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Alaska Airlines Miles: Partners, Routing Rules and Best Ways to Earn

March 28, 2018 by Dominik Żmuda 64 Comments  Travel Miles 101 has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Travel Miles 101 and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers.

Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities. Disclosures.

Alaska Airlines

Alaska Airlines

Alaska Airlines, based in Seattle, is an airline operating flights within North America – the US, Mexico, Canada, and select international destinations such as Costa Rica. The longest Alaska flights are those that can be operated with a Boeing 737, since they only have those (and now Virgin’s Airbus fleet, too). The beauty of Alaska Airlines is their fantastic mileage programme, which offers incredible redemption rates on most of their partners.

Alaska Airlines Partner Airlines

Alaska Airlines partners with many airlines and you can earn and redeem miles on all of their partners (with a few exceptions – for example, you can only earn miles on American Airlines flights if you booked a codeshare flight with an Alaska flight number). Their newer partners such as Singapore Airlines aren’t available for award travel yet, but you already earn miles on those flights. Alaska is partners currently with:

  • Air France (partnership ending soon)
  • American Airlines
  • British Airways
  • Cathay Pacific
  • Condor
  • Emirates
  • Fiji Airways
  • Finnair
  • Hainan Airlines
  • Icelandair
  • Japan Airlines
  • KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (partnership ending soon)
  • Korean Air
  • LATAM Airlines
  • PenAir
  • Qantas
  • Ravn Alaska
  • Singapore Airlines

To find award space on these airlines, simply use Alaska’s website. The only two exceptions are Cathay Pacific and LATAM Airlines – for these, use the British Airways Executive Club website to check award space. Keep in mind that Alaska may not always see the same award space that British Airways shows (Cathay releases more award seats to oneworld partners).

American Airlines International Business Class

American Airlines International Business Class

Alaska Airlines Award Routing Rules

Alaska Airlines only allows one partner airline + Alaska on an award ticket. You cannot mix partners. For example, you can fly Seattle – Los Angeles on Alaska and Los Angeles – Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific, but you cannot fly Seattle – Los Angeles on American Airlines and later connect on Cathay Pacific. Only one partner airline is allowed. As of now, Virgin America is still considered a partner airline and cannot be mixed.

Alaska Airlines is generous in that you can have a stopover on an award ticket, even on a one-way. So you could fly Vancouver to Hong Kong to Singapore on Cathay Pacific and stop in Hong Kong for however long you’d like. Most stopovers are limited to hub cities of their partner airlines, however, sometimes when calling to book an award over the phone other cities can be inserted as a stopover as long as the routing is direct.

Alaska doesn’t charge any close-in booking fees, but they do charge a $12.50 partner booking fee and a $15 phone booking fee. The cost to cancel or change an award ticket is $125 and if you’re outside of 60 days before departure, you can cancel or change for free.

Collecting Alaska Airlines Miles

Alaska Airlines miles are very easy to collect. Due to Alaska’s unique partnerships and generous routing rules on award tickets, Alaska miles are valued very high. Here are a number of ways to earn Alaska Airlines miles:

  • Flying with Alaska Airlines
  • Flying with Alaska’s Partner Airlines (listed above)
  • Purchasing or Sharing Miles (frequently on sale)
    • Tip: Buy miles at a discount when purchasing a revenue ticket on Alaska (Fly & Buy Miles)
  • Alaska Airlines Signature VISA Credit Card
    • Personal and Business versions
  • Transfer Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) points to Alaska Airlines
    • Transfers can take a few days
    • For every 20k SPG points you transfer, you get a 5k bonus in miles (20k SPG points = 25k miles)

The quickest way to earn miles is either buy purchasing them (or transferring them from a different Alaska account). The second quickest way (if you have a few days) is to transfer SPG points to Alaska.

Miles from Alaska flights generally post to your account a few days after the flight. Miles from partner airlines can take up to 14 days to post.

Cathay Pacific First Class

Cathay Pacific First Class

All in All

Alaska Airlines miles are very valuable. Being able to fly Cathay Pacific First Class with a stopover in Hong Kong for just 70k miles one-way is a great deal. You can also fly Cathay Pacific to Africa via Hong Kong for the same price in First Class… that’s amazing.

It is important to note that Alaska miles may sometimes not be redeemed on all routes operated by the partner airline. For example, you cannot fly Emirates exclusively between the Middle East and Europe – you must also fly to/from North America on the same ticket. Another example is that you can’t fly British Airways Europe to Asia – only Cathay Pacific.

If you have any questions about earning or redeeming Alaska miles, please post them below! Happy Booking!

Travel Miles 101 has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Travel Miles 101 and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers.

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Comments

  1. Mark says

    March 28, 2018 at 10:48 am

    Figuring out the free stopover is a serious mystery. Last year I scored Hawaii, Denver (stopover for 3 months) to London for 22.5k. Denver is not a hub for Alaska or it’s partners. I haven’t read a definitive explanation for stopovers on Alaska. As you say, “most stopover are limited to hub cities of partner airlines” but not exclusively. Any more tips?

    Reply
    • CDKing says

      March 30, 2018 at 7:53 am

      Its not a legal routing with AS, sometimes you just need to take the gifts and move on.

      Reply
    • Dominik Żmuda says

      March 31, 2018 at 3:32 pm

      As you have discovered, AS doesn’t always follow their own rules.. and sometimes we get lucky.

      Reply
  2. Brian says

    March 28, 2018 at 2:27 pm

    I live in Canada and have a lot of British Airways points that I haven’t used yet. Wonder if there is a simple way to use those BA points to fly with Alaska, say for example, from Calgary or Edmonton to Hawaii, Asia, etc.?

    Reply
    • Dominik Żmuda says

      March 31, 2018 at 3:35 pm

      There sure is. However, with BA, you pay for each segment. So the minimum price you will pay per segment is 7.5k Avios. With BA, they don’t show lots of routing combinations online so you may have to put together your trip flight by flight. AS doesn’t show on BA’s website.

      Reply
      • Brian says

        March 31, 2018 at 4:06 pm

        Thanks Dominik – so, can you give me some direction as to actually how I would do this? Does it have to be done by phone, from the BA website, or the Alaska website – can I just phone Alaska and ask them to make the arrangements and to use my BA miles – I find this all pretty confusing… thanks.

        Reply
        • Dominik Żmuda says

          April 10, 2018 at 7:51 am

          You ALWAYS call the airline who’s miles you are using to book on their partner. So you would call BA and tell them you want to use your BA miles for travel on Alaska – then provide them your desired flight info.

          Reply
  3. CDKing says

    March 30, 2018 at 9:02 am

    As of 4/25 virgin America no longer exists so unless booking close in the rule about not using this flights on a partner award is no longer an issue

    Reply
  4. MMiller says

    August 7, 2018 at 4:17 pm

    I will by flying on Scoot Air, the budget class airline of Singapore Airlines from Perth to Singapore.
    Through ticket on Alaska Air to SFO to connect with Singapore Air to Perth. Will Scoot Air miles count to total miles earned?

    Reply
    • Dominik Żmuda says

      August 9, 2018 at 4:03 pm

      No. Scoot is not a partner of AS.

      Reply
  5. lou says

    August 22, 2018 at 3:31 am

    hi,

    How i can found award ticket on alaska airlines with emirates parterns for this routing: CDG-DXB, coz with BA fees are overhelming.

    thanks

    Reply
    • Dominik Żmuda says

      August 23, 2018 at 1:49 pm

      You must include a flight to North America on the same ticket with a stopover in DXB, otherwise it isn’t possible.

      Reply
  6. Jen says

    November 26, 2018 at 8:37 am

    Hi! I’m looking to book 2 round trip tickets to S. Africa in April. Seattle to Johannesburg (ideal stopover in Dubai for 2 days) and then from Cape Town back to Seattle. I’m Alaska MVP Gold with about 55k unused miles but my husband isn’t and has probably 30k. Any suggestions on how best to book to get best first class or business class deal? Also, should I get the Alaska card – would that help in this case? Thanks so much in advance for your knowledge!!

    Reply
    • Dominik Żmuda says

      December 28, 2018 at 9:37 am

      You would need to have the necessary miles to book First or Business Class. Right now you don’t have enough even for one-way for one person. You can get the AS card to get more miles or transfer from SPG. It is a waste of miles, however, to redeem on Emirates First Class as there are much better ways of flying there for less points.

      Reply
      • Jen says

        December 28, 2018 at 1:26 pm

        Thank you very much for your response! I appreciate it!

        Happy Holidays!

        Reply
  7. david says

    December 27, 2018 at 2:49 pm

    Dominik,

    I have 150K of Alaska miles and would like to fly to Papeete Tahiti. Any recomended strategy?

    Reply
    • Dominik Żmuda says

      December 28, 2018 at 9:32 am

      You can’t. Your best option is to fly to Australia or NZ using AS miles and then from there fly to Tahiti.

      Reply
  8. Rick Felty says

    December 30, 2018 at 2:58 pm

    Been flying Alaska for 37 years, no complaints with Alaska itself, however their partner, American Airlines SUCKS ! Delays, commandeering aircraft and given to a new crew even if you paid first class, told to deplane and then fiend for yourself, being held hostage for 16 hours in Dallas. Connection flights witha plane and no pilot, delayed 4 hours on a pilot being flown in from Boston, again delayed 4 hours in Charollete N C , and another half hour on the Tarmac ! Missed connections, and meetings, and then find out the 6 K mile trip for my wife and I were not allowed or granted !!! ALASKA NEEDS TO DUMP AMERICAN. And go back to Delta or open more routes , or partner with Southwest Airlines.

    Reply
  9. Betsy says

    January 4, 2019 at 1:55 pm

    I’d like to use an Alaska partner to go from SFO to NZ in March. I have MVP status and 59K miles. Would love to leverage whatever I can to get a business or first class seat.

    What is your sage advice on how to approach this?

    Thank you!

    Reply
    • Dominik Żmuda says

      January 6, 2019 at 11:23 am

      You can fly CX, QF, or FJ. You only have enough miles for a one-way Economy ticket as of now.

      Reply
  10. Rae says

    January 5, 2019 at 9:11 pm

    I’m in daze over how to use miles and points on a transfer. I have SPG, UR, and Alaska points/miles and want to use most efficiently. I have enough points on each individual account to transfer or book independently.

    I’m looking to fly RT SEA/GUA in Oct/Nov. I’ve looked at airport wiki pages to see which carriers/routes I can use.

    What’s the best redemption plan? I normally just redeem Alaska for Alaska, UR on Chase, or transfer SPG to Alaska, but it seems there’s a more lucrative way to do this like transfer to BA and use Avios for American or something creative like that. I’m just in a fog as to how to do this.

    Thanks in advance for your suggestions and tips!

    Reply
    • Dominik Żmuda says

      January 6, 2019 at 11:21 am

      You would have to check the airlines that can fly you on this route, then you would check their partner airlines, and finally you would have to check the award charts of each of these airlines to determine the lowest cost possible in miles. Sometimes it might be UA, sometimes it might be AA, while other times it can be BA. It all depends on the routing you take and the availability.

      Reply
  11. Lee says

    January 7, 2019 at 3:07 pm

    I’m trying to book two business class tickets to Europe in late September returning in October using Alaska miles. I have over 800k miles and am gold mvp. The issue I’m encountering is mixed fares. Is there a better airport in Europe to use? I’m flying from pdx. I tried booking separate award flights domestic and then international. Are there airports in the US that would have better international direct options? I tried JFK.

    Thank you!

    Reply
    • Dominik Żmuda says

      January 14, 2019 at 3:05 pm

      You have to check each airport in Europe you want to go to individually. So PDX-London, PDX-Paris, etc. The best results will usually be with British Airways as they have the most availability, but it does come with high fees. If you are lucky, you will find some AA seats with low taxes and fees. Your travel period is also still peak, so finding seats will be harder.

      Reply
  12. Susan says

    January 16, 2019 at 5:53 pm

    I too am trying to figure out how to use my 50K Alaska miles for a one-way from Italy, I’m somewhat flexible on city, to PDX or SLC. I have figured out that one leg of my flight must be on Alaska, correct? So when I look on the AS site if I don’t see any routings listed with one leg Alaska, and another American, Air France or British Airways, they are sold out? I’m looking for end of April, so I may be too late.

    Reply
    • Dominik Żmuda says

      January 17, 2019 at 11:43 am

      How are you searching? If you type in FCO to PDX, you should see results with AA, BA, and perhaps other partners. Remember each partner has a different cost in miles. There’s no limit to number of flights in your booking – the only limit is that it must be only one Alaska partner airline.

      Reply
  13. Ashley Riann says

    January 18, 2019 at 12:28 pm

    I would like to fly from Victoria to Croatia I have a 128000 miles and thinking that I could go with British Airways. So how do I go about booking? Through Alaska or do I go through British Airways website?

    Reply
    • Dominik Żmuda says

      January 21, 2019 at 6:56 am

      If you have AS miles, you book through AS. If you have BA miles, you book through BA.

      Reply
  14. Kristin says

    January 21, 2019 at 10:45 am

    Hi, i’m Trying to fly from PDX to South Korea. But every time I enter in Seoul or Busan or Daegu into Alaska they say no flights are available. How can I use my mile and figure out the best flight? I was going to use their partner airlines Korean air.

    Thanks,

    Reply
    • Dominik Żmuda says

      January 29, 2019 at 7:55 pm

      If nothing shows up, then nothing is available. You can also try to search for CX flights on the BA website.

      Reply
  15. Doge says

    January 27, 2019 at 7:34 pm

    I’d like to fly from Seattle to Hyderabad using Alaska miles. I have more than 400k miles at this time. What the best strategy for me?

    Reply
    • Dominik Żmuda says

      January 29, 2019 at 7:54 pm

      It depends on what time of the year you want to go and what is available. Your best option is probably CX.

      Reply
  16. Fredrick says

    January 28, 2019 at 6:14 pm

    Flights from Seattle or anywhere in California to China , Japan or korea …would I have to book through Cathay or American and would they have direct ? Are the points a 1 for 1 redemption on their partner airlines ?

    Reply
    • Dominik Żmuda says

      January 29, 2019 at 7:54 pm

      You can use AS miles to fly any AS partner airline. Simply use their website to search for flights. You will have to use BA.com to find CX flights and then call AS to book.

      Reply
  17. Sus says

    February 10, 2019 at 9:27 pm

    Great information. Not easy to figure out the best way to get the most benefit out of miles. Do you know if you can use the companion fare for one of the tickets and miles (plus some cash) for the other ticket with Alaska? The fine print was not clear to me.

    Also – I think because one would be a companion we might have to stick to Alaska Air routes only?
    Thanks so much.

    Reply
    • Dominik Żmuda says

      March 8, 2019 at 11:23 pm

      The Companion ticket can only be used on cash bookings on AS flights.

      Reply
      • Jesse says

        April 27, 2019 at 10:46 am

        Yes, cash bookings. But are companion fares redeemable for flights on partner airlines?

        Reply
        • Dominik Żmuda says

          May 6, 2019 at 12:29 am

          No

          Reply
  18. Mary C says

    February 12, 2019 at 5:03 pm

    I have an MVP Guest upgrade pass from an Alaska MVP member, can I use this for a trip on Delta or KLM from PDX to Ireland?

    Reply
    • Dominik Żmuda says

      March 8, 2019 at 11:22 pm

      No

      Reply
  19. patricia says

    February 22, 2019 at 9:13 am

    Hi Dominik, is Fiji Airlines the most economical way to use my points and get to Auckland, N.Z. from Vancouver, Canada? Does it matter when the ‘peak’ season is? Want to fly in Feb., 2020.

    Reply
    • Dominik Żmuda says

      March 8, 2019 at 11:20 pm

      It depends on what miles and points you have but, yes, FJ is a great option.

      Reply
  20. Jim D Buchanan says

    March 24, 2019 at 2:24 pm

    I have 750,000 miles and want to take the whole Siberian Express fromVladivostok to St. Petersburg. At one time I saw that Amtrak would take Alaska miles and I’m wondering it there is a chance that the Trans-Siberian Railway would possibly do the same. Does anybody know?

    Reply
    • Dominik Żmuda says

      March 26, 2019 at 7:20 am

      No

      Reply
  21. joy says

    April 1, 2019 at 12:48 am

    i have plenty of alaska miles, can any of them be used to go from SF to Warsaw, Poland, or NYC to Warsaw, Poland
    thanks,
    red shoes

    Reply
    • Dominik Żmuda says

      April 20, 2019 at 1:14 pm

      Yes – on British Airways or Finnair.

      Reply
  22. Becky says

    April 21, 2019 at 2:40 pm

    So we just returned on a condor flight from Frankfurt. What steps do I take to get those miles added to my Alaska miles. We did pay out of pocket for the tickets.

    Reply
    • Dominik Żmuda says

      April 22, 2019 at 1:41 pm

      Email your Boarding Passes and eTicket to Alaska.

      Reply
  23. carol says

    April 24, 2019 at 5:21 am

    can i use my miles to upgrade my flight to london from seattle on british air to first class

    Reply
    • Dominik Żmuda says

      April 24, 2019 at 3:07 pm

      No

      Reply
  24. Tom says

    April 27, 2019 at 3:04 pm

    Needs update to include Aer Lingus. This article is #1 hit on Google so would be great to keep up to date.

    Reply
  25. Cameron says

    April 30, 2019 at 1:59 am

    When something seems too good to be true, it usually is…

    When I called in directly to the KrisFlyer (Singapore Airlines) service line, not a single award seat is available to ANY airport in Hawaii from SLC on Alaska Airlines using KrisFlyer redemption — not only on the day and location I requested (which had literally dozens of route combinations with available Alaska Airlines awards seats to my desired destination posted on Alaska’s own website), but absolutely nothing available to any Hawaiian airport seven days before or after that date as well (literally thousands of flight itineraries!). If award redemption is THAT BAD, how can they possibly promote this partnership in good conscience??

    Reply
    • Dominik Żmuda says

      May 6, 2019 at 12:30 am

      It has to be available at the Saver level on AS website for AS partners to book it. Check what the lowest price is with AS miles using the award chart and then find flights matching that price – those are Saver Level and can be booked using partner airlines.

      Reply
  26. Bee says

    May 10, 2019 at 2:07 am

    Hey Dominik,

    Your article is amazing. I just signed up Mariott Bonvoy credit card because of your article about transferring SPG points. There is a special 100K bonus miles promo, which translates to 125K Alaska miles once transferred, sweet.

    I am based in Los Angeles and going to travel to Shanghai. I have just signed up both Alaska Airline credit cards for both my business and personal last month. I am not trying to redeem my miles yet, but I wanted to get credit for my upcoming travel.

    So if I fly from LAX to Shanghai with American Airlines, which code shares with China Southern, will I get the miles for Alaska??? Since American Airlines is on your list, but not China Southern. Let me know. I appreciate your response.
    Bee recently posted…How to Tenderize MeatMy Profile

    Reply
    • Dominik Żmuda says

      May 13, 2019 at 12:03 am

      You will get AS miles if you fly AA, yes. You will not get AS miles if you fly China Southern because they aren’t a partner with AS.

      Reply
  27. William says

    May 13, 2019 at 8:59 pm

    Dear Dominik,
    My wife and I are purchasing economy tickets from SEA to Muc for early July. We have about 600k AS miles. I heard that the co-share companies, such as AA, Condor, BA, Icelander, are not willing to release seats for upgrade using AS Mileage. Any suggestions as how to use AS mileage to upgrade our purchased tickets from which airline are appreciated
    Many thanks

    Reply
    • Dominik Żmuda says

      May 16, 2019 at 10:15 pm

      You cannot upgrade any non-AS flight using AS miles.

      Reply
  28. Dwayne Little says

    May 17, 2019 at 12:01 am

    Hi Dominik. I used my Alaska points to book 2 First Class tickets for our entire trip to Bali with Emirates. We are flying Toronto To Dubai, with a 22 hr layover in Dubai. Then Dubai to Auckland with only a 3 hour layover. Then off to Denpensar. I know we could have gone from Dubai into Denpensar – but when your using 180,000 points per person. You might as well stay on as long as you can – lol.
    Question. Would we have been able to stop over for a couple of days in Auckland or did we need to continue on. I notice there is a flight on Emirates (1st class) flight from Auckland to Denpensar a couple day later.

    Reply
    • Dominik Żmuda says

      May 20, 2019 at 12:52 am

      You can only have one stopover on a one-way AS ticket, and in this case it would be in Dubai because you are flying Emirates.

      Reply
  29. Nalini says

    June 8, 2019 at 6:08 pm

    Hi I signed up with the Air Alaska program today. If I plan to purchase two tickets one for myself and another for a minor do I need to have a separate account for him or can I purchase the two tickets using miles from my account?

    Reply
  30. Jack Saloma says

    June 12, 2019 at 6:53 pm

    We are looking at using Alaska miles to fly PDX or SEA to HEL in summer of 2020 and book late this summer when the flight are listed. Our preference is Alaska/Finnair combination. In looking at what show in April/May 2020 so far there look to be many routes on given days. However I tried a route from PDX to HEL with a several day stop at JFK, nothing ever comes up, even though mileage flights JFK to HEL round trip are numerous, as are PDX to JFK trips. Is it possible that by booking by phone they would allow a stopover even though their mileage flights do not show thison Alaska site.

    Reply
  31. Bella says

    August 26, 2019 at 11:43 pm

    How can Aer Lingus flights require us to use four times more points on flights from Europe to North America than BA does?? And why has Aer Lingus taken over the options to fly from North America to Europe. I am truly disappointed that my Alaska Air miles no longer provide options now that Aer Lingus has entered the game

    Reply
  32. Owen says

    October 2, 2019 at 1:20 pm

    I’m flying from Portland to Cambodia by Eva Air. Why is Cathy Pacific the only one I can get miles on? Both are China companies.

    Reply
  33. mary and peter says

    November 25, 2019 at 10:27 am

    We just bought the card and have $2000. spent on it. Suppose to get 40,000 in points.(Visa Alaska).
    1. when can I see them and redeem?
    2. I want to fly delta airline from boston to alaska and back can I use the $ spent somehow on tickets with my card to accumulate points?

    Reply

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