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If you’re short on miles…this is a great opportunity to fill in the gaps. Alaska is offering a 40% offer on purchased miles, or 2.1 cent per point.
Alaska has incredibly valuable points. The biggest reason? They have a range of International partners that offer incredible business and first class products that you can access redeeming their miles. In fact, their loyalty program lured me away from American, and now I’m enjoying another year as a top tier, MVP Gold 75k. The biggest reason I’ve stayed loyal is the ability to use their points to take amazing flights around the world. I recently reviewed Cathay Pacific First Class and Japan Airlines First Class, both of which were purchased with Alaska Miles. Those are two of THE BEST ways to fly across the Pacific, and I did it for pennies on the dollar. The 40% bonus offer ends today, July 3rd, 2018.
Cathay Pacific First Class – 70k Alaska Miles or $1470 purchasing them with a 40% bonus
I’d never recommend buying points speculatively, but price it out.
But when offers come up to get valuable points at a discount, I always think it’s worth considering when planning a trip. Often times simply buying points can result in a cheaper out of pocket cost than just buying the flights outright. For instance, I flew to Australia in Qantas First Class for 70k miles. That ticket sells for north of $10k easily, and with points…under $1500. Obviously this is an extreme example, but it works for a domestic flights as well. Often times Alaska will have a one way premium transcon flight priced over $1000…but also priced at 25k points. Easy redemption there.
You need to buy a minimum of 40k miles for the 40% bonus to kick in.
- 10k Miles gets a 20% bonus
- 20k Miles gets a 30% bonus
- 40k+ gets a 40% bonus
You can repeat the purchase as many times as you want to fill your account with the desired miles you need.
Unlike some other airlines, Alaska will not limit the total amount of miles you can purchase, just the total you can purchase at one time. In this case…60k + 24k bonus.
Alaska also allows you to book in a stopover on Award tickets.
I used the stopover to spend 3 nights in Hong Kong at the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong – booked with Prive benefits.
Here’s a list of some of the best redemptions you can make with Alaska miles
Check out Cathay Biz and First to Africa and Australia – unreal deals.
- To Asia
- Cathay Biz is 50k One way
- Cathy First is 70k One way
- Japan Biz to Asia is 60k
- Japan First to Asia is 70k
- Japan Biz to S.E. Asia is 65k
- Japan First to S.E. Asia is 75k
- Europe
- BA Biz is 60k
- BA First is 70k
- Middle East
- BA Biz is 70k
- BA First is 80k
- Cathay Business is 62.5k
- Cathay First is 70k
- Australia – 70k miles to fly First Class from the States to Australia!
- Qantas Biz is 55k
- Qantas First is 70k
- Cathay Biz is 60k
- Cathay First is 80k
- Fiji Biz is 55k
- Africa
- British Airways Biz is 70k
- British Airways First is 80k
- Cathay Biz is 62.5k
- Cathay First is 70k
A few of my favorite Alaska redemptions
Cathay Pacific First Class for 70k miles.
Japan Airlines First Class for 80k
Interested? You can go here to purchase with the 40% bonus.
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.
Welcome Offer
60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months
80k offer in branch currently – I think this should be online soon
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
Super solid welcome offer.
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.
- 3x on dining
- including eligible delivery services for takeout
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards – Chase Travel Portal
- $50 Annual Credit on hotel stays purchased via Ultimate Rewards/Chase Travel
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 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 Portal and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including primary rental car insurance, purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 13 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in the Chase Travel center for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Primary rental car coverage is my favorite
There is currently an 80k offer after $4k spend in 3 months available in branch, and up to 90k after $6k spend in 6 months. I suspect some version of this will be online soon if you don’t want the hassle of going into a branch.
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 60k is a very, very good offer. 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.