(UPDATE 5/19 – Reposting this as the last day to buy Alaska miles with a 60% bonus is Sunday May 21st)

Alaska Airlines miles are regularly considered some of the highest value in the travel industry due to their unique partnerships and award chart sweet spots. Recently Alaska announced their highest bonus of the year, a tiered promotion offering up to 60% bonus miles when purchasing. Depending on your needs, this can be an awesome deal.

(SEE ALSO: 5 ways to fly to Australia with at least one amazing stopover)

(SEE ALSO: 10 sweet spots for using miles to fly economy)

The Details

This promo is going on now through May 21st. Click here to navigate to the purchase page. If you have no status, you can acquire up to 150,000 bonus miles per year, though this limit is waived if you have MVP, MVP Gold, or MVP Gold 75k status. I have seen reports that the bonus shows up differently for different people – for me, it was a tiered bonus with a maximum of up to 60% miles. Your mileage may vary depending on the promotion that is targeted to you.

• Buy 3,000-19,000 miles, get a 40% bonus
• Buy 20,000-39,000 miles, get a 50% bonus
• Buy 40,000-100,000 miles, get a 60% bonus

Purchases are processed through Points.com, which means that you’ll want to buy these with a card that maximizes everyday spend, like the Citi Double Cash.

Normally, each 1,000 Alaska miles would cost $29.56 with tax included; that is 2.9 cents per mile! Nobody values Alaska miles at more than 2 cents per mile, so at the normal rate, it doesn’t make sense to buy. Buying at least 40,000 miles with this promotion nets you an additional 60% in bonus points, which with tax brings the cost of a point down to 1.85 cents per mile. It’s not hard to find more value than that out of Alaska miles.

You can use your miles on Alaska Airlines flights itself, or on any of their partners. And now that Alaska Airlines is part of the oneworld airline alliance, you can use Alaska miles for travel on most (if not all) oneworld partners.

(SEE ALSO: [QUIZ] – Can you name the oneworld alliance members?)

Terms and Conditions

• Transactions must be completed between 6:00 AM PT April 10, 2023 and 11:59 PM PT May 21, 2023 to be eligible for bonus miles.
• Miles are purchased from Points.com Inc. for a cost of $27.50 per 1,000 miles, plus GST/HST for Canadian residents and QST for Quebec residents.
• Miles are non-refundable and do not count toward MVP and MVP/Gold status.
• You may purchase and gift Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles in increments of 1,000 miles up to 60,000 miles, and in increments of 5,000 miles up to a maximum of 100,000 miles per transaction.
• MVP, MVP Gold, MVP Gold 75K and MVP Gold 100K Mileage Plan member (Elite Member) accounts have no annual limit on the number of miles which may be purchased or gifted through Points.com. If you are not an Elite Member, your account may only be credited up to a maximum total of 150,000 miles acquired through Points.com in a calendar year, whether purchased by you or gifted to you. Bonus miles do not count toward the maximum total of 150,000 miles.
• Offer is subject to change and all terms and conditions of the Mileage Plan Program apply.
• *Points.com Inc. is collecting Federal Excise Tax on behalf of Alaska Airlines Inc.
• Alaska Airlines Inc. has the obligation to collect Federal Excise Tax and remit the tax to the appropriate government agency.

Again, here is the link to buy Alaska miles with up to a 60% bonus.

Even though we never recommend speculatively purchasing miles, I’m sorely tempted by this. Are any of you going to take advantage?