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- Best ways to use Alaska Airlines miles
- Average-value redemption options
- Low-value ways to use Alaska miles
- Other valuation factors
- What to know about Alaska Airlines miles value
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Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan is a highly lucrative frequent flyer program even if you never actually fly on Alaska Airlines. You can get an excellent return by redeeming miles for premium seats on partner airlines, and Mileage Plan's routing rules create opportunities to add destinations to your travel plans at minimal cost. Those features give Mileage Plan miles an average redemption value of 1.5 cents apiece in Personal Finance Insider's most recent points and miles valuations. Read on to see which redemption options you should target and avoid to get the most out of your miles. Insider's Featured Credit Cards for Travel Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card Capital One VentureRewards Credit Card Rewards Earn 5x points on all travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards. Earn 3x points on dining, including eligible delivery services, takeout, and dining out. Earn 3x points on select streaming services. Earn 3x points on online grocery purchases (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs). Earn 2x points on other travel. Earn 1x point per dollar on everything else. Intro Offer Earn 60,000 bonus points 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening Show more Annual Fee $95 APR 21.49% - 28.49% Variable Rewards Earn 5x miles per dollar on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel. Earn unlimited 2x miles on every purchase. Intro Offer Earn 75,000 miles 75,000 miles after spending $4,000 on purchases within three months from account opening Show more Annual Fee $95 APR 19.99% - 29.99% variable On Chase's website We're focused here on the rewards and perks that come with each card. These cards won't be worth it if you're paying interest or late fees. When using a credit card, it's important to pay your balance in full each month, make payments on time, and only spend what you can afford to pay. Alaska Airlines Visa® Credit Card Insider’s Rating 3.45/5 Perks Earn 3 miles for every $1 spent on eligible Alaska Airlines purchases. Earn 2 miles for every $1 spent on eligible gas, cable, streaming services and local transit purchases. Earn 1 mile for every $1 spent on all other purchases. Annual Fee $95 Intro APR N/A Regular APR 20.24% - 28.24% variable Intro Offer 60,000 bonus miles plus Alaska's Famous Companion Fare™ ($99 fare plus taxes and fees from $23) after you make $3,000 or more in purchases within the first 90 days of your account opening Earn 60,000 bonus miles plus Alaska's Famous Companion Fare™ Recommended Credit Good to Excellent Pros Cons Insider’s Take The Alaska Airlines Visa® Credit Card is an excellent choice if you fly Alaska Airlines or use its miles to book partner awards. Alaska Airlines hasn't switched to fully dynamic award pricing on its own flights, but rates do fluctuate with demand and availability. Your best bet to get an exceptional deal using Mileage Plan miles is to book premium awards on Oneworld alliance and other partner airlines. For example, consider a flight from San Francisco to Tokyo in September. You could book one-way, non-stop service in Japan Airlines business class for 60,000 miles and $19 through Alaska Airlines. At the time of writing, that same flight has a cash price of $6,142, yielding an impressive redemption value of over 10 cents per mile. That's more than five and a half times our high valuation of 1.8 cents apiece for Mileage Plan miles. That high redemption value is mostly the product of a stratospheric cash fare — spending $6,000 on a one-way plane ticket isn't practical for most people, so the award and cash prices aren't strictly comparable. However, this award would be a good deal even at one-fifth the cash price. As another example, here's a non-stop itinerary from Miami to Santiago, Chile on LATAM Airlines in the spring. A round-trip award in business class costs 90,000 miles and $72.95 when you book through Mileage Plan. In contrast, a cash fare with a comparable cancellation policy would cost $4,475 when booking through LATAM. That yields a redemption value of just under 4.9 cents per mile, which is more than two and a half times our high valuation for Mileage Plan miles. In this example, you could opt instead for a less forgiving cancellation policy (that only offers a 30% refund) and book the same itinerary for $3,275. Even using this lower fare as a basis for comparison, the award yields a redemption value of around 3.55 cents per mile, or close to double our high valuation. The Mileage Plan program has two features that create opportunities for discounted award travel, especially if you live in an Alaska Airlines hub. The first is the distance-based award chart for flights in North America, which offers one-way flights starting from 5,000 miles depending on how far you travel. The second is the stopover policy, which allows you to add a stop even on one-way awards. Alaska prices distance-based awards according to the mileage between your origin and destination, even if you add a stop between them. Thanks to the stopover policy, you can sometimes hack the award pricing algorithm by booking multi-city awards that include a lengthy stopover. For example, here's an itinerary with one leg from Seattle to San Diego in March, followed by a second leg from San Diego to Portland in October. At the time of writing, these flights cost 7,500 miles and 12,500 miles, respectively, when booked as separate one-way awards. When booked together as a multi-city award, however, the award price drops to 10,000 miles. As a cash fare, the same multi-city itinerary costs $287.80, which yields a redemption value of over 2.7 cents per mile. The stopover policy is highly useful even when the distance-based award chart isn't a factor. For example, consider a flight from Madrid to Philadelphia in May. You could book this non-stop economy flight on American Airlines for 22,500 Mileage Plan miles and $56.15. However, you could tack on this flight to Las Vegas in June and pay only the additional $5.60 security fee with no change in the award cost. Regardless of the cash cost and redemption value of these itineraries, the ability to book an extra flight for the same number of miles is a gold mine for award travelers. The options above are your best bets for maximizing Mileage Plan miles, but they aren't guaranteed to provide a high redemption value. The return may be average or below average in some cases, so it's important to compare award and cash prices to make sure you're getting a favorable deal. While you can maximize redemption value by booking premium awards and taking advantage of favorable award routing rules, vanilla economy awards tend to offer lower (but more consistent) returns with more widespread availability. For example, this non-stop itinerary from Seattle to Dallas costs 25,000 miles and $11.20 round-trip. In comparison, the cash price is $398, which yields a redemption value of around 1.55 cents per mile. That's just above our average valuation of 1.5 cents. Similarly, you can get good value from Mileage Plan miles by booking economy flights on partner airlines. This one-way flight from Dublin to Tel Aviv on El Al costs 22,500 miles and $29. If you paid cash instead, the same flight booked through El Al would cost you 343 euros (roughly $373 at the time of writing). That yields a redemption value of 1.53 cents per mile. Mileage Plan offers a variety of alternative redemption options, but most offer relatively low value, and those with potential are too inconsistent to be worth pursuing. You can upgrade to first class on Alaska Airlines flights at a flat rate of 15,000 miles. That sounds like a good deal on the surface, but you must first be booked into an eligible (i.e. more expensive) economy fare, and there's no guarantee upgrades will be available on your flight. The good news is that you can check upgrade inventory easily during the booking process, so there's little risk of getting stuck with a pricey economy fare. Still, even though upgrade awards occasionally pay off, you'll often get better value by booking into first class directly. You can redeem miles for a discount on Alaska Airlines flights, but while the discount is marketed as 50%, it's capped at either $100 (for 10,000 miles) or $200 (for 20,000 miles). That means the most you'll get from these redemptions is 1 cent per mile, which is well below our low valuation of 1.3 cents per mile. This is an option to avoid. Mileage Plan offers a variety of alternative redemption options, but they mostly provide poor value. First, you can book rooms through Alaska Airlines Hotels (powered by Rocketmiles), but the redemption rate is dismal. You can expect to get less than 1 cent per mile, and in some cases you'll get well below half that. Please don't use your miles this way. Second, you can bid on or pay outright for experiences through the Alaska Airlines Extras marketplace, but the options are few and far between. At the time of writing, for example, the marketplace featured just two items, both involving tickets to upcoming Washington Huskies men's basketball games. Finally, you can spend miles on magazine subscriptions via Mags for Miles. These subscriptions can be a bargain if you happen to be in the market for one of the handful of available magazines. Otherwise, they're useless. Redemption rates aren't the only variable we use to assess the value of points and miles. Here's how the Mileage Plan program performs across other facets we take into consideration: The lack of a free mileage pooling option is the only clear negative among these miscellaneous factors. Alaska's version of dynamic award pricing makes flights in high demand more expensive, but (at least so far) it doesn't create the comically exorbitant mileage rates you'll see from other programs. Adding a major transfer partner would be a great improvement for Mileage Plan members. The Mileage Plan program continues to offer high upside to award travelers via its partner award charts. Despite the use of dynamic award pricing, there are also ample opportunities to redeem miles at a good rate on Alaska Airlines flights, especially during off-peak travel periods. The ability to add a free stopover to one-way awards is a huge asset, especially to those who live in cities with a large Alaska Airlines presence. All these factors contribute to our rating of Mileage Plan as one of the most lucrative options for frequent flyers. Peter Rothbart Freelance Writer Peter Rothbart is a credit card connoisseur and award travel guru based in Seattle, Washington. A former aerospace engineer and long-time touring musician, he now covers a wide range of topics from business and personal finance to art, sports, and human interest stories. When he's not writing, Peter can often be found planning his next adventure, raking in poker chips at Las Vegas casinos, or crushing the dodgeball courts of the Pacific Northwest.
Best ways to use Alaska Airlines miles
Partner award flights in first and business class
Multi-city awards
Average-value redemption options
Domestic economy awards
International partner economy awards
Low-value ways to use Alaska miles
Mileage Plan upgrade awards
Money and Miles awards
Hotels, magazines, and more
Other valuation factors
What to know about Alaska Airlines miles value
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As a financial expert with a strong background in personal finance and credit card matters, I can provide valuable insights into the content of the article you've shared. The article appears to be a comprehensive guide on maximizing the value of Alaska Airlines miles through strategic redemptions. Let's break down the concepts covered in the article:
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Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan Overview:
- Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan is highlighted as a lucrative frequent flyer program, even for those who don't fly on Alaska Airlines.
- The program allows for an excellent return by redeeming miles for premium seats on partner airlines.
- Mileage Plan's routing rules create opportunities to add destinations to travel plans at minimal cost.
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Best Ways to Use Alaska Airlines Miles:
- Booking premium awards on Oneworld alliance and other partner airlines is emphasized for maximizing redemption value.
- Examples of specific routes and flights, such as San Francisco to Tokyo in Japan Airlines business class, are provided to illustrate high redemption values.
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Average-Value Redemption Options:
- Domestic and international partner economy awards are mentioned as options that offer good value for Mileage Plan miles.
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Low-Value Ways to Use Alaska Miles:
- Mileage Plan upgrade awards and Money and Miles awards are discussed as options that may provide lower value or inconsistency.
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Other Valuation Factors:
- Factors affecting the overall assessment of Mileage Plan miles include expiration policies, award availability, sharing/pooling options, ease of accumulation, award change and cancellation policies, surcharges, and the route network and partners.
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What to Know About Alaska Airlines Miles Value:
- The article concludes by summarizing key points about the value of Alaska Airlines miles, emphasizing the high upside for award travelers through partner award charts, opportunities to redeem miles at a good rate on Alaska Airlines flights, and the program's overall appeal.
In addition to the concepts covered in the article, the expert or enthusiast providing this information would likely have hands-on experience with credit cards, loyalty programs, and strategic travel planning. They may have insights into current market trends, the latest credit card offerings, and specific details about Alaska Airlines' loyalty program.