 2022 November 2, 2022 Up to 60% more purchased miles 1.85 September 12, 2022 September 15, 2022 Up to 60% more purchased miles 1.85 July 18, 2022 August 21, 2022 Up to 60% more purchased miles 1.85 June 13, 2022 June 25, 2022 Up to 60% more purchased miles 1.85 April 13, 2022 May 23, 2022 Up to 50% more purchased miles 1.97 March 10, 2022 March 16, 2022

Conclusion
Alaska Mileage Plan ’s 60% bonus promotion on buying miles is a great opportunity to push your balance over the hump for a dream trip, or to top-up your balance and use up your Alaska miles before further devaluations.
If you purchase at least 30,000 miles, you’ll also unlock a further bonus of up to 70% on buying miles in October 2023. Make sure to take advantage before the promotion ends on May 21 , 2023 to maximize this offer.
The post Buy Alaska Miles with a 60% Bonus appeared first on Prince of Travel by Josh Greenberg .