Comments on: How much are Alaska Airlines miles really worth? Our guide to calculating Alaska Airlines miles value

By: AZ MBNZ

AZ MBNZ — Sun, 24 May 2020 03:15:03 +0000

When using Alaska Airlines Miles to fly on their partner Condor, we took advantage of the free stopover/connecting flight. Our 50k miles got us a nonstop to Frankfurt, Germany, and then to Greece. We then flew back to Frankfurt on the way to the US. The price for a flight like this in the summer season would have been minimum $1400 coach. We could tailor the dates to our liking. Even though Frankfurt was the “stopover”, we still spent over two weeks there before departing for Greece. It was an incredible deal, and a wonderful trip.

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 01 Mar 2020 17:16:26 +0000

In reply to Thomas Roth.

This is not exactly true. The best availability for premium cabin awards is always as close to to the day they release awards as possible.
Alaska releases its awards 330 days in advance. As you might know, flights on Cathay is best to search on BA site.
This is what I found for the end of January 2021 for non-stop flights on Cathay for SFO-HKG route on BA site.
There are at least 3 business class award seats available for each of the following days: 1/18-1/21.
Just for curiosity, I checked for flights from West Cost, specifically for for non-stop flights ORD-HKG.
There are 4 business class seats available on 1/13, 1/19, 1/20, 1/25.

By: Thomas Roth

Thomas Roth — Sat, 29 Feb 2020 14:21:13 +0000

Using Alaska miles for premium cabin awards is great IN THEORY but in reality these awards are NEVER actually available. I’ve accumulated a ton of miles. I’ve been obsessively looking to use miles in business or first on British, Cathay, Emirates and Icelandair over the past few months. Numerous routes, long span of dates. Nothing. They display options in “mixed cabin” meaning for 70,000 miles you can get from SFO to LAX in first, but LAX-HKG is in economy! Really deceptive business practices. Maybe fraudulent. This has decreased my loyalty to Alaska. Unless you are interested using your Alaska miles only for economy travel, I’d suggest skipping the miles game on Alaska. They don’t play fair, and of course they set the rules.

By: B Slichter

B Slichter — Mon, 17 Feb 2020 23:41:47 +0000

Can miles be transfered between family members?

By: Tony

Tony — Thu, 03 Oct 2019 17:56:19 +0000

Thank you for such an informative article! I am looking forward to more valuable and useful information in the future.

By: John

John — Mon, 03 Jun 2019 17:03:47 +0000

In reply to Jerry. Please disregard my reply above

By: John

John — Mon, 03 Jun 2019 17:03:09 +0000

In reply to Jerry. Yes what? Free of charge?

By: Jerry

Jerry — Mon, 03 Jun 2019 14:30:34 +0000

Living in Alaska, I find that Alaska Airlines is the best plan for me. I do everything I can to maximize my miles and look for programs that give miles, such as my cable, internet, and cellular provider (GCI) provides 1 mile for every dollar spent for their services. I’ve received miles for carpet installation and for furniture purchases at local stores. The old Starwood AMEx was awesome with a 1:3 transfer ratio, but the new Bonvoy program is not as good as my AK Air Visas.

I do not recall ever purchasing miles, but I did transfer some from my wife and kids one time when we traveled business class to Toyko. The few miles I transferred to get the reward level for my wife and me was worth the cost.

By: Jerry

Jerry — Mon, 03 Jun 2019 14:23:27 +0000

In reply to John. Yes, but at $10/1000 miles.

By: John

John — Sun, 02 Jun 2019 21:07:02 +0000

Is it possible to transfer Alaska Airlines miles to/from spouse? If so, is it free or is there some reasonable fee?