Alaska Airlines never fails to take steps to impress its flyers. The airline is already doing a lot to retain and gain customers, and it is constantly coming up with attractive deals, offers and plans which always workout in favour of its customers. The onboard services are not the only thing travellers love about Alaska Airlines. The various services, plans and offers by Alaska Airlines are what attract the people the most. For instance, the airline gives a very valuable co-branded credit card, serves complimentary in-flight Starbucks, has made 23 airline partners and is also a member of the Oneworld alliance. All these things are already very impressive, and the airline is doing its best to come up with more features which are lucrative enough for travellers to continue travelling with the airline and to attract new travellers.

The Seattle based airline has come up with a Mileage Plan, which is the airline’s frequent flyer programme. Let us know all about the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan, its features, benefits and everything else that is necessary for you to know if you are planning to opt for this plan.

What is Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan?

Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan is a plan by Alaska Airlines whereby travellers can use miles to take advantage of better services and to have a better flying experience. Here is how the programme works. The Mileage Plan award travel has to be booked only through Alaska Airlines. Award travels with Alaska’s partners can be booked online through the website. You can log in to your account on the website and start browsing through the award charts of the airline to check how many miles you have to redeem for whatever facility you want to avail.

You can use miles for the following purposes:

You can use the miles earned for award travel to more than 1000 destinations worldwide with Oneworld alliance and Global Partner airlines.

Not only that, but you can use miles to book a hotel with Alaska Airlines Hotels which are powered by Rocketmiles. To pay for your hotel stay, you choose to pay half the amount in cash, half in miles or you can also choose to pay the entire amount in miles. You get the option to choose from more than 4,00,000 properties across the world.

You can use miles to avail 50% discount on most fares with the help of Money & Miles Award. The maximum discount that travellers can avail is $100 off the base fare for 10,000 miles or $200 off the base fare for 20,000 miles. But remember that this award cannot be used with Saver fares.

You can also use miles to receive a First Class upgrade. In order to be upgraded to First Class, you are required to use only 15,000 miles. You have to select Mileage Upgrade as your Upgrade preference option to shop for flight fares which are eligible for a mileage upgrade and to see the space available. After you have purchased your ticket, all you have to do is call Alaska Airlines reservations at +1-800-252-7522 to redeem a first class upgrade award.

If you want, you can also request for an upgrade within 24 hours of the departure of your flight via online check-in or on the day of departure itself at the airport check-in kiosk.

You can also redeem miles on all the eligible one world member airlines.

If you want you can also use miles to gift, share or donate for a noble cause.

If you are an avid reader, you can choose to redeem miles to have subscriptions of magazines from top publications.

You can also redeem miles for various other reasons like Wi-Fi, sports events etc.

How to earn Alaska Airlines miles?

There are plenty of ways through which you can earn miles as per the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan. Before you start earning Alaska Miles, you will need to have a Mileage Plan Account first. You can earn miles through the following ways:

Fly on Alaska or its partner airlines

Spend on Alaska co-branded credit cards

Transfer points from other loyalty programs

Earn miles through a shopping portal

Buy Mileage Plan miles

Increase your Alaska Mileage Plan earnings

If you are wondering how you can increase your Alaska Mileage Plan earnings under the Alaska Airlines Mileage programme, then you can do so by earning Alaska’s “MVP” elite status. At present, there are four tiers of elite status offered by the airline:

MVP

MVP Gold

MVP Gold 75K

MVP Gold 100K

Each tier needs the traveller to fly a specified number of eligible segments on the Alaska Airlines. The qualifying mileage earnings vary depending on the airline you are travelling with, the type of class you are booked in, and the distance being covered by your flight.

On more expensive fares, you are also likely to earn an elite qualifying miles bonus. No matter what MVP level you are at, you are bound to get priority during check-in, boarding, seating, security lines, priority phone assistance and discount on Alaska Lounge membership.

MVP Gold and tiers above MVP Gold are eligible for receiving a variety of attractive benefits like companion upgrades like First Class and Premium Class, a complimentary beverage in the main cabin, four First Class guest upgrades every year, complimentary same day flight changes and standby and waitlist on full flights. Other Alaska MVP benefits vary depending on the tier level.

Earn Alaska Air miles through partners

As per Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan, you can earn miles on any Oneworld member airline which include American Airlines, British Airways, Japan Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Qatar Airways. This is because Alaska is a member of the Oneworld alliance. Since Alaska became a member of the Oneworld alliance recently, in 2021, it also has some non-alliance partners like:

LATAM Airlines

Ravn Alaska

Singapore Airlines

Hainan Airlines

Icelandair

Korean Air

Aer Lingus

Condor

EL AL Israel Airlines

On Alaska Airlines Mileage partners, you will earn miles based on the fare class and the distance being covered by the flight. Remember that the rate of earning varies depending on the airline partner. To check out the details, you have to visit the Alaska Partner Page, and click on the name of the airline you are flying with to see the earning rate. When you check the details, you will notice that for every partner and fare class, Alaska lists two earning metrics, one is miles earned, and the other one is elite-qualifying miles. People who fall in the category of Mileage Plan elites are eligible for earning an elite bonus besides earning the base miles.

Also, you need to keep in mind that if for two years, there is no activity in your awards account, then your account will be deactivated, and you will lose all your miles. But it’s not like that there is nothing you can do if something like this happens. You can opt to reclaim the rewards up to one year, but for that you will have to pay a fee.

Earn Alaska Airlines miles while you are flying

While you are flying on a flight by Alaska Airlines or any partner flight, you earn one base Mileage Plan mile per mile flown. To avail these miles, you have to provide your Mileage Plan number while you are booking flights.

With its distance based earning system, Alaska ensures that its travellers are able to earn miles and reach elite status soon, especially if you are frequently taking long haul flights.

You are also eligible for earning bonus miles depending on the class of service you buy and your loyalty status.

Earn miles with the Alaska Airlines Credit Cards

As per the Alaska Airlines Mileage plan, you can also earn miles with Alaska Airlines Credit Cards. The airline offers three credit cards, one business card and two personal cards. What we would recommend is Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® credit card. The Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® credit card is a great option for those who are planning to fly with Alaska Airlines or its partner airlines. The card has a very attractive welcoming offer. In this offer, you get 50,000 bonus miles in addition to Alaska’s Famous Companion Fare™ from $121. To be eligible for this, you are required to make purchases of $2,000 or more within the initial 90 days of opening your account.

What makes this card more attractive is the Companion Fare, which is given on every anniversary. This companion fare allows you to cover a travel companion’s ticket, starting at $121. The card has an annual charge of $75 and has some very interesting rewards for the frequent flyers of Alaska Airlines:

Travellers get to earn 3 miles for every dollar they spend on purchases made from Alaska Airlines.

For all other purchases, travellers get to earn 1 mile for every dollar they spend.

Earn miles through credit card referral bonuses

For every friend or family member who is approved for an Alaska Airlines consumer credit card you get to earn 5000 bonus miles. Remember that this deal is not applicable for business credit cards.

Earn miles through seasonal promotions

Seasonal promotions are limited time offers. These promotional offers help you in earning a lot of miles if you meet the spending requirements. Some well known offers include facilities like car rentals, wine etc.

Buy Alaska Airlines Miles

Yes, you can buy miles as well. Alaska sells miles, but they cost more than 2 cents apiece. Frankly speaking, buying miles is not worth it unless you are receiving a very high value after redeeming them. Buying miles should be your very last option, because miles purchase is not a very wise idea. There are some exceptional situations in which purchasing miles is a good option, otherwise it’s not a very good idea.

Apart from providing a very rewarding loyalty programme, Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan provides several other benefits while flying on partner airlines. With Alaska Airlines becoming a member of the Oneworld Alliance, the benefits of the Alaska mileage plan have doubled up, providing them more opportunities to earn and redeem miles.

This was all that you needed to know about the Alaska airline mileage plan. We hope that we were clear enough in explaining everything. If you have any doubt regarding anything, then you can call the customer support number of the airline and talk to the customer care executive who will listen to all your queries and will clear all your doubts.

So without any further ado, go to Alaska Airlines website and choose to become a member of the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan.