Fantastic Alaska Airline miles deal on again

These Alaskan Airlines miles deals pop up about 4 times a year with big bonus free (miles) but looks like they are now getting more frequent and boy oh boy they are a steal. And joining AS milage plan is free!.

I purchased some 120K AS miles in Dec. last, booked 2 x J to HKG return for a mere AUD$3100 last week for May next, that was with 35% free miles, now this latest offer has a 40% bonus.

Keep in mind AS Partners don't fly everywhere using these miles, but hey they do go to many cities/countries. One should research availability with CX 1st as its the only airline not showing on AS site, rest can be seen on AS site. Out of OZ to USA it is however hard to find J seas, PE & Y (coach) no problem.

An Example: SYD/HKG/ORD 120K miles (CX) in J return at current cost under 3 grand, hello!

Good value buy!

Thanks for the heads up, worth looking into the AS mileage plan, by the looks of things.

Any suggestions as to the best tool for searching CX award availability? I don't think Expert Flyer will work.

Saw this last year and didnt b think much of it...will definitely looking closer this time. Even for trans con J it's good value!

Blackswan said:

Any suggestions as to the best tool for searching CX award availability? I don't think Expert Flyer will work.

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I joined CX Marco Polo on a flight once, but have no points there but it allows one look up award seats, found a few PE & J, on calling AS they had some but not all, operator said they only get an allocation. CX is the only airline not online with AS.

But try a dummy booking and see the miles required and at 40% extra this has to be one of the best deals ever.

Blackswan said:

Any suggestions as to the best tool for searching CX award availability? I don't think Expert Flyer will work.

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I generally use BA, but you'll need a non-Australian address to sign up to their Executive Club. I think CX's Asia Miles site allows award searches, but failing that, JAL's Mileage Bank site is a reliable option for searching CX award availability.

benlight said:

I generally use BA, but you'll need a non-Australian address to sign up to their Executive Club. I think CX's Asia Miles site allows award searches, but failing that, JAL's Mileage Bank site is a reliable option for searching CX award availability.

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Thank you Limewood and benlight. I don't want to pay to join Asia Miles, so I'll check out Mileage Bank.

Choose approx. dates if CX then call the friendly AS operators.

Blackswan said:

Any suggestions as to the best tool for searching CX award availability? I don't think Expert Flyer will work.

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In theory, QFF will also give you a fair indication (i.e. if you can see a CX Classic on QFF, it's available). It works but it won't likely expose all availability.


Does AS have generous routing rules? Thinking of possibly banking miles for an Asian sortie.

anat0l said:

In theory, QFF will also give you a fair indication (i.e. if you can see a CX Classic on QFF, it's available). It works but it won't likely expose all availability.


Does AS have generous routing rules? Thinking of possibly banking miles for an Asian sortie.

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They allow stop-overs on OW awards I believe...

How quickly do the points post to your account?

I have been playing around with AS after I flew KE F and crediting those flights to AS last year. I have seen some nice redemptions from NA to DXB for example, I think a few routed via HKG hehehe then from the QF/EK F DXB-SYD using QF points. Might look into this a little bit more.

jneufeld said:

How quickly do the points post to your account?

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Approx 24 hours after purchase for the "miles".

hummel said:

They allow stop-overs on OW awards I believe...

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One each way my understanding.

Limewood said:

One each way my understanding.

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Even better!

Only thing to note is that you can't mix carriers apart from Alaska Airlines. So for example if you are in Melbourne you can't grab Qantas to Sydney and then CX to HKG.

But you can use CX to get to the US via HKG which is better than Aadvantage so depends what you want to do with the miles.

Dale.

dalereardon said:

Only thing to note is that you can't mix carriers apart from Alaska Airlines. So for example if you are in Melbourne you can't grab Qantas to Sydney and then CX to HKG.

But you can use CX to get to the US via HKG which is better than Aadvantage so depends what you want to do with the miles.

Dale.

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You could make 2 booking though.

If one doesn't live in a capital city then HK is a good way to go from to OZ, its only about 3 hours more flying but hey its great city to spend a night or 5 in, plus CX in J is as good as it gets.

This is a really, really interesting alternative to Aadvantage or USDM but I would not think of them the same way. It's very, very unlikely you will find 747 or A380 J or F availability on QF so I wouldn't be thinking of them as a potential option. I would think of it mostly as a 'cheap way to fly CX' option and their availability seems far more realistic.

My question is about zoning - I know the rates for AU to HK on CX but what it you wanted to go, say, MEL-HKG-NRT on CX? Would it cost the same? Is all of Nth Asia 'zoned' the same (i.e. no more points required?). If so I'm guessing the only stopover option on CX would be HKG as they are the only destination from and to Australia direct?

Good option for getting cheap EK flights also..