Alaska Mileage Plan’s Global Getaways Award Sale

Earlier this year, we saw the Alaska Mileage Plan program overhauled, with all-new redemption rates for award travel. As part of this, Alaska Airlines introduced Global Getaways, a quarterly promotion offering discounted award travel, with savings of up to 50%. In some cases the discounts are on specific partner airlines, while in other cases the discounts are on certain routes or to certain destinations.

The program has just unveiled the details of its second Global Getaways offer…

Save on Mileage Plan awards to select destinations

For the second Alaska Mileage Plan Global Getaways promotion, you can save up to 50% on award travel to select destinations:

• This is valid for bookings made between July 10 and July 31, 2024
• This is valid for travel between October 1, 2024, and January 31, 2025
• This is valid specifically for redemptions in economy and premium economy, and not for redemptions in business class or first class
• You can receive discounts as long as you’re traveling to one of the eligible destinations, as it doesn’t matter where you’re originating or which airline you’re flying

The theme for the second Global Getaways promotion is “incredible international destinations.” So with this sale, you can save on one-way redemptions with any of Alaska’s partner airlines to the following destinations:

• Rome, Italy: now starting at 27,500 miles instead of 35,000
• Delhi, India: now starting at 30,000 miles instead of 42,500
• Taipei, Taiwan: now starting at 25,000 miles instead of 37,500
• Athens, Greece: now starting at 25,000 miles instead of 35,000
• Guadalajara, Mexico : now starting at 12,500 miles instead of 17,500
• Muscat, Oman: now starting at 25,000 miles instead of 42,500

My take on Alaska’s Global Getaways promotion

I very much appreciate Alaska Mileage Plan’s creativity with this quarterly promotion, as nowadays it’s pretty rare to see programs offer partner award sales. Now, admittedly I wish there weren’t quite as many restrictions in terms of the booking period, travel period, the class of service limitations, and the one-way discount, but still, there will be value here for many, and it’s better than nothing.

If you’re simply looking for the lowest cost award, some of these award prices are very tough to beat. For example, getting to Oman for just 25,000 miles in economy is an attractive price.

Now, I do hope that over time we see some first and business class award sale as well. Many of us have historically loved Mileage Plan for the value it offers for premium cabin travel, so this promotion doesn’t help us much with that.

This is basically Alaska’s version of Air France-KLM Flying Blue Promo Rewards or Singapore KrisFlyer Spontaneous Escapes, except the promotion is quarterly (rather than monthly), and it applies for travel on partner airlines (rather than for travel on the program’s airline).

Bottom line

Alaska Mileage Plan has launched its latest Global Getaways promotion, which is a quarterly redemption deal offering up to a 50% discount on awards. For the second promotion from the program, you can save miles on economy and premium economy tickets to select destinations. You need to book in July, and then travel in October through January.

While this won’t be useful for everyone, I imagine some people will get significant value from this.

What do you make of Alaska’s Global Getaways promotion?