INSANE Alaska Airlines partner earn rates

Alaska Airlines continues to be the only US based airline where you can earn a minimum of one award mile for every mile your fly AND have the option to redeem those miles for aspirational first and business class flights. One of the very best, and easiest ways to accrue a ton of Alaska miles isn’t on the airline itself… It’s flying Alaska partners. Want to earn loads and loads of Alaska miles? Fly Alaska Airlines partners in premium cabins that have monster bonuses associated with them. Flat Out – Alaska Airlines has INSANE partner earn rates. I’ll give you a little insight into how I think about it.

Additionally, don’t forget that Alaska is running whereby you’ll earn a minimum of 5k each way when flying on an AS partner from North America to a destination outside North America. Read more here.

Case in point…British Airways

 

All of Alaska Airlines Partners:

My strategy for the past few years

Honestly, I’m shocked Alaska is still offering these kind of bonuses, but they are, and you should be taking advantage of them.

For the last few years, since the insane earn rates started in 2016, I’ve purposefully flown British Airways because I consistently earned 350 to 450% of the miles I was flying. This takes into account promotional bonuses and the MVPG and G75 statuses I have kept. That means that when I would fly 12000 miles roundtrip between the US and Europe my account would increase on average about 45k miles. That means I was getting pretty darn close to a one way, US to Asia, Cathay Pacific Business Class ticket’s worth of points on every roundtrip to Europe. If you value those miles at roughly 2 cents, which I do, I’m receiving a rebate of $900 on tickets that cost me $1500-2000. Pretty awesome

But how does that compare to what’d I’d earn with BA Gold or Executive Platinum AA – I could include Cathay Pacific or Qantas, etc, but for all intents and purposes these are the two I’m most apt to credit to.

• BA Gold would earn roughly 30k Avios
  • Discount biz earns 1.5x miles flown
  • Gold gets 100% bonus
  • 18k + 12k = 30k
• Executive Platinum would earn
  • BA discount biz = 1.25x miles flown = 16000
  • EP bonus of 120% = 14,400
  • Total earn is 30,400 AA

I’d not only earn fewer points as a top tier member of both programs, but their miles aren’t as valuable in my opinion. So…I’ve flown inferior products on my purchased tickets in order to fly in some of the best products for my award redemptions.

 

Alaska Airlines Partner Earn Rates:

Currently Alaska is offering a wide array of promotional earn rates and bonus miles on the following airlines. We’ve really taken advantage of the BA earn rates, but take a look at all of them, and how they’ve changed since they were first introduced in December of 2016.

• Aer Lingus
• American Airlines
• British Airways
• Cathay Pacific
• Condor
• El Al
• Emirates
• Fiji
• FinnAir
• Hainan
• Iceland Air
• Japan Airlines
• Iceland Air
• Korean Air
• LATAM
• Qantas
• Singapore

American Airlines

Alaska has made plans to join the One World Alliance and suddenly, AA and AS are friends again. This means that starting in the Spring of 2020 you’ll be able to earn AS miles on ANY American Airlines flight. That is pretty awesome.

 

Read or watch our review of AA’s 787-8

 

 

Aer Lingus

 

British Airways

Some incredible bonuses on premium cabins, and these fares drop to very competitive rates out of mainland Europe. Last year they were as low at $1300 roundtrip from Paris to the West coast which is how I’ve been able to not only earn a ton of AS miles, but knock off a huge portion of the required elite miles needed for status.

Here’s a look at the old BA chart and then new one

Read or watch our review of British Airways Club World A380

 

 

Cathay Pacific

The ability to earn 225% RDM on some very long flights make this a very attractive option, especially if you keep MVPG or G75 which up it to 325% and 350% respectively.

If you haven’t flown Cathay Pacific First Class – Alaska miles are quite possibly the best route towards doing it. Just 70k

 

Condor

While Condor may not offer the most luxurious business class and economy experiences, there are some pretty heavy earn rates here.

El Al

The Flagship carrier of Israel is a new addition to Alaska

 

Emirates

Last year Emirates had some pretty stellar rates out of Seattle to Milan ( $3k roundtrip in First Class ) that many people took advantage of simply for Alaska Miles and status. I’m sure they didn’t enjoy the Suites, fine wine, and pampering one bit 😉 We even saw some incredible mid $2k flights out of Europe to Asia around NYE that would earn a tons of miles as well.

 

Fiji Airways

Don’t forget Fiji Airways has a promo running with 50% off redemption rates.

FinnAir

Hainan

Hainan releases amazing roundtrip fares from LA/Vegas to China. These are often sub $1600, but who knows with the current health crisis. In the past…this was an excellent way to pick up a ton of miles, elite miles

Icelandair

 

Japan Airlines

Korean Air

LATAM

QANTAS

Note that starting In 2020 there will be reduced earning on discount tickets

Read our review of Qantas First Class

Singapore Airlines

Read our review of Singapore Suites

Overall:

There are some incredible ways to now earn buckets of THE MOST valuable airline currency out there. I’ve written about this in the past, but Alaska’s award chart is incredible.