Deals

How I: Buy 1 Roundtrip, Get 1 One Way in Biz.

Alaska Airlines Plane
courtesy of AlaskaAir.com

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Buy 1 Roundtrip, Get 1 One Way in Biz.

Sounds too good to be true, right? It’s not. Right now, Alaska Airlines has INSANE earn rates on partners. One of the best deals is for business class on British Airways. Recently, I flew in BA Business from Stockholm through London to Los Angeles. I knew I’d be earning at an incredible rate, but when I sat down and actually thought about it, I realized that for every roundtrip I flew, I was essentially getting a 1 way ticket in business back in points. How crazy is that? Take a look at what I’m talking about.

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Here are the earn rates for British Airways.

If you’re MVP, add another 100%. MVP 75…125%

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Here’s what I earned on my trip back from Europe on BA Club World.

24,792 miles – one way.

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Fly that roundtrip and you have just shy of 50k miles.

There are plenty of places you can fly with 50k Alaska Air Miles in Business Class.

US to Europe on AA business:

U.S. to Iceland for 50k, 55k in Europe
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U.S. to Japan and Korea on AA.

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U.S. to Asia on Cathay Pacifica screenshot of a computer

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Europe to Hong Kong on Cathay for 42.5k!a screenshot of a computer

Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.

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Affiliate Link

Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card


4.8
4.8/5
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is a great starter card that earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based including Hyatt, Southwest, United, IHG, and Marriott.

Welcome Offer

Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening

Annual Fee

$95

Points Earned

Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards

  • 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
  • 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
  • 3x on select streaming services
  • 3x on online grocery purchases
    • (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
  • $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
    • The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
  • 2x on all other travel
  • 10% Anniversary Bonus
    • Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
  • Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
  • Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
  • Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
  • No foreign transaction fees
  • Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
    • Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
  • Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
  • $95 Annual Fee

We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.

Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.

Main Cast: 

Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.

Supporting Cast:

Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on. 

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.

If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex®  and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners

Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.

The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

9 Comments

  • […]  Additionally, Alaska Airlines has absolutely insane earn rates on partners. As an example, I’ll be earning roughly 50k for each roundtrip I take to Europe on BA’s business. That’s a one way leg for every roundtrip. Members will start earning points on each airlines […]

  • John the Wanderer July 7, 2017

    Just curious, what fare class was your BA ticket? I love redeeming Alaska miles for travel on Cathay. You can often find great options about a week to a day or so before your trip.

    • Miles July 7, 2017

      Hey John – I was booked into I for the long haul and J for ARN to LHR

  • alan July 7, 2017

    feel too easy. sleep in the plane and earn 160k as miles already. i calculate i will earn 400k thia and next year with my chwap5 tickets.

  • Rowyourboat July 6, 2017

    Agree with the logic but this is disingenuous. AA has basically no saver biz available. Iceland Air requires several connections and is not lieflat. BA has hundreds of dollars in fuel surcharges. Cathay is the only real option but that requires booking well in advance.

    • Miles July 6, 2017

      Rowyourboat – disingenuous? dude…i just used Alaska for CX biz and first. I didn’t include all the possible airlines or regions you could find award space, and I didn’t say it was going to be easy…but where there’s a will there’s a way.

      • Rowyourboat July 6, 2017

        Sorry that word was too strong, but I can unequivocally say that Alaska miles to Europe is just not feasible for premium travel. Your options are:

        KLM/AF – no space
        AA – no space
        Iceland Air/Condor – not lie flat, though Condor has nice angle flats.
        BA – massive fuel surcharges
        Emirates – massive award mile requirements
        Finnair – no awards yet, but could be good in the future?

        Totally agree that Cathay/JAL are awesome redemptions and IMO great uses of the miles. But if you’re trying to go to Europe from NA, you’re basically SOL on Alaska.

        I think the best use of those miles outside of Asia are for domestic travel. One J RT = two saver economy RTs in the US, and Alaska/Virgin has *way* more space than anybody in the US, with UA being a close second.

        Thanks for the writeup. Definitely a great thing to note. Another thing is that with the AmEx IAP or AA vacations, you can often get BA F for ~$4-5000, which is comparable to J prices on other airlines. This gets you ~63K miles for LAX-LHR roundtrip, which is pretty insane.

        • William July 8, 2017

          @rowyourboat

          Say whatever you want about award space to Europe, my girlfriend and I just this last March flew SFO-CDG on AF in business class for 62.5K AS miles and $18 pp. So it is possible if you have room to be flexible, your persistent and then a little luck is thrown in. I also kept seeing space out of multiple cities on AF so idk where the idea that it’s impossible to get Europe is coming from. East and west coast!

    • MajoredinMiles July 6, 2017

      Yeah man, I’m with Miles on this. CX might not be the easiest thing to find on the exact day you want, but it’s not hard. Disingenuous is a strong word.

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