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Alaska is offering up to a 40% bonus
Alaska Air has promotions almost every quarter to buy points. In fact, there seems to be quite a few promotions lately for points purchases: IHG a 100% bonus, United had some targeted offers, and now you can buy Alaska Air Miles and get a 40% bonus. This isn’t the best we’ve ever seen from Alaska, that’s 50%, but it’s 2nd best and a very good deal. Earlier in the year I wrote a Monday Memo about different situations where purchasing points can be a good idea, but let’s focus in on Alaska and some of their amazing opportunities.
Here’s a look at the deal – good til 12/28/17:
The offer is tiered:
In my opinion I wouldn’t go for the deal without securing a 40% bonus. If you don’t need that many miles or don’t wish to spend the cash to purchase at that bonus level I’d wait. Another deal will come around later this year that could possibly afford you the opportunity to buy fewer miles and still get a good bonus.
60k + 24k would set you back $1773.75 or roughly 2.1 cents per point
Enough with the boring stuff. What are some cool things I could do with the points?
Here are the Alaska charts for redeeming awards on Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, and American Airlines from the Continental U.S. to Asia
70k Alaska would put you in Japan Airlines first class.
Japan Airlines First Class is truly incredible. They serve super expensive champagne, the seats are YUUUUUUGE, they put mattress pads down, and the service COULD NOT be better. These tickets go for $10k+. This is a prime example of using points to purchase a flight for significantly less money.
50k puts you in Cathay Pacific Business Class
Cathay has one of the best reviewed business class products in the sky. I’m hoping to fly them again soon as my experience wasn’t “superb”, but I also recognized that I’m an outlier. For a little over $1000 you could purchase points to fly one way. A fantastic deal, IMO!
And Alaska still has prices that match the old AA chart for Asia til the end of the year. So 62.5k puts you in their biz.
I’ve reviewed AA’s 777-300ER reverse herringbone business class many times and really enjoy it. While I’m not sure I’d spend the extra points to fly it over Cathay, it provides more opportunities for redemption in a very nice product.
Final thoughts:
I used Asia as an example, but there are other great spots in Alaska’s chart. In fact, Alaska still prices business and first class awards to Europe on AA metal at 50k and 62.5k. That’s a big savings compared to AA prices of 57.5 and 85k, and it’s their metal! There is another sweet spot on flights from the U.S. to the Middle East…
I wouldn’t advise buying points for the sake of it. As we saw last year with the Emirates devaluation, point values can erode very quickly. But if you have a trip in mind, see the availability, and these points would help you reach your goals…this is a very good offer and price to make it happen!
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
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.