Why I Love Alaska Airlines' Mileage Plan

Topic of the Week: Why I’m All-In on Alaska

Welcome to the new newsletter! Thanks for your patience while I get things figured out! 🚧

Alaska Airlines has been quietly building the best frequent flyer program in the U.S. — and with new routes to London, Iceland, Tokyo, Seoul, and Rome, it just got even better.

I’ve gone all-in on Alaska’s Mileage Plan (soon to be “Atmos”?), and here’s why you might want to do the same.

The miles are easy to earn

Alaska miles are easy to earn through multiple co-branded cards and top travel rewards cards like Bilt. You can get 3x–12x points on common spending categories and even earn miles when booking with partners. Full earning breakdown →

The miles are easy to use

Alaska still has an award chart, meaning that pricing is solid and fairly predictable. The Alaska website is also very user-friendly, meaning you won’t pull your hair out trying to make those redemptions.

But Alaska doesn’t just have predictable value, it also has amazing “Global Getaway” sales. If you’re a bit patient and flexible, you can snag incredible deals like 50k miles round-trip to Tbilisi, 40k to Uzbekistan, or 50k to Oman.    

Status is easy to earn

It’s not just that you can easily earn points and convert them into flights–those flights can also deliver you status. You earn EQM’s from, among other things, miles traveled on award flights. One round-trip award from the West Coast to Asia earns ~10,000 EQMs—getting you halfway there on a (nearly) free flight!  

Devaluation protection

Frequent Flyer points and miles are famous for devaluations–enough that last year the Department of Transportation announced an investigation into the practice. When the DOT approved the Alaska-Hawaiian merger, they extracted a commitment to “ preserve the value of rewards miles against devaluation.” While that may be far from ironclad, it makes me feel much better about the reliability of Alaska miles compared to other airline currencies. No other U.S. airline currently has a public commitment to protecting miles from devaluation. Plus, the ability to earn Alaska miles via Bilt–which offers the best overall points in the industry–means that you can still hedge your bets by earning primarily through transferable points. 

Want in? You can get rewarded

Thinking about joining Mileage Plan? You could get up to a $50 flight discount just for signing up — and that’s before you start earning your first lazy redemption. See the details →

Quick Points of the Week ⚡

Major news 🚨

Barclays’ Hawaiian card sticking around. AwardWallet reports that the Hawaiian Mastercard will remain intact for “several years” despite the merger with Alaska, which has its own card issuer. No details yet as to how it might change when Hawaiian’s loyalty program integrates with Alaska’s in October. The card currently offers some solid bonus offers (I recently pounded on an 85k-mile offer), but doesn’t have much ongoing value if you don’t fly Hawaiian. I’m excited to see if the value proposition improves post-integration. 

Special offers ✨

5k Aeroplan points if you have a Sapphire Reserve. If you have a CSR, you can get a Flight Reward Certificate good for 5k points toward your next redemption just for having the card. I don’t see a ton of value in Aeroplan, but this discount at least makes a one-way redemption a lot more palatable. The certificate is good for a year, which means you can hold out for a good deal for a while. Chase has had two 20% transfer bonuses to Air Canada in the past year, so stacking one of those with this offer could make an Aeroplan redemption a great use of your Chase points in the right circumstances. 

New products 🆕

Booking.com has a new credit card. The card has no fee and 5-6% back on travel booked via the site. Quick review: it’s not worth your time unless you’re spending outrageous amounts at Booking.com. 

Devaluations 📉

AA flights might be harder to book with miles. Or not. Frequent Miler isn’t convinced.  

Air Canada is switching to revenue-based status. A bummer if you’re a loyalist. 

Last chance ⏳

Sapphire bonus. Chase’s amazing post-refresh welcome offer on the Sapphire Reserve is “ending soon.” In my experience, Chase offers are usually “ending soon” for a while, but this offer is so good it may be well worth pouncing on while it lasts.

Fun 👻 

Choice sports experiences. Choice has some interesting VIP experiences at NASCAR and college football events. I’m too lazy to figure out what these are “worth,” but they might be cool opportunities, especially if you’re flush with Citi points, which transfer to Choice at a 1:2 ratio.  

Sign-up bonus of the Week 🎯

Amex’s Marriott Bonvoy co-branded cards have elevated welcome offers, and they match the best-ever offers on these cards. Although the bonuses are huge, only certain people will want to consider these cards. Let’s take a look:

The $250-fee Bevy is offering 155,000 points after spending $5,000 in the first 6 months, while the $650-fee Brilliant is offering 185,000 points after spending $6,000 in the same period. These offers will easily net you a week or more in a hotel in Europe or Japan, and could come pretty close in some US markets. They could also get you a night or two in a premium luxury property.

Given Amex’s bonus rules, you’ll probably ultimately get more points by starting with the Bevy and upgrading later. But here’s the thing–the Bevy is a dreadful card. The Brilliant is better, but really only suitable to high-spend consumer, Marriott loyalists, and folks who already have the better cards on the market and want an injection of points. 

Both cards have terrible earning rates on spending. The Bevy only offers a 1,000-point per (paid!) stay bonus and Gold status to offset that big fee–many ~$100-fee cards at least offer a free night. The Brilliant offers a $300 dining credit, a free night up to 85,000 points, priority pass, and Bonvoy Platinum Elite status. It also comes with 25 elite night credits. If you make it to 75, you can unlock Titanium status, which comes with even better perks and basic United Airlines elite status. 

So if you’re spending a lot of time in Marriott properties or are willing to pay a bit for premium perks when you do, the Brilliant might make some sense. And if you want to maximize your Bonvoy points, you might want to start with the Bevy and upgrade later, although I personally would just skip the Bevy altogether. 

Other great current bonuses

100k + $500 on the Chase Sapphire Reserve (our take)
80k on the Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select (our take)
100k on the Citi Strata Elite in-branch (our take)
175k points on the Hilton Aspire (our review)
75k miles on the Chase Sapphire Preferred (our hot take 🔥)
100k miles + 3k PQP’s on the United Quest (our take)
Up to 100k on the Amex Gold (including via referral link) (our take)
Up to 175k points on the Amex Platinum
100k points on Southwest Credit Cards (our take)

Enjoy the weekend! 🦥

Come join us in the Alaska cult. 

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