Earn Miles for virtually everything
Written: Jan 09 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Easy to earn points without flying, lots of partners to choose from.
Cons: Some blackout dates exist, but can be somewhat avoided.
The Bottom Line: Great mileage plan for a mediocre airline. If you are going to use it, make sure to save up for first class, coach is just horrible.
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| biscuitfarmer's Full Review: Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan |
I generally don't really care about the different mileage plans out there, because there are so many loopholes that it almost makes them worthless in my eyes. I still sign up for all of them and I still use them, but normally, I don't think much about them. I don't have a clue how many miles I have on most of my mileage plans, except for my Alaska Airlines mileage plan.
How to earn miles
With Alaska Airlines, you can earn miles in so many different ways, that you quickly have tickets built up. Unfortunately, I hate the airline itself, so that's not always the best thing.
With Alaska Airlines, you can earn miles the standard way that most mileage plans work, with flights. You get your miles through that method, which is the easiest way to earn points if you fly a lot. However, if you don't fly all that often, like most people, then those miles are never going to add up to anything. So, Alaska Airlines, took care of that situation as well.
Alaska Airlines provides opportunities to earn miles in a great variety of ways. The first is their credit card, which you earn points with purchases that you make. They have also branded with hundreds of companies to bring you Alaska Airlines miles when you use their services or buy their products. For example, while my wife and I were in Alaska, we bought products from Carrs shopping centers, which are the Alaska version of Safeway. When you make purchases, you gain points towards your Alaska Airlines miles, which can add up quickly, especially if you use it every time that you go shopping.
I also signed up for the program through our cable company, GCI. We get a bunch of points every month depending upon how much we spend on our bill and what package we have at the time. They add up pretty quickly and go to Alaska Airlines about a month after each billing cycle.
Partner Programs
Alaska Airlines has also made it possible to use their miles with a variety of their partners, making it much easier to take advantage of flights.
Their partners include:
Northwest Airlines
Helijet
Delta Airlines
Continental Airlines
Cathay Pacific Airlines
American Airlines
Horizon Air
While it is somewhat more costly to use your points towards the purchase of partner tickets, if you want to go somewhere, you are pretty much covered with all of the carriers that you can use your points through.
Point Use
You can use your points starting at as little as 15,000 points, which can get you a 50% discount (up to $250) off of any flight on Alaska Airlines or Horizon Air. The point totals build to 20-40,000 for coach flights, and finally 40-80,000 for first class.
I would just recommend that you save them for first class, because Alaska Airlines has the most uncomfortable, tight coach flights around, with absolutely no arm or leg space.
Blackout Dates
Within the United States on Alaska Airlines there are only 3-4 blackout dates per year. However, when you start traveling outside of the United States and on the other airlines there can be quite a few blackout dates. These blackout dates are dates that you cannot use your mileage plan points to purchase a ticket. This is generally because those are popular flights that generally sell out.
American Airlines and a few other airlines that are partnered with Alaska Airlines have no blackout dates at all, so if you can't fly during one of the dates on one, most likely you can find another that will accept you.
Buy extra miles
If you find yourself short by 10,000 miles or less, you can purchase additional miles so that you can use your mileage plan points. If you need more than 10,000 however, you are out of luck and have to pay regular price for a ticket.
The cost to purchase extra miles is 2.2 cents per mile, and like I said, caps out at 10,000 miles.
Overview
Overall, the mileage program is great, you earn points relatively fast, and you can use them with a large selection of affiliate partners. There are some blackout dates, but due to the number of partners, there's a great chance that you can get around the blackout dates by trying another carrier as an option.
The costs to use points on carriers other than Alaska Airlines or Horizon Air is quite a bit more costly, however, it does allow for more freedom in your transportation needs and opens up quite a few more potential destinations as well.
This is one of the better mileage programs where you don't have to fly or use their credit card in order to earn points. The points accumulate fast through your everyday purchases from partner businesses.
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Recommended:
Yes
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Member: Clacky McSnackens
Location: Orlando FL
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