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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
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card went through a major refresh in 2026 adding new bonus categories, travel protections, statement credits, and remains one of the best travel starter cards in the market. It 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. Note that Hyatt is now a 4:3 transfer partner
Welcome Offer
Earn 100,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
Earn
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- NEW ACCELERATED EARN CATEGORY: 3x points on gas and EV charging
- NEW ACCELERATED EARN CATEGORY: 3x points on vacation homes at top brands
- Cardmembers will earn 3x points on vacation homes at these top brands: Airbnb, Vrbo, Plu Guide, HomeAway, Homestay.com and Vacasa.
- 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)
- 2x on all other travel
- 1x on everyday purchases
- 5x points on Lyft rides Earn 5x total points on eligible Lyft rides including ride share, bike and scooter rides and subscription and membership products through September 30, 2027.
- 5x total points on Peloton equipment Earn 5x total points on eligible Peloton equipment and accessory purchases over $150 through December 31, 2027.
Benefits and Credits
- $100 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- NEW: $120 Global Entry, TSA PreCheck or NEXUS fee credit Cardmembers will receive one statement credit of up to $120 every four years as reimbursement for the application fee charged to the card.
- NEW: Complimentary Apple TV subscription for one year
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Complimentary DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees & lower service fees for a min. of one year when you activate by 12/31/27. Plus, a $10 promo each month on non-restaurant orders
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® Card is great 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: Chase Ink Business Cash® , Chase Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into the Sapphire Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee remains quite low at $95 a year and if you use the $100 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠ you’ll wipe out that annual fee every year. It has great bonus categories and other useful statement credits to enhance your travel.
One thing that is a bummer is Chase lowered the transfer ratio to World of Hyatt from 1:1 to 4:3.
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.