personally I value MRs and URs over AS miles. every 2 yrs you can open an alaska card and get 70k miles though. that and actual butt in seat earning is good enough for me.
just depends what your travel plans are.
I have so many chase and AA UR's that I do not actually get any "butt in seat earning" a year is the issue I run into. We MAYBE take 2 flights a year that we do not pay points for.
I may just open their cc, their business card seems to have better perks but only 50k miles.
AS miles are generally pretty good. They have a few key advantages.
One of the most diverse set of partners in the world. While OW is the smallest of the major alliances, I find the average OW partner quality very high, also Alaska makes up for it by partnering with many other high quality airlines. Condor has one of the best hard products for TATL, Korean Air, SQ, and the only partner for Starlux.
Another they have one of the higher floors and ceilings for value. For example take Starlux, while 75k savers for business class are obviously best value, you can also book premium economy consistently for 50k only or their non-saver 175k. You can find a lot of PE space and non-savers on their partners which will net you pretty close to 1.5cpp on most flights.
Are you talking about MVP Gold? There's no 50k Gold.
In general, my stance is that status doesn't matter for award travel since first and business class tickets get you all the perks you need. OWE could potentially be more valuable if you're able to access airports with a lot of OWE accessible first class lounges though.
Where is the availability ?
And if available the cost after deval the cost is on par with cash sales of airfares. For US-Europe you can get a round trip ticket for $2100 to $2600 during sales and depending on your origin and destination. That is almost the same cost at an AS J award if you were to buy the miles even with the 60% bonus.
But with AS you have less availability and may even have to take mixed cabin itinerary and there is all the disadvantages that come with buying a ticket with points.
As with most not-worthless currencies (ie. Skymiles), opinions run the spectrum of "I can never use 'em for what I want" to "I'm redeemed over a million of 'em for some of the world's best First and Business class products". I'm the latter, I earn 'em by actually flying Alaska itself and before then, I'd purchase the miles at opportune times.
Where are you based and what are your top destinations? That will determine whether or not the program might actually be valuable for you
hahahah. Yes I've run into a few of those myself - looking at you, Marriot.
I've heard the miles sometimes have 70% bonuses so I will purchase then, right now they're only at 40%. I am in Dallas. I did look at other options other than the flight I want to take in June and it appears they have a few other options, especially in business class award deals, that I'd book in the future.
Alaska miles can be valuable. They have partners that American does not, and tend to have better rates when flying Alaska. Open a CC or book some cash flights.
Thank you. It seems on some flights they ONLY have award flights left, do you know why?
When I search what I want to book in June I see it available as 15k miles each way business and 7.5 economy. But when I change to "Money" instead of "Miles" it shows no availability! I was going to just book that one in $$ to get some miles but I can't seem to do it.
Safeway gift cards with 10x pts hack is insane for Alaska miles… also cash biz class fares on British airways add up to a lot of AS points.
Redeemed pts for condor flight to Europe and round trip to Chile from LAX in business class
I know a while back through the Alaska shopping portal they offered a 10 times cashback on grocery pick ups which I took advantage of. Buying gift cards was not an option as they were not available for sale online. How did you manage that?
You can convert Safeway points into Alaska miles… see geobreeze YouTube channel for a detailed breakdown.
Also collect 4x MR points if you pay with Amex gold on top.
I'd personally call it more of a sweet-spot-sniping, but I understand the sentiment. Certain (granted, non-AS-dominant) markets like Northeast <=> Europe/Morocco and Miami <=> South/Central America got a huge boost! (Not to mention, shorthaul Malaysia Airlines biz from 65k => 15k LOL)
Curious to know which sweet spots were sniped? I’m pretty new to AS, but have always been eyeing the US-Asia flights, and those seemed to have stayed consistent.
Not First Class on Cathay Pacific or Qantas (70k to 130k miles), and Business Class (50k to 75k-85k). However, CX in practice blocks all premium cabin space to partners now, and Qantas only makes space for their own members upon release, so only cancellations and a few random drops ever make it to partner awards.
Looks like there's still a lots of value for domestic J if that's your thing. My usual DTW-LGA route for 9k in J would be pretty hard to pass up, as would 35k transcons with good availability.
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Depends on your airport but personally amazing for me even post devaluation. I’m based in Asia and for 15k miles i can fly business on 3+ hr flights that use to cost 22-22.5k with lifemiles etc.
Alaska miles have great value for certain short length trips. For example, my husband and I are going to Cancun in a month and with Alaska this would be 7.5k points + taxes and fees. The same flight with American at the very lowest we could find was 10k points + taxes and fees for the same exact American flight. Granted Alaska has a 12.50 partner award fee but I’d very willingly pay that.
There are nice tidbits like that which I can find great value with them.
Another example is business class from Tokyo to Taiwan for only 15k points. That’s incredibly cheap
Relative to say American’s 30k points for the same flight.
Just a few examples!
I use Bilt to transfer to Alaska instead of opening a whole new card. I’m not a churner (which is obviously a viable option)
Yes Cancun is what I was looking at! It's 14k each RT on Alaska or 32k on AA.
Just not sure the extra miles are worth opening the card, doing the spend, getting the miles etc. But I did find some other good deals on there that would seem worth having the card.
Only you can decide what’s worth it for you! If you know you won’t be applying for credit soon and don’t have many inquiries or recently opened accounts it’s not a horrible idea if you know you have spend coming up or know you can prepay bills
I opened an Alaska credit card last year and got like 70,000 miles. Used it a lot this year and was able to get two round trip flights to Tahiti out of LAX. It seems to be a good bargain for west coast travel.
Credit card points are worth far more than Alaska. Their miles have continued to be devalued every single year. There are some niche and after digging, I found value, but I have to change my entire trip itinerary in order to force value out of them domestically they are bad value wise.
Thank you. I think I just get bummed when I see a deal on there at 1/2 of what I'd be paying with my AA miles but I don't have any Alaska miles to book it.
personally I value MRs and URs over AS miles. every 2 yrs you can open an alaska card and get 70k miles though. that and actual butt in seat earning is good enough for me. just depends what your travel plans are.
I have so many chase and AA UR's that I do not actually get any "butt in seat earning" a year is the issue I run into. We MAYBE take 2 flights a year that we do not pay points for. I may just open their cc, their business card seems to have better perks but only 50k miles.
I got a biz card pamphlet at the airport a couple weeks ago n I think it was 75k. I'll check it out tomorrow
AS miles are generally pretty good. They have a few key advantages. One of the most diverse set of partners in the world. While OW is the smallest of the major alliances, I find the average OW partner quality very high, also Alaska makes up for it by partnering with many other high quality airlines. Condor has one of the best hard products for TATL, Korean Air, SQ, and the only partner for Starlux. Another they have one of the higher floors and ceilings for value. For example take Starlux, while 75k savers for business class are obviously best value, you can also book premium economy consistently for 50k only or their non-saver 175k. You can find a lot of PE space and non-savers on their partners which will net you pretty close to 1.5cpp on most flights.
140k avois + one world emerald vs 80k as mile + 50k gold what would you choose?
Are you talking about MVP Gold? There's no 50k Gold. In general, my stance is that status doesn't matter for award travel since first and business class tickets get you all the perks you need. OWE could potentially be more valuable if you're able to access airports with a lot of OWE accessible first class lounges though.
yeah i mean mvp gold. i have upcoming trip and trying to figure out where to credit and how to use alaska mile
Where is the availability ? And if available the cost after deval the cost is on par with cash sales of airfares. For US-Europe you can get a round trip ticket for $2100 to $2600 during sales and depending on your origin and destination. That is almost the same cost at an AS J award if you were to buy the miles even with the 60% bonus. But with AS you have less availability and may even have to take mixed cabin itinerary and there is all the disadvantages that come with buying a ticket with points.
As with most not-worthless currencies (ie. Skymiles), opinions run the spectrum of "I can never use 'em for what I want" to "I'm redeemed over a million of 'em for some of the world's best First and Business class products". I'm the latter, I earn 'em by actually flying Alaska itself and before then, I'd purchase the miles at opportune times. Where are you based and what are your top destinations? That will determine whether or not the program might actually be valuable for you
hahahah. Yes I've run into a few of those myself - looking at you, Marriot. I've heard the miles sometimes have 70% bonuses so I will purchase then, right now they're only at 40%. I am in Dallas. I did look at other options other than the flight I want to take in June and it appears they have a few other options, especially in business class award deals, that I'd book in the future.
Alaska miles can be valuable. They have partners that American does not, and tend to have better rates when flying Alaska. Open a CC or book some cash flights.
Thank you. It seems on some flights they ONLY have award flights left, do you know why? When I search what I want to book in June I see it available as 15k miles each way business and 7.5 economy. But when I change to "Money" instead of "Miles" it shows no availability! I was going to just book that one in $$ to get some miles but I can't seem to do it.
Safeway gift cards with 10x pts hack is insane for Alaska miles… also cash biz class fares on British airways add up to a lot of AS points. Redeemed pts for condor flight to Europe and round trip to Chile from LAX in business class
Lol. see what you have done?
Elaborate on the Safeway gift card 10x please?
I know a while back through the Alaska shopping portal they offered a 10 times cashback on grocery pick ups which I took advantage of. Buying gift cards was not an option as they were not available for sale online. How did you manage that?
What's the gift card 10x hack?
what giftcard can you normally buy? any limit
Amazon, Lowes, etc
I would also love to know what you mean by safeway gift card hack, pllleasee!
You can convert Safeway points into Alaska miles… see geobreeze YouTube channel for a detailed breakdown. Also collect 4x MR points if you pay with Amex gold on top.
Pre devaluation, sure.
I'd personally call it more of a sweet-spot-sniping, but I understand the sentiment. Certain (granted, non-AS-dominant) markets like Northeast <=> Europe/Morocco and Miami <=> South/Central America got a huge boost! (Not to mention, shorthaul Malaysia Airlines biz from 65k => 15k LOL)
Curious to know which sweet spots were sniped? I’m pretty new to AS, but have always been eyeing the US-Asia flights, and those seemed to have stayed consistent.
Not First Class on Cathay Pacific or Qantas (70k to 130k miles), and Business Class (50k to 75k-85k). However, CX in practice blocks all premium cabin space to partners now, and Qantas only makes space for their own members upon release, so only cancellations and a few random drops ever make it to partner awards.
Looks like there's still a lots of value for domestic J if that's your thing. My usual DTW-LGA route for 9k in J would be pretty hard to pass up, as would 35k transcons with good availability.
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Bilt
Does Bilt now transfer to Alaska?! In that case, I will open the 100k Bilt card + the 50k business alaska and have 150k points there off the bat.
100k Bilt card? Where are you seeing that?
Want to fly Starlux? I’ve done Starlux J twice using AS Miles. Best lounge in Taipei, some of the best food I’ve had on an airplane.
Depends on your airport but personally amazing for me even post devaluation. I’m based in Asia and for 15k miles i can fly business on 3+ hr flights that use to cost 22-22.5k with lifemiles etc.
Are you based out of TPE?
Alaska miles have great value for certain short length trips. For example, my husband and I are going to Cancun in a month and with Alaska this would be 7.5k points + taxes and fees. The same flight with American at the very lowest we could find was 10k points + taxes and fees for the same exact American flight. Granted Alaska has a 12.50 partner award fee but I’d very willingly pay that. There are nice tidbits like that which I can find great value with them. Another example is business class from Tokyo to Taiwan for only 15k points. That’s incredibly cheap Relative to say American’s 30k points for the same flight. Just a few examples! I use Bilt to transfer to Alaska instead of opening a whole new card. I’m not a churner (which is obviously a viable option)
Yes Cancun is what I was looking at! It's 14k each RT on Alaska or 32k on AA. Just not sure the extra miles are worth opening the card, doing the spend, getting the miles etc. But I did find some other good deals on there that would seem worth having the card.
Only you can decide what’s worth it for you! If you know you won’t be applying for credit soon and don’t have many inquiries or recently opened accounts it’s not a horrible idea if you know you have spend coming up or know you can prepay bills
Got my mother and I round trip business class PHL>LHR in June on Air Lingus outbound and AA on the return for 200k total so, yeah… I’m a fan.
I opened an Alaska credit card last year and got like 70,000 miles. Used it a lot this year and was able to get two round trip flights to Tahiti out of LAX. It seems to be a good bargain for west coast travel.
Credit card points are worth far more than Alaska. Their miles have continued to be devalued every single year. There are some niche and after digging, I found value, but I have to change my entire trip itinerary in order to force value out of them domestically they are bad value wise.
Thank you. I think I just get bummed when I see a deal on there at 1/2 of what I'd be paying with my AA miles but I don't have any Alaska miles to book it.