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Currently, you can buy Hawaiian miles (and immediately transfer to Alaska) with a 100% bonus – works out at around 1 pence per mile.
I’m planning to book some expensive Icelandair flights between KEF and Nuuk/Ilulissat for next year as an Alaska partner redemption. But have also seen they have redemptions available on some interesting partners such as Starlux, Korean Air and Air Tahiti Nui (and all other Oneworld airlines).
I’m currently trying to decide whether to buy Avios with the Finnair bonus or opt for Alaska miles via the Hawaiian route as a punt, alongside the 38,000 i’ll be buying for the Icelandair flights.
Does anyone have any thoughts on which to go for?
Edited to add: I realise this is too late for OP with the Hawaiian buy miles offer having ended, but thought worth responding in case it was of general interest!
Well I love Alaska Mileage Plan. I am about to hit MVP 100k in it. It works for me because they have more partners and I have earned elite qualifying miles for Aer Lingus flights long before Executive club started giving tier points for them. The miles are worth more than Avios for sure, and there are some nice bargains in the programme.
Status is quite a bit harder to achieve than with BA, and there is a downside that it doesn’t grant access to AA (or Alaska) lounges domestically in the US like BA status will.
I am mainly with them because I fly a lot and generally in premium classes long haul but economy short haul and on the lowest price fares. When BA gutted the earnings rates by linking to cost I did the maths and Alaska earned me far more miles and more valuable miles. Especially as BA earnings rates in Mileage Plan were very good.
Earnings have been cut by Alaska next year on partner flights unless booked through Alaska themselves (not as codeshares necessary, but they are just selling a bit more like Expedia). Unfortunately the prices when sold by Alaska and even what’s available is generally poor, but hopefully they’ll improve that.
Another cool thing with Alaska is that they now/next year let you earn elite qualify miles (for status) even on award flights with them or partner airlines! So even award travel contributes to status.
For just miles purchases and spending be aware some of the old articles you’ll find online are out of date as there was a devaluation this year. But they have a great stopover policy and should have multi carrier award bookings sorted soon, which should be great! Oh and charges are in general much lower than BA.
I love it, but it still feels niche, for the average person I’d expect avios to be more useful as you can use with a 2-4-1 and on short haul redemptions Avios wins.
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