Often buying points strategically can be a good value, and Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan is one of my favorite programs to buy miles from, both thanks to the frequency with which the program sells miles, and what a good deal award redemptions can be.
Alaska Mileage Plan has launched its newest offer on purchased miles. This has the potential to be a good deal, and with a short term use in mind, this offer could be worth taking advantage of.
In this post:
Promotion on purchased Alaska Mileage Plan miles
Through Saturday, August 16, 2025, the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan program is offering a bonus on purchased miles. It’s possible that different members will be targeted for different offers, though all the accounts that I manage show a bonus of up to 60%. You’ll have to log into your account to see what you’re eligible for. The bonus offer of up to 60% is structured as follows:
- Buy 3,000-19,000 miles, get a 40% bonus
- Buy 20,000-39,000 miles, get a 50% bonus
- Buy 40,000-100,000 miles, get a 60% bonus
How much does it cost to buy Alaska Mileage Plan miles?
Ordinarily you can buy Alaska Mileage Plan miles for 2.75 cents each pre-tax, before any discounts or bonuses. If you were eligible for the 60% bonus and purchased 100,000 Mileage Plan miles pre-bonus, you’d receive a total of 160,000 Mileage Plan miles at a cost of $2,956.25, which is a rate of 1.85 cents per Mileage Plan mile.
Typically when we see promotions on purchased Alaska miles, the bonus is in the range of 40-70%. So the 60% bonus is among the better deals, but not quite the best.
How many Mileage Plan miles can you purchase?
The number of Alaska miles you can buy depends on your status:
- Alaska Mileage Plan elite members (MVP, MVP Gold, MVP Gold 75K, and MVP Gold 100K) can purchase an unlimited number of miles
- Alaska Mileage Plan non-elite members can purchase up to 150,000 miles per calendar year; that limit doesn’t include the bonus miles
Note that in all cases you’re limited to purchasing 100,000 Mileage Plan miles per transaction (pre-bonus), though you can always make multiple transactions. Furthermore, you can only purchase miles if you’ve been a member of Mileage Plan for at least 10 days.
Which credit card should you buy Mileage Plan miles with?
Alaska Mileage Plan mileage purchases are processed by points.com, meaning they don’t count as an airfare purchase for the purposes of credit card spending.
Therefore I’d recommend using a card on which you’re trying to reach a minimum spending requirement, or otherwise, a credit card that maximizes your return on everyday spending. See this post for more on which credit cards are best for buying points.
Is buying Alaska Mileage Plan miles worth it?
The Alaska Mileage Plan program recently underwent some major changes, whereby the program introduced new zone and distance based award pricing. These changes are a mixed bag, though on balance there’s still a lot of value with the Mileage Plan program, in my opinion:
- Alaska Mileage Plan has attractive award redemption rates, especially when you’re traveling shorter distances; there’s not a better value program for short haul premium cabin awards
- Alaska Mileage Plan has a unique array of airline partners — the airline belongs to the oneworld alliance so has lots of partners within the alliance, but also has several non-oneworld partners, ranging from Condor, to Fiji Airways, to Icelandair, to Singapore Airlines
- Alaska Mileage Plan allows stopovers on award tickets, which most programs don’t allow nowadays; this can stretch your miles a lot further
- Miles are sold at a reasonable price and can be bought in large quantities, making this a great program for “starting from scratch” and saving money on a premium international ticket
- When you redeem Mileage Plan miles, those flights count toward elite status in the program, and you earn one elite qualifying mile per mile flown
So yes, I think there are many situations where there’s huge value in buying Mileage Plan miles, especially if you find premium cabin award space on airlines like Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, Qantas, etc.
On what airlines can you redeem Alaska Mileage Plan miles?
Currently it’s possible to redeem Alaska Mileage Plan miles on the following partner airlines:
- Aer Lingus
- Air Tahiti Nui
- American Airlines
- British Airways
- Cathay Pacific
- Condor
- EL AL
- Fiji Airways
- Finnair
- Hainan Airlines
- Hawaiian Airlines
- Iberia
- Icelandair
- Japan Airlines
- Korean Air
- LATAM
- Malaysia Airlines
- Oman Air
- Porter Airlines
- Qantas
- Qatar Airways
- Royal Air Maroc
- Royal Jordanian
- Singapore Airlines
- SriLankan Airlines
- Starlux Airlines
What are good uses of Alaska Mileage Plan miles?
With the changes we recently saw to the Alaska Mileage Plan program, the sweet spots are totally different than before. In the past, the program was best for long haul premium cabin awards, while now the program is best for short haul awards in all cabins.
See my guide with the best uses of Alaska Mileage Plan miles. As you can see, there’s lots of value to be had for partner redemptions, especially on shorter trips. In many ways, Mileage Plan is now a competitor to things like British Airways’ program, which have lucrative distance based pricing.
Tip: Take advantage of Alaska’s stopover policy
One of my favorite aspects of Alaska Mileage Plan miles is that you’re allowed a stopover on a partner award ticket without paying additional miles. Since you’re allowed a stopover even on a one-way, this means you could have two stopovers on a roundtrip award.
Nowadays most airline loyalty programs have eliminated free stopovers on award tickets, so this is something that really sets the program apart. The only exception is that stopovers aren’t allowed if your award is exclusively for travel within Asia.
Are there fuel surcharges on Alaska Mileage Plan awards?
Many consumers are frustrated by the practice of airlines adding carrier imposed surcharges to award tickets. In the case of Mileage Plan, most partners don’t have these surcharges. However, there are surcharges for travel on British Airways, Hainan Airlines, and Icelandair, which is something to keep in mind.
How much are Alaska Mileage Plan miles worth?
Everyone will value mileage currencies differently, but personally I value Alaska Mileage Plan miles at ~1.5 cents each, which is in line with the highest I value any single airline mileage currency. I tend to value points pretty conservatively, and there are many ways to get more value from Mileage Plan miles than that (as I’ve hopefully demonstrated above).
Do Alaska Mileage Plan miles expire?
Alaska Mileage Plan miles don’t expire as long as you have at least some account activity once every 24 months. Account activity could include earning or redeeming miles.
What other ways can you earn Alaska Mileage Plan miles?
There are several ways to earn Alaska Mileage Plan miles, both through flying and non-flying means. The easiest way to earn Alaska miles is with one of the co-branded credit cards, which include the:
Both offer great welcome bonuses after completing a moderate minimum spending amount. There are lots of other great perks to these cards as well.
On top of that, of the major transferable points currencies, Alaska Mileage Plan partners with Bilt Rewards. That means that points earned with the Bilt Mastercard® (review) can be transfered to Alaska Mileage Plan, which is quite exciting.
Bottom line
Alaska Mileage Plan is one of the most lucrative loyalty programs to buy miles from, thanks to the excellent redemption rates, stopovers on one-way awards, and variety of partners.
Mileage Plan is offering a bonus on purchased miles, and it appears that the standard offer is for up to a 60% bonus. This is an opportunity to pick up miles for around 1.85 cents each. There’s lots of value to be had with this offer if you’re being strategic, though admittedly not all sweet spots are as good as they used to be. Everyone should crunch the numbers for themselves, and I’d only make a purchase with a specific use in mind.
Do you plan on purchasing Alaska Mileage Plan miles with this promotion?
This is honestly frustrating, once again, it’s limited to US-based offers only, just like before. I’m seriously considering closing my account at this point.
Hi Ben, just an FYI, your article refers to Fiji Airways as a non-one world partner. They did recently change and they are now a full one world partner.
I know you like to be correct so just thought I would point this out for you.
An awesome use of them is on last-minute international AA F bookings. I managed to snag a day-of ticket from JFK to LHR in F for 67,500 miles and ~$20. Not the most aspirational product, but it appears AA makes pretty much any unsold F inventory available a couple of days out on some of these routes (LAX to SYD is another).
Obviously this is time limited as they will get rid of F in the near future