Table Of Content
What is the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan?
Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan is a loyalty program for Alaska frequent flyers. Consumers can set up an account with Alaska Airlines that offers award-winning benefits. Furthermore, the Mileage Plan account enables users to make bookings on the Alaska Airlines website quickly and easily.
Alaskan Airlines and 55 Mileage Plan partners, consumers are able to earn miles towards travel in a variety of ways. Account holders are able to choose from 15 different airline partners to redeem their miles to over 700 destinations, on six different continents.
Account holders are able to receive weekly discount codes along with promotional offers on airfare, cruises, hotels, Mileage Plan partners, and vacation packages. Furthermore, when they subscribe to the Insider, they are able to receive additional promotional offers.
Another benefit is the ability to store information on their account profile like the home airport, favorite destination cities, and seating preferences. This allows you to pre-fill forms quickly for quick and easy booking.
What Rewards Can You Get With Alaska Airlines Miles?
The Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan offers many options to redeem your miles:
- Award flights: You can use your miles to travel the globe with Alaska and Alaska's international partners. On Alaska, there are no blackout dates for travel, and if a spot becomes available, you can use miles to cover the cost. Due to fluctuating availability, it's not always possible to redeem for every partner flight or cabin.
- Money & Miles – Consumers are able to use their Alaska Airlines Miles to earn a 50% discount on most fares. The maximum discount is $100 off the base fare when turning in 10,000 miles, or $200 off the base fare for 20,000 miles.
- First Class Upgrade – Those who wish to upgrade to first class may do so for 15,000 points.
- Hotels: You can redeem Alaska miles also for hotels. There are over 400,000 properties around the globe and you can pay for your entire stay with miles, or use a combination of miles and cash.
- Oneworld Members – Alaska Airline Miles may also be applied towards oneworld Alliance members and Global Partner airlines, enabling them to travel worldwide.
What Else Can you Do with Alaska Airlines Miles?
Besides travel, there are additional uses for Alaska miles, such as:
- Share, gift, donate – Account holders are able to share miles with a friend or family. They are able to do so for $10 per 1,000 miles. If you wish to donate your miles, you may choose to do so at a few different nonprofits including Make-A-Wish, Fisher House Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, and other disaster relief organizations.
- Subscriptions – If you’re not planning to travel anytime soon and want to use up some of your miles, consider redeeming them for magazine subscriptions. The number of miles required will vary based on the subscription. For instance, Whiskey Advocate or Cigar Aficionado costs 1,500 miles for 4 to 6 issues. Other options include Barron’s, which is 2,300 miles for 52 issues, or Midwest Living, available for just 200 miles for 6 issues.
- Alaska Airlines Extras – Account holders are able to choose from a variety of experiences to spend their miles, anywhere from less than 5,000 miles, all the way up to over 35,000 miles. This could include in-flight WiFi for 2,000 miles, or hockey tickets for 5,000 miles.
How Much are Alaska Airlines Miles Worth?
Alaska Airline miles are worth roughly 1.3 cents each when they are redeemed towards flights.
When redeeming miles, flights booked further in advance will yield the highest per-mile value, while the last-minute bookings yield the lowest.
How Can You Join the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan?
Joining the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan is straightforward.
First, visit the Join Mileage Plan page and scroll down to enter your personal information exactly as it appears on your government-issued ID used for travel.
You’ll need to provide details like your name, date of birth, phone number, email, and mailing address, and create a user ID and password. Once all the information is entered, simply click the “Join Mileage Plan” button to complete the process.
Limitations & Restrictions To Consider
While the Mileage Plan offers a number of benefits, there are certain restrictions on what a person is able to use their miles on. The following are just a few exmples of what your are not able to redeem miles on:
- Mileage Plan™ Award tickets, with the exception of AS50 Money and Miles Awards
- Complimentary tickets;
- Non-revenue travel tickets;
- Reduced industry rate tickets;
- Charter tickets;
- Consolidator rate tickets;
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How to Earn Alaska Airlines Miles Miles
You can earn Alaska Airline miles from flights, activities you purchase through Alaska website or using Alska credit cards:
1. Fly With Alaska Airlines or Partner Airlines
You will accrue a specific number of miles based on the cost of your flight. All flights, excluding those in basic economy, offer 100% base miles, which means you receive one mile for each mile you fly.
You can earn additional miles the higher your fare class. The bonus miles range from 25% to 100% for fare classes F, P, I, Y S, M, and B, which are largely first class or premium seats.
Alaska Airlines is a member of the OneWorld airline alliance, which collaborates with a wide range of other airlines to offer frequent flyer miles for travel on member airlines.
American Airlines, British Airways, Emirates, and many other well-known airlines that can be found online are just a few of the largest airlines that are a part of the program.
2. Travel Activities You Purchase On Alaska Website
Besides flights, you can earn miles also if you purchase hotels, cruises or even everyday shopping:
- Hotels or Cruises – Mileage Plan members are able to earn miles when staying at participating hotels and cruises. Members are able to earn up to 10,000 miles per night on every stay. There are 400,000 properties around the globe that would qualify to earn points. When booking through CruisesOnly, members are able to earn up to 10,000 miles or more based on the total of their purchase price. Members are able to earn one mile per dollar on the purchase price.
- Miles on the ground – Mileage Plan members are able to earn miles when they are renting a car through one of the car rental partners. Furthermore, members are able to earn miles as they book a ride through Lyft. Members will earn one mile per dollar spent on all Lyft rides.
- Every Day Shopping – Mileage Plan members are able to earn a lot of miles just by their normal shopping patterns. By purchasing things like your cell phone, dining out, or buying groceries, members are able to earn points. The Mileage Plan Dining offers up to five miles for every dollar spent on the entire bill. The Mileage Plan Shopping will allow members to earn miles for every dollar spent on hundreds of different stores.
3. Using Alaska Airlines Credit Cards
The fastest way to earn Alaska Airline miles is to make purchases with the Alaska Airlines credit card.
For every dollar spent eligible for Alaska Airlines purchases, cardholders will earn three miles. Furthermore, cardholders will earn 1 mile for every dollar spent on all other purchases.
The business card also offers three miles for every dollar spent on eligible Alaska Airlines purchases.
Card | Welcome Bonus | Rewards | Annual Fee |
| 60,000 miles
70,000 Bonus Miles plus Alaska's Famous Companion Fare™ ($99 fare plus taxes and fees from $23) after you make $3,000 or more in purchases within the first 90 days of your account opening.
| 1X – 3X
unlimited 3 miles for every $1 spent on eligible Alaska Airlines purchases, 2X on eligible gas, EV charging station, cable, streaming services and local transit (including ride share) purchases and unlimited 1 mile for every $1 spent on all other purchases
| $95 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska Airlines Visa® Business credit card | 50,000 miles
50,000 bonus miles if you spend $3,000 or more within the first 90 days of opening your account
| 1X – 10X
3 miles for every $1 spent on Alaska Airlines, 2 miles for every $1 spent on gas, EV charging station, shipping and local transit (including rideshare) purchases, and 1 mile for every $1 spent on all other purchases. Plus, earn a 10% rewards bonus on all miles earned from card purchases if your company has an eligible Bank of America® small business account.
| $75 |
Which Credit Card Will Allow Transferring Points to Alaska Airlines?
While not all credit cards membership clubs allow direct transfer of miles or points to Alaska, most of them allow transferring to partner airline companies that allow you to book book Alaska Airlines flights:
- Amex Membership Club – Amex is a partnered credit card company that allows card holders to easily transfer their points into Alaska Airline miles. Typically the points will be worth about a half a cent to one cent for every point. Amex does charge 0.06 cents per transferred point with a maximum of $99 in fees.
- Chase Ultimate Rewards – Chase cardholders are not able to transfer their points directly to Alaska Airlines. However, they are able to transfer the points to the British Airways Executive Club, and use Avios points to book flights on Alaska Airlines.
- Citi ThankYou – Citi ThankYou points are not applicable towards transferring to the Alaska Mileage Plan. They are however transferable to Cathay Pacific, Qantas, or Singapore airlines and use the miles to book their flights through Alaska Airlines.
- Capital One Travel – Capital One miles are not able to be transferred directly to Alaska Airlines. Still, they are able to be transferred to British Airways, Cathay,Emirates, Finnair, Qantas, or Singapore and then those miles may be used to book Alaska Airlines flights.
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Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan Elite Status
Elite members of the Mileage Plan earn miles quickly, enjoy more upgrades on the fares you fly, a variety of airport benefits, and service benefits.
There are four tiers in the Alaska Elite Status program: MVP, MVP Gold, MVP Gold 75K, and MVP Gold 100K.
Each program has a higher qualification bar but offers more prizes and benefits than the one before it. You must accumulate a specific number of miles or segments during a calendar year to be eligible for each tier.
2024 Main Changes
The Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan Elite Status program has some big changes for 2024, especially when it comes to how you earn and qualify for status.
You don't have to fly a specific number of Alaska Airlines segments anymore to get status. Now, you can earn it by collecting elite qualifying miles (EQMs) on any Mileage Plan partner airline.
In 2024, using the Alaska Airlines credit card to make purchases will help you earn more EQMs. For every $10,000 you spend, you'll get 4,000 EQMs, with a maximum of 20,000 EQMs for $50,000 spent.
Alaska MVP Status 2025 | Qualifying Miles |
|---|---|
MVP | 20,000 |
MVP Gold | 40,000 |
MVP 75K | 75,000 |
MVP 100K | 100,000 |
Buying, Giving, or Transferring Alaska Airlines Miles
Alaska enables customers to purchase and transfer miles. Here's how it works:
- Purchasing Alaska Airlines Miles
Alaska Airlines members are able to purchase miles for 2.75 US centers per mile, along with a 7.5% tax recovery fee, which will bring the total to 2.96 US cents per mile. Alaska Airlines also runs “mystery bonuses,” with the best offer available up to 50% on purchased miles.
They typically offer a 50% bonus when buying 20,000 – 100,000 miles, 40% bonus when buying 10,000 – 19,000 miles, and 30% bonus when buying 3,000 – 9,000.
- Giving / Transferring Alaska Airlines Miles
Account members are able to transfer miles to friends and family, but it will come with a fee.
It can be extremely expensive to transfer miles from one person to another. Account members may transfer 1,000 to 30,000 miles in increments of 1,000 miles at cost of $10 per 1,000 miles, plus a $25.00 processing fee per transaction.
It should be noted that account members are limited to transferring 100,000 miles in or out of an account per calendar year. For an idea on how much this would cost, if you are transferring 30,000 miles, it would cost you roughly $325.
FAQs
How much are Alaska Airlines miles worth?
Alaska Airlines miles are worth about 1.2 cents each mile. This is quite similar to United's mile worth, more than what you can get with American Airlines (1 cent on average) and less compared to Delta's mile worth, which is approximately 1.5 cents.
Do Alaska Airlines Miles expire?
Members of the Mileage Plan will expire after 24 months if there has been no activity on the account. As long as you either redeem or earn miles at least once every 24 months, your points will continue to follow you.
Can I convert Alaska Airlines Miles to cash?
If you have a plethora of Alaskan miles and wish to convert them to cash, you could sell your miles through the Milesbuyer trading platform.
How many Miles do you get for an Alaska Airlines flight?
On each flight, members are able to get one mile per mile flown on the flight.
What's the cost of being an Alaska Airlines Rapid Rewards member?
The cost to become an Alaska Airlines member is free. Those looking to become a member is to simply sign up for the membership.
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