Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan is a highly attractive frequent flyer program due its great value redemptions across the Oneworld alliance and Alaska’s unique network of partner airlines.
In the past, it hasn’t always been easy for Australians to earn Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles. But this changed in 2024, when it became possible to convert American Express (Amex) Membership Rewards points into Alaska miles – albeit indirectly – at great value.
This happened because Hawaiian Airlines, which was already an American Express transfer partner in Australia, began the process of merging with Alaska Airlines.
Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles will cease to be an Amex transfer partner after 30 June 2025, so you only have a few more weeks to take advantage of this loophole. Here’s how it works…
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Alaska’s merger with Hawaiian Airlines
Alaska Airlines announced its intention to purchase Hawaiian in late 2023. The US Department of Transportation (DOT) approved this merger in the second half of 2024, allowing the two airlines to begin their integration.
The Alaska Air Group will retain both airlines as separate brands. However, they will eventually use a combined frequent flyer program. This will be similar to Air France and KLM, which are part of the same company and both use Flying Blue as their loyalty program.
Alaska Airlines will eventually roll out a fully combined loyalty program. In the meantime, the two airlines have made it possible to transfer miles at a 1:1 rate in both directions between HawaiianMiles and Alaska Mileage Plan.
This is particularly great news for HawaiianMiles members, who can already access reward seats across the entire Oneworld alliance due to Alaska Airlines being a member.
How to transfer points from Amex to Alaska Airlines via Hawaiian
If you have American Express Membership Rewards points and would like to convert them into Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles, the first step is to transfer them to HawaiianMiles. For every 2 Amex points you transfer to Hawaiian Airlines, you get 1 Hawaiian mile.
Once those miles arrive in your HawaiianMiles account, you can convert them into Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles for free, at a 1:1 rate, through Points.com. You’ll be prompted to log into both accounts. The minimum transfer amount is 50 miles.
You’ll just need to be a member of both the Hawaiian and Alaska Airlines loyalty programs. The details on both accounts must match. Note that you can only transfer miles to yourself, and not to someone else.
Why transfer points to Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan?
Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan is a really useful program for booking reward flights due to its relatively low redemption costs and wide selection of partner airlines. It’s part of Oneworld, so you can redeem miles to fly with airlines including Qantas and Qatar Airways. It also has some niche partners like Icelandair, Korean Air, Condor, Starlux, Aer Lingus and Air Tahiti Nui.
When redeeming Alaska miles on most partner airlines, you won’t pay any fuel or carrier surcharges. You just pay the third-party taxes and a small partner award booking fee. The exceptions to this are redemptions on British Airways, Hainan Airlines and Icelandair. (Note that you’ll typically only find Icelandair Economy Class awards available, and not premium cabin seats.)
Alaska’s wide variety of partner airlines opens up plenty of opportunities for booking reward flights that Australians wouldn’t otherwise get access to. But even booking Qantas flights via Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan is often worthwhile because it’s cheaper than booking through Qantas Frequent Flyer!
For example, Alaska Airlines charges just 15,000 miles (plus taxes) to book a one-way Qantas Business Class flight from Australia to New Zealand.
Qantas Frequent Flyer charges 41,500 Qantas points (plus similar taxes) for the same thing.
Since you don’t pay the Qantas carrier charges when redeeming Alaskan miles for Qantas flights, you can also save quite a bit of cash on long-haul Qantas reward tickets. For example, Mileage Plan charges 75,000 miles + USD107 (~AU$155) to fly Qantas Business Class from Sydney to Honolulu:
The same Business reward costs 82,000 Qantas points + $356 in taxes & charges when booked on the Qantas website. That’s more than double the surcharges.
Other examples of great Alaska Mileage Plan redemptions
There are plenty of other great uses of Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles, especially on short-haul flights in premium cabins.
For example, you could fly Qatar Airways First Class within the Middle East from just 15,000 Mileage Plan miles + taxes. (As an added bonus, when flying Qatar Airways First Class within the Middle East, you even get to use the Al Safwa First Class lounge during your layover in Doha!)
You could also book a one-way Malaysia Airlines Business Class trip within Asia for as little as 15,000 Alaska miles + taxes.
The Marriott Bonvoy method
After 30 June 2025, you will still be able to indirectly convert Amex Membership Rewards points into Alaska Airlines miles by first transferring points into Marriott Bonvoy. But the value isn’t as good.
This method is to transfer Amex points into Marriott Bonvoy, then from Marriott Bonvoy into Mileage Plan. But, for example, 90,000 Amex points are worth 60,000 Marriott points – and they would convert to 25,000 Mileage Plan miles. Using the Hawaiian method, those same 90,000 Amex points would get you 45,000 Mileage Plan miles.
Buying Alaska Airlines miles
Another way for Australians to accrue Mileage Plan miles is to simply buy them. Alaska Airlines sells miles directly to the public, and at the moment you might even be able to earn up to 70% bonus miles on purchases for a limited time.
