Until May 21, 2025, you can earn up to 60% bonus miles when you purchase Alaska Mileage Plan miles.
The offer is targeted: some members can get a lower bonus, such as 50% or 40%.
This is a recurring offer: up to 60% bonus was also offered in February 2025.
The normal annual mileage purchase limit is 150,000 miles (before bonus) per account per calendar year. If you have a high status (MVP, MVP Gold, MVP Gold 75K and MVP Gold 100K), there is no annual limit.
For example, a purchase of 40,000 miles will cost you US$1,100. You’ll get 24,000 bonus miles, for a total of 64,000 miles.
Here are the bonuses awarded at different purchase levels:
The points purchase transaction is in U.S. dollars. For residents of Quebec, GST and QST must be added.
We recommend that you use a credit card that does not charge foreign currency conversion fees, such as:
You’ll save 2.5% in fees with this points purchase!
Purchases are made via Points.com, a site external to Alaska Mileage Plan. Therefore, this will not count as an eligible travel purchase.
The answer to that question is… yes.
In Canada, as of November 27, 2022, we no longer have the opportunity to have credit cards that directly earn Alaska Mileage Plan miles.
So buying Alaska Mileage Plan miles can be an interesting solution, but ONLY when you have a very specific goal in mind.
Personally, I value Alaska Mileage Plan miles at 1.8 US cents (or 2.4 Canadian cents). However, they can be used to much greater effect.
The only other indirect way to earn Alaska Mileage Plan miles is to transfer your Marriott Bonvoy points to Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan.
The rate is 3 Marriott Bonvoy points per 1 mile Alaska Mileage Plan. Plus, there’s a 5,000-mile bonus if the transfer is 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points.
It will also be increasingly possible to use VIPorter points for flights with Alaska Airlines. For the moment, a very limited number of routes are available (Anchorage, for example). But the partnership between Porter and Alaska Airlines means there will be more ways and points to access them.
Alaska Airlines joined the Oneworld alliance on March 31, 2021, giving it access to many new partners.
But since then, Alaska Airlines has changed its fare structure in December 2022. Miles to be redeemed for an airline ticket now depend on distance, departure area or change according to demand.
This fee schedule was then revised in March 2024 according to different geographical zones, and the limits on point redemption between certain geographical zones were removed, which is good news.
The Alaska Mileage Plan program entitles its members to a free one-way stop on most award tickets.
For example, you can travel from Boston to Singapore with a few days stop in Tokyo for free.
Over the years, Alaska Airlines has diversified its alliance partners to include Cathay Pacific, Fiji Airways, Qantas and Icelandair.
Buying Alaska Mileage Plan miles can be interesting for some. It can be for a specific travel goal, or to top up a balance of Alaska Mileage Plan miles toward an award ticket.
Especially since there is no longer any other option for obtaining them in Canada, other than transferring Marriott Bonvoy points!
Savings are here (if you don’t see the sign-up form, please click here):
