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When you think of major airlines in the United States, Alaska Airlines often comes behind the “big three” of United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines. Indeed, in terms of scale, Alaska operates a much smaller fleet of planes. Also, Alaska’s route network is focused primarily on the West Coast of the U.S. with limited international destinations. However, this network is steadily expanding, and the recent merger between Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines hints at future expansions to destinations in Asia and Oceania.
Moreover, since officially joining the Oneworld alliance in 2021, the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan program has seen a substantial increase in value. This has introduced new avenues for redeeming Mileage Plan miles, including some enticing sweet spots for partner redemptions in business and first class. Leveraging Alaska’s generous free stopover policy for award tickets can yield even more value if you plan your route carefully.
Joining Oneworld has not only enhanced redemption options, but also allowed travelers to earn Mileage Plan miles on any Oneworld flight. This was a nice addition, considering that Mileage Plan miles are among the more challenging points currencies to accumulate. This is exacerbated by the fact that Alaska is not a transfer partner of any of the major transferable credit card points programs in the United States.
The perceived difficulty of earning Mileage Plan miles, coupled with Alaska’s smaller footprint, may discourage travelers from using this program. However, Mileage Plan offers more value than meets the eye. Compared to the United MileagePlus, Delta SkyMiles and American Airlines AAdvantage programs, you are likely to enjoy more benefits with Alaska’s Mileage Plan with less flying and less spending. This is even more true given the exciting new updates Alaska has given its Mileage Plan program for 2025.
So, in this article, we’ll cover all there is to know about the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan program. In no time, you’ll be on your way to earning a ton of Mileage Plan miles and achieving Alaska and Oneworld elite status. We’ll also delve into some of the best redemption options to ensure you get the most out of every earned mile.

Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan Program Overview
Alaska Airlines was founded in 1932 as McGee Airways, just a few years after its other major domestic competitors (United and American were founded in 1926; Delta was founded in 1928). Initially, the airline exclusively operated flights from Anchorage, Alaska. Today, Alaska has hubs in five main cities along the West Coast: Anchorage, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
In 1983, Alaska Airlines launched its loyalty program, then named Gold Coast Travel. Members of Gold Coast Travel could earn credit based on the actual mileage of flights taken. To this day, the Mileage Plan program still operates on this fundamental principle. Unlike many of its domestic competitors, who have since switched to convoluted methods of calculating “loyalty points”, Alaska Airlines has kept its program sweet and simple.
Opportunities for Mileage Plan program members greatly expanded in 2021, when Alaska Airlines officially joined the Oneworld alliance. This meant that members could now earn and redeem Mileage Plan miles with any of the following Oneworld member airlines:
- American Airlines
- British Airways
- Cathay Pacific
- Fiji Airways
- Finnair
- Iberia
- Japan Airlines
- Malaysian Airlines
- Qantas
- Qatar Airways
- Royal Air Maroc
- Royal Jordanian
- SriLankan Airlines
In addition to these Oneworld alliance partners, Alaska also has partnerships with several other non-Oneworld airlines. You can earn and redeem Mileage Plan miles with the following partners:
- Aer Lingus
- Air Tahiti Nui
- Condor
- Hainan Airlines
- Icelandair
- Korean Air
- LATAM Airlines
- Oman Air
- Porter Airlines
- Singapore Airlines
- STARLUX Airlines
You can earn (but not redeem) Mileage Plan miles with the following partners:
- Aleutian Airways
- Bahamasair
- Cape Air
- Contour Airlines
- Kenmore Air
- Mokulele Airlines
- Southern Airways Express
With all of these partners, Alaska publishes a separate earning rate chart which varies depending on the airline and fare class. For redemptions, Alaska uses a unified award chart for all of its partners.
In 2024, Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines officially merged. This made it possible to transfer points 1:1 between the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan and HawaiianMiles programs, opening the door to even more interesting strategies. We’ll cover this in more detail later.
Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan Elite Status
As previously mentioned, Alaska’s Mileage Plan program is based on the actual distance flown. Members can progress through the four elite status tiers by earning elite-qualifying miles (EQMs) only. Note that EQMs are separate from redeemable Mileage Plan miles, which you can use for award travel on Alaska or its partners.
The following chart summarizes each status tier, and the EQMs required for each:
Status Tier | EQMs Required |
---|---|
MVP | 20,000 |
MVP Gold | 40,000 |
MVP Gold 75K | 75,000 |
MVP Gold 100K | 100,000 |
On Alaska’s main cabin fares, a mile flown is an EQM earned. For flights shorter than 500 miles, you’ll earn a minimum of 500 EQMs. On Alaska’s saver fares and on partner airlines, miles earned can vary.
Importantly, starting in 2025, even miles flown on award travel with Alaska or any of its partners will earn one EQM for every mile flown. This is a groundbreaking change, as most other airline loyalty programs do not award elite-qualifying credits for award travel.
In general, it’s relatively easier to achieve elite status with Alaska, especially if you’re based in a hub. Given that you can now earn EQMs on long-haul award flights with Alaska’s partners as well, it should be easier than ever to attain Alaska elite status in 2025.
Elite Status Benefits
Now, let’s talk benefits. Let’s first look at how MVP status can fast-track your way to earning more Mileage Plan miles:
MVP | MVP Gold | MVP Gold 75K | MVP Gold 100K | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Mileage bonus (effective beginning January 1, 2025) | 25% | 50% | 100% | 150% |
100K Choice Benefit | N/A | N/A | N/A | Yes |
In 2025, Alaska has devalued this part of their program. MVP, MVP Gold and MVP Gold 75K members now earn a smaller bonus than before (it used to be 50%, 100% and 125% respectively). In addition, there used to be an instant 50,000 mile bonus upon qualification for MVP Gold 75K that has now gone away.
You still get a 100K Choice Benefit upon reaching MVP Gold 100K. You can choose from one of the following:
- 50,000 bonus miles
- 75,000 miles off an Extras redemption
- Four (4) upgrade certificates
- Alaska Lounge+ Membership (incl. Immediate family, or two guests per visit)
- Nominate someone for MVP Gold Status
- Complimentary Wi-Fi every time you fly Alaska
The latter three benefits apply until the end of the next calendar year upon qualification. For example, if you qualify for MVP Gold 100K in June 2025, and you choose to nominate them for MVP Gold Status, they will have MVP Gold until the end of 2026.
The following chart summarizes the airport benefits of each status tier.
MVP | MVP Gold | MVP Gold 75K | MVP Gold 100K | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Priority check-in and boarding | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Free checked bags | 2 (through 2025) 1 (through 2026) | 2 | 3 | 3 |
Alaska Lounge membership discount (through Jan 31, 2025) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Four Alaska Lounge day passes | N/A | N/A | Yes | Yes |
$10 off a CLEAR Plus membership | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
The benefits here are pretty straightforward. You’ll start getting priority check-in and boarding privileges when you reach MVP. You’ll also get at least two free checked bags, though for MVP members this will decrease to one in 2026.
For the Alaska Lounge membership, there are two levels of membership: Alaska Lounge, which grants you access to 9 Alaska Lounge locations, and Alaska Lounge+, which also includes access to nearly 90 Oneworld partner lounges. The pricing for each membership, effective February 1, 2024, is outlined below:
- Alaska Lounge: $450 for elites; $550 for non-elites.
- Alaska Lounge+: $650 for elites; $750 for non-elites.
MVP elites get a discount for both the Alaska Lounge and Alaska Lounge+ memberships, but this is scheduled to change or end on Jan 31, 2025.
It’s also worth noting that Alaska Airlines Visa Signature cardholders (personal or business) also get $100 off an annual Alaska Lounge+ membership when purchased with the Alaska card. However, this cannot be stacked with the elite discount.
Last but not least, here are the flight benefits for each status tier:
Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® Card
60,000
Bonus Miles
plus Alaska's Famous Companion Fare™ ($99 fare plus taxes and fees from $23) after you spend $3,000 in the first 90 days
Annual Fee: $95
MVP | MVP Gold | MVP Gold 75K | MVP Gold 100K | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Oneworld status match | Ruby | Sapphire | Emerald | Emerald |
First Class upgrades at time of booking | Y, B fares | Y, B, H or K fares | Y, B, H, K or M fares | Y, B, H, K or M fares |
Premium Class upgrades at time of booking | Y, B or H fares | Y, B, H, K, M, L, V, S or N fares | All fares except Saver fares | All fares except Saver fares |
Companion upgrades to First and Premium Class | N/A | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Complimentary premium beverage or chocolate in Main Cabin | N/A | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Complimentary snack or meal in Main Cabin | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Once you reach MVP status, you’ll start seeing some basic benefits. Based on past experience, it’s quite easy to get upgrades to Premium Class, even with just MVP status. However, the real benefits start with MVP Gold. Perhaps the most valuable benefits are the four First Class guest upgrades on Alaska, as well as Oneworld Sapphire status, which grants you access to some pretty awesome Oneworld business class lounges internationally. In addition, you’ll probably start seeing more frequent First Class upgrades as well.
If you’re able to reach the MVP Gold 75K and 100K tiers, then you’ll really start to unlock some very valuable benefits. With these statuses, you’ll almost certainly be upgraded to at least Premium Class regardless of the fare you buy. You also get Oneworld Emerald status, which unlocks some of the most coveted Oneworld first class lounges in the world, such as the Cathay Pacific The Pier First Lounge at HKG.
Starting in 2025, Alaska did remove some of the benefits you’d get here as well, such as the international upgrade certificates on American Airlines, as well as the four First Class guest upgrades upon reaching MVP Gold, 75K and 100K. However, the benefits you get at each MVP elite tier status are some of the most competitive among airline programs worldwide. If you fly Alaska often, it’s absolutely worth pursuing these statuses.
Milestone Rewards
Starting in 2025, Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan has introduced milestone rewards to their program. Now, similar to many other airline and hotel loyalty programs, you’ll earn perks each time you cross an EQM threshold. Let’s break down the milestone rewards path for 2025.
10K Milestone
At 10K EQMs, you can choose one of the following perks:
- 750 bonus miles
- Pre-order a complimentary meal for your flight
- One complimentary Wi-Fi pass
- Try MVP status for a trip
- Earn double miles with non-air partners
- Upgrade your next Avis rental
These perks are pretty underwhelming. 750 bonus miles is the safest pick to get immediate value, but it’s not much. Earning double miles with non-air partners is also interesting–you’ll earn double miles for partners like Lyft for six months, up to 2,000 miles. If you use these partners often enough, this would be the best choice.
30K Milestone
After attaining MVP status at 20K and then reaching 30K EQMs, you can choose one of the following perks:
- 2,500 bonus miles
- $25 off a future Alaska flight
- Four Wi-Fi passes
- Try MVP Gold status for a trip
- $100 off an Alaska Lounge or Lounge+ membership
Again, these perks aren’t great. 2,500 bonus miles is the safest pick.
55K Milestone
After attaining MVP Gold status at 40K and then reaching 55K EQMs, you can choose two of the following perks:
- 5,000 bonus miles
- 10,000 miles off an Extras redemption
- Gift MVP for a trip
- One complimentary Lounge day pass
- Two upgrade certificates
These perks are okay, and it’s nice to get to choose two of them. The 5,000 bonus miles and two upgrade certificates are pretty obvious picks.
85K Milestone
After attaining MVP Gold 75K status and then reaching 85K EQMs, you can choose two of the following perks:
- 15,000 bonus miles
- 25,000 miles off an Extras redemption
- Two complimentary Lounge day passes
- Two upgrade certificates
- Gift MVP Gold for a trip
- Nominate someone for MVP status
- 10,000 elite-qualifying miles rolled over
Here, there are some interesting perks. The 10,000 EQM rollover is worth considering if you decide that you want an extra boost towards earning elite status in 2026. Nominating someone for MVP status could also be worth it if you have a family member or close friend who will fly Alaska a lot moving forward. Otherwise, the 15,000 bonus miles and two upgrade certificates are the safe and obvious selections.
150K, 200K and 250K Milestones
At 150K, 200K and 250K EQMs, the perks are the same. You can choose two of the following:
- 15,000 bonus miles
- 25,000 miles off an Extras redemption
- Two complimentary Lounge day passes
- Two upgrade certificates
- 10,000 elite-qualifying miles rolled over
Again, the only three perks worth considering are the 15,000 bonus miles, two upgrade certificates and 10,000 EQMs rolled over.

News Ways to Earn EQMs Through Alaska’s Partners
The Mileage Plan program in 2025 introduced new ways to earn EQMs through Alaska’s partners. We already touched on the main way to earn EQMs: fly Alaska, or one of its partners (including award travel). Besides that, here are a couple ways to earn EQMs even if you never step foot into an Alaska Airlines plane.
Spending with Alaska Credit Cards
In 2025, Cardholders of the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature Credit Card and Alaska Airlines Visa Business Credit Card will now earn one EQM for every $3 spent on purchases. You can earn a maximum of 30,000 EQMs this way, even if you hold multiple Alaska cards.
This gives some extra incentive to spend with the Alaska cards, which you typically wouldn’t use on general purchases due to the weak earning multipliers. However, relying on this to earn Alaska status isn’t economical. There’s also a significant opportunity cost since you could be getting a bigger return from your spend by using other cards.
Mileage Plan Non-Air Partners
In 2025, Mileage Plan members can earn 1,000 EQMs for every combined 3,000 Mileage Plan miles earned with Alaska’s everyday non-air partners. This is best illustrated with a few examples.
You can earn up to 5X miles for every dollar spent with Mileage Plan Dining restaurant partners as a VIP member. Suppose that you’re a VIP member, and you spend $600 with Mileage Plan Dining. This earns you 3,000 Mileage Plan miles; in 2025, you’ll also earn 1,000 EQMs.
As another example, Mileage Plan members can earn 1X mile for every dollar spent with Lyft. Suppose that in 2025, you spend $3,000 on Lyft rides. You’ll earn 3,000 Mileage Plan miles, and 1,000 EQMs.
Earnings under different partners combine for the purposes of the EQM earning calculation. Suppose you spend $500 with Mileage Plan dining (to earn 2,500 miles), and $500 with Lyft (to earn 500 miles). Combined, you earned 3,000 Mileage Plan miles, so you’d also earn 1,000 EQMs.
How to Earn Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan Miles
Despite the apparent lack of major partners that transfer to the Mileage Plan, Alaska Airlines still offers a plethora of ways to earn their miles. The most straightforward way is to fly with Alaska and their partners. Alaska also offers a few shopping and travel portals that can be quite lucrative.
Flying with Alaska Airlines
When you fly with Alaska Airlines, you earn miles based on the distance traveled, and fare class booked. This is summarized in the following screenshot:

In general, you’ll earn at least one mile per actual mile flown if you book a Main Cabin fare. However, you have to pay attention to the fare codes. Let’s use two examples to understand how many miles you’ll earn from an Alaska flight.
- Example 1: San Francisco (SFO) to New York (JFK). The flying distance for this flight is 2,586 miles.
- Example 2: San Francisco (SFO) to Las Vegas (LAS). The flying distance for this flight is 414 miles.
The following chart shows how many miles you’ll earn on these two flights, based on fare class. In general, you earn at least one mile per actual mile flown if you book a Main Cabin fare. Note that flights under 500 miles earn 500 base miles.
Fare Class | % of Miles Earned | Example 1: SFO-JFK | Example 2: SFO-LAS |
---|---|---|---|
J (First) | 200% | 5,172 | 1,000 |
C (First) | 175% | 4,526 | 875 |
D or I (First) | 150% | 3,879 | 750 |
Y or B (Main) | 150% | 3,879 | 750 |
H or K (Main) | 125% | 3,233 | 625 |
M, L, V, S, N, Q, O or G (Main) | 100% | 2,586 | 500 |
X (Saver) | 30% | 776 | 167 |
Having elite status with Alaska can have a big impact on how many miles you earn. Depending on the elite status level, you’ll get an additional earning multiplier that applies at the end of all calculations. For example, if you’re an Alaska MVP in 2025, you get a 25% earning bonus on all flights. That means that on fare class M from SFO to JFK, you’d earn 2,586 miles plus a 25% bonus, or 3,233 miles total. The following chart shows how many miles you’ll earn on a flight from SFO to JFK depending on elite status in 2025:
Fare Class | SFO-JFK (no status) | SFO-JFK (MVP, 25% bonus) | SFO-JFK (MVP Gold, 50% bonus) | SFO-JFK (MVP Gold 75K, 100% bonus) | SFO-JFK (MVP Gold 100K, 150% bonus) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
J (First) | 5,172 | 6,465 | 7,758 | 10,344 | 12,930 |
C (First) | 4,526 | 5,658 | 6,384 | 9,052 | 11,315 |
D or I (First) | 3,879 | 4,849 | 5,819 | 7,758 | 9,698 |
Y or B (Main) | 3,879 | 4,849 | 5,819 | 7,758 | 9,698 |
H or K (Main) | 3,233 | 4,041 | 4,850 | 6,466 | 8,083 |
M, L, V, S, N, Q, O or G (Main) | 2,586 | 3,233 | 3,879 | 5,172 | 6,465 |
X (Saver) | 776 | 970 | 1,164 | 1,552 | 1,940 |
Our second example flight from SFO to LAS earns a base rate of 500 miles, since the flying distance is under 500 miles. Here’s what earnings would look like for MVP members in 2025:
Fare Class | SFO-LAS (no status) | SFO-LAS (MVP, 25% bonus) | SFO-LAS (MVP Gold, 50% bonus) | SFO-LAS (MVP Gold 75K, 100% bonus) | SFO-LAS (MVP Gold 100K, 150% bonus) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
J (First) | 1,000 | 1,250 | 1,500 | 2,000 | 2,500 |
C (First) | 875 | 1,094 | 1,313 | 1,750 | 2,188 |
D or I (First) | 750 | 938 | 1,125 | 1.500 | 1,875 |
Y or B (Main) | 750 | 938 | 1,125 | 1.500 | 1,875 |
H or K (Main) | 625 | 781 | 938 | 1,250 | 1,563 |
M, L, V, S, N, Q, O or G (Main) | 500 | 625 | 750 | 1,000 | 1,250 |
X (Saver) | 167 | 209 | 251 | 334 | 418 |
Flying with Airline Partners
You can also elect to earn Mileage Plan miles on any of Alaska’s partners. Again, the amount of miles you’ll earn is based on the flight distance as well as the fare class booked. Alaska publishes a separate earning chart for each of its partners. As an example, take the earnings chart for Cathay Pacific from Alaska’s website:

Unfortunately, you’ll likely earn fewer miles with partner airlines compared to if you flew exclusively with Alaska. This is evident in Cathay’s chart, where most economy fares (L, M, V, Q, O, S, N or G) will land you just 25% of the total flight distance. Economy fare classes B, H, K, Y, E and R do have a better earning rate but are often much more expensive.
To illustrate, the flight distance from San Francisco (SFO) to Cathay Pacific’s hub in Hong Kong (HKG) is 6,914 miles. If you flew in economy fare class M, you’d only earn 25% or 1,729 miles. Don’t forget that elite status benefits apply to partner flights as well: for instance, with Alaska MVP status in 2024, you’d get an additional 50% bonus, or 2,594 miles total.
One very important and interesting thing to note is that flights are often marketed and sold by multiple partner airlines. Because Alaska publishes a different chart for each partner airline, it’s possible to earn a different amount of miles depending on which airline you book with. Our SFO to HKG flight is one such example. In the following screenshot, note how American Airlines flight 8930 operates as Cathay Pacific flight 872:

Suppose that you book this flight with American Airlines, in fare class M:

Had you booked this with Cathay Pacific, you would’ve earned just 25% of the miles according to the earning chart. However, take a look at Alaska’s chart for American Airlines, which is wildly different:

For American Airlines flights, fare class M earns 100% of the total miles flown. As a result, you’ll earn the full 6,914 miles for this flight. In short, if you can preview the fare class for your flights, and the price across multiple airlines is the same, book with the airline that gets you the best earning rate. This concept applies on Alaska and all other airlines with separate earning charts for different partners.
Transferring From Hawaiian Airlines
Following the merger between Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines, you can now turn your Hawaiian miles into Alaska miles at a 1:1 ratio. This is generally favorable, since Alaska offers many more redemption options with its partners compared to Hawaiian.
This also means that welcome bonuses on Hawaiian co-branded credit cards, such as the Hawaiian Airlines® World Elite Mastercard®, can effectively become Alaska miles. It’s unclear how much longer these cards are going to be offered, so it may be worth applying for right now for an extra boost of miles.
Additionally, this has introduced a roundabout way to turn American Express Membership Rewards points into Alaska miles. Because Hawaiian Airlines is an Amex transfer partner, you can first transfer your Amex points to Hawaiian at a 1:1 ratio, and then from Hawaiian to Alaska at a 1:1 ratio. At first glance, this significantly increases the value of American Express points. Do note that Amex charges a fee for transferring points to domestic airlines like Hawaiian.
Transferring From Bilt
Alaska Airlines actually does have one direct transfer partner in Bilt (not including the roundabout way to transfer Amex points to Alaska). This is a straightforward, 1:1 transfer from Bilt to Alaska.
Alaska Airlines Co-Branded Credit Cards
Alaska Airlines has two co-branded credit cards with Bank of America: the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® Card and the Alaska Airlines Visa® Business Card. You can earn Alaska miles directly by putting your spending on these cards. Here’s a quick overview of these two cards (which are nearly identical in benefits):
- Annual fee: $95 for the personal card and for the business card, it’s $70 for the company and $25 per card.
- Spending bonuses:
- 3X on eligible Alaska Airlines purchases
- 2X on gas, EV charging, local transit, rideshare, cable and select streaming services
- 1X on all other purchases
- Notable benefits:
- 20% back on Alaska Airlines inflight purchases
- 10% rewards bonus on all miles earned from card purchases with eligible Bank of America account
- Priority boarding privileges (group C)
- Companion Fare ticket (buy one, get one for $99 + taxes)
- Get another Companion Fare ticket after spending $6,000 on the card in a calendar year
- Earn one elite-qualifying mile for every $3 spent across all Alaska credit cards in 2025
In addition, Alaska typically offers a welcome bonus between 40,000 to 70,000 Alaska miles for their cards. This is a great way to quickly gain a large stash of Alaska miles.
Admittedly, the spending bonuses on these cards aren’t great. Earning 3X on Alaska is decent, especially if you fly with them often. Otherwise, unless you’re running a fully Alaska-centric setup, it’s probably best to put your spend on a more rewarding card instead.
On another note, the Companion Fare alone should help you at least break even from the annual fee in the first year. Note that if you obtained an Alaska credit card before early 2023, you don’t need to spend $6,000 to earn a new Companion Fare ticket each year. If you’re lucky enough to have one of these grandfathered cards, I strongly recommend never canceling them for the annual Companion Fare benefit alone.
Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® Card
60,000
Bonus Miles
plus Alaska's Famous Companion Fare™ ($99 fare plus taxes and fees from $23) after you spend $3,000 in the first 90 days
Annual Fee: $95

Alaska Airlines Visa® Business Card
50,000
Bonus Miles plus Alaska’s Famous Companion Fare™ ($99 fare plus taxes and fees from $23)
after you spend $3,000 in the first 90 days
Annual Fee: $70
Mileage Plan Shopping
Alaska Airlines offers its own shopping portal where you can earn Mileage Plan miles when shopping with partner vendors. Simply sign into the Mileage Plan Shopping portal with your Mileage Plan number. Ensure that you follow the proper link to the vendor through the portal to earn extra Alaska miles for each purchase. These miles stack on top of whatever credit card you use to make your purchases, so it’s a prime example of double dipping.
Look out for elevated offers. In the following screenshot, Mileage Plan Shopping members can earn an elevated 5X miles at lululemon (usually 1X).

It may seem like a lot of extra work to go through the portal each time you make an online purchase. To prevent this, install the Mileage Plan Shopping extension in your Google Chrome browser. Each time you visit a Mileage Plan Shopping partner’s website, the extension will automatically pop up and notify you of the current Mileage Plan Shopping offer. By clicking the Activate button, you’ll earn extra Alaska miles with a qualifying purchase.
Stays by Alaska Vacations
Stays by Alaska Vacations is a travel portal that you can use to earn Alaska miles on hotel stays around the world. While this is a nice way to earn a few extra Alaska miles via double-dipping, it’s unfortunate that this newer portal launched in late 2024 (powered by Expedia) offers significantly worse earning rates than the Alaska Airlines Hotel portal of old (powered by RocketMiles). For those who used to primarily book hotels via Alaska Airlines Hotels, this is a major devaluation.
Just about every hotel in the new Stays by Alaska Vacations portal earns a maximum of 1X mile per dollar spent. For example, we found a one-week stay at the Renaissance New York Times Square Hotel by Marriott for $3,385, and earns up to 3,140 miles:

The tradeoff to using a hotel portal is that you won’t be able to take advantage of any of your hotel loyalty programs. For instance, if you’re a Marriott loyalist, you won’t be able to provide your Marriott number at the time of booking, and your Marriott account won’t earn credit for this stay. You’ll have to weigh the benefits of earning some extra Alaska miles against any other benefits you might get by booking through the hotel’s website directly.
Mileage Plan Dining
Mileage Plan Dining is the third main portal offered by Alaska Airlines. It allows you to earn bonus miles when you dine in or order takeout at any partner restaurant. After linking cards to your Mileage Plan Dining account, be sure to use them to pay in order to earn miles.
The number of miles you earn depends on your status level within the Mileage Plan Dining program:
- If you choose not to receive email communications from Mileage Plan Dining, you’re a Basic member. Basic members earn 1X per every two dollars spent.
- If you choose to receive email communications from Mileage Plan Dining, you’re a Select member. Select members earn 3X per dollar spent.
- If you choose to receive email communications from Mileage Plan Dining, and you’ve completed 11 Mileage Plan Dining visits in the calendar year, you’re a VIP member. VIP members earn 5X per dollar spent.
If you sign up with Mileage Plan Dining, you’ll want to opt into email communications to become a Select member. Otherwise, you won’t get much traction as a Basic member.
If you can get to VIP, definitely do so. Earning 5X Alaska miles on top of whatever credit card you used to make the transaction has huge double-dip potential.
Other Mileage Plan Deals
Keep an eye on the Mileage Plan Deals page for other retail partners. For instance, you can get a $30 credit and earn 3X per dollar spent on your first booking on Rover.com pet sitting services.
Other highlights include Alaska’s various rental car partnerships. At the time of writing, you can earn 4X miles with Hertz, 3X miles with Thrifty, and 3X miles with Dollar.
Buying Alaska Miles
If you want, you can directly purchase Mileage Plan miles. Alaska lets you buy them in increments of 1,000 miles for $27.50 pre-tax. This means that each mile costs a little over 2.75 cents apiece.
It’s usually a bad idea to purchase miles outright since we’ve covered so many other ways to earn them through regular spending. However, if you need to top off your balance, or you’re targeting a specific sweet spot redemption worth more than 2.75 cents apiece, this can be an option worth considering.
If you ultimately do choose to buy miles, consider waiting for a promotion. For example, from November 23 to December 23, 2023, Alaska ran a promotion where you could earn up to a 50% bonus on purchased miles.

For example, you’d normally have to spend $687.50 pre-tax to buy 25,000 Alaska miles. With this promotion, that same $687.50 can buy 37,500 miles. Each mile costs a little over 1.83 cents apiece.
Transfer From Marriott Bonvoy
Marriott is a transfer partner of Alaska Airlines. You can transfer Marriott Bonvoy points to Alaska Airlines at a 3:1 rate. For every 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points that you transfer, you’ll receive an extra 5,000 Alaska Airlines miles.
Riding with Lyft
You can earn some extra Alaska miles by linking your Mileage Plan account number to your Lyft account. When you book a Lyft ride, you’ll earn 1X miles per dollar spent. After linking, Lyft automatically adds these miles to your Mileage Plan account.
How to Redeem Alaska Airlines Miles
If you’re after value, redeeming your Alaska miles for premium cabin flights with airline partners is the best way to go. We’ll do a deep dive into this option, along with some Mileage Plan sweet spots in this next section. Nevertheless, there are plenty of ways for you to use your hard-earned miles, ranging from Alaska flights to hotel stays and other exclusive experiences.
Flying with Alaska Airlines
Let’s start with redemptions on Alaska Airlines. Alaska operates only within North America, and the cost of redemptions is largely based on the flight distance. Here’s the award chart published by Alaska:

This simply lists “starting at” values; in practice, you may see that flights cost a little bit more depending on travel dates. For instance, one-way from San Francisco (SFO) to Honolulu (HNL), we found the following flight for 17,500 miles in Main and 70,000 miles in First.

In general, you’re just not going to get the greatest value redeeming your miles on Alaska flights. For example, the cash rate for the SFO to HNL flight above is $215 in Main and $615 in First.

This equates to a value of just 1.23 cents per point for the Main cabin redemption, and an abysmal 0.88 cents per point for the First redemption.
You can also use Alaska miles to upgrade from the Main Cabin to First. This option is only available for select Main fare codes. The easiest way to ensure that you’re eligible is to choose “Mileage” under “Upgrade type” when booking your flight to begin with. In the following screenshot, the first flight is First Class upgrade-eligible, while the second flight is not (you book the Main Cabin fare; both flights cost $283).

It costs 15,000 Alaska miles to upgrade to First. Once again, this is usually terrible value. In the previous screenshot, for the flight from San Francisco (SFO) to Everett (PAE), you could’ve just purchased the First Class seat outright for $40 more than the Main Cabin seat. If you used 15,000 miles to make this upgrade, you’d only be getting 0.27 cents per point in value.
Flying with Airline Partners
Alaska miles don’t offer great value when redeemed for Alaska flights. We can do much better redeeming flights through some of Alaska’s airline partners.
Alaska is a member of the Oneworld alliance, so you can redeem your miles for flights operated by other alliance members. Alaska also has several other partnerships with airlines not in the Oneworld alliance.
Unfortunately, Alaska miles have gone through some big devaluations, as is the trend among just about every airline loyalty program. Previously, Alaska published separate award charts for each partner airline. Starting in March 2024, Alaska will use one unified, distance-based chart for all partner redemptions. This also means that many of Alaska’s current “sweet spot” redemptions will no longer be available.
On the bright side, Alaska’s search tool has greatly improved over the years as well, so it’s now much easier to search for partner award space. By properly using the search tool, you should still be able to get excellent value from your miles, especially on awards in premium cabins.
For instance, suppose you wanted to travel from San Francisco (SFO) to Frankfurt (FRA). From Alaska’s search tool on the homepage, choose “All search options”. This will bring you to the following screen:

Now, simply input our travel parameters as shown. Ensure that you check both “Use miles” and “Award calendar”. We’ll search one-way pricing for now, for dates in July 2024. You’ll see results that look something like this:

In this handy calendar view, we filtered for Business Class awards. There’s a lot of award space here for 55,000 Alaska miles and $48 in taxes and fees. If we choose July 15, we can see this specific award:

This is an excellent deal for nearly eleven hours of business class on Condor Airlines from San Francisco to Frankfurt. For reference, the cash price for this flight is roughly $1,685:

This redemption would give your points a value of around 3.06 cents per point.
One major improvement to partner redemptions in 2025 is that you can now mix and match partners on a single ticket. For example, you can combine an Alaska Airlines flight with a British Airways flight to get from the West Coast to London.
Utilizing Stopovers on Oneworld Award Flights
To further maximize your Alaska miles, consider working in a stopover on your itinerary. A stopover is a connection that lasts a few days, allowing you to visit another city en route to your final destination.
Alaska allows you to add a stopover on any award itinerary for free. When doing this, note that your complete itinerary can contain a maximum of one partner and Alaska Airlines. Suppose that in our previous example from San Francisco (SFO) to Frankfurt (FRA), you wanted to go to Las Vegas (LAS) for a few days first. You can use the Multi-city search function on Alaska to find possible itineraries:

Here, we found the following result with Alaska and Condor:

As you can see, compared to our previous example, this itinerary still costs 55,000 miles. Essentially, you’re getting a free stopover in Las Vegas for a few days without having to pay extra.
Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan Sweet Spots
The Mileage Plan program is well-known for certain sweet spot redemptions. However, following the consolidation of Alaska’s redemption charts in March 2024, these sweet spots will look a lot different. Just for reference, here are some popular sweet spots that will eventually vanish:
- Los Angeles (LAX) to Sydney (SYD) in Qantas business class. Old price: 50,000 miles; new price: 85,000 miles.
- Los Angeles (LAX) to Sydney (SYD) in Qantas first class. Old price: 70,000 miles; new price: 130,000 miles.
- U.S. West Coast to Fiji (NAN) in Fiji business class. Old price: 55,000 miles; new price: 75,000 miles.
- Los Angeles (LAX) to Hong Kong (HKG) in Cathay business class. Old price: 50,000 miles; new price: 85,000 miles.
- U.S. to Hong Kong (HKG) in Cathay first class. Old price: 70,000 miles; new price: 130,000 miles.
These sweet spots will be dearly missed. However, just because there are some clear losers, doesn’t mean there aren’t some winners as well. There are still some great redemptions to be had in Alaska’s new charts.
Let’s start with the Americas:

Business class for flights between 2,101 and 4,000 miles will start at just 35,000 miles. This is not only a great deal, but an improvement over current pricing. For instance, a route on LATAM from New York (JFK) to Lima (LIM) covering a distance of 3,629 miles currently costs 45,000 Alaska miles one-way:

The cash rate for this flight is $1,746. At 35,000 miles, your points are worth 4.99 cents per point with this redemption.

Next up, here’s Alaska’s award chart for Europe, Middle East, and Africa:

Business class for flights between 1,501 and 3,500 miles start at 45,000 Alaska miles one-way, and this is another improvement over the previous pricing of 57,500 miles.

The cash pricing for this flight is $1,737. At 45,000 miles, your points are worth 3.86 cents per point with this redemption.

Finally, let’s take a look at the chart for Asia Pacific:

Business class for flights between 3,001 and 5,000 miles starts at 60,000 Alaska miles one-way. This is still a sweet spot for the Japan Airlines route between Seattle (SEA) to Tokyo-Haneda (HND), which is about 4,804 miles one-way. Award availability can be tough to find, but it’ll be well worth it.

Note that in the previous example above, there’s a connection in Chicago (ORD). Under the new chart, this reward would increase to 75,000 miles one-way. However, assuming you’re able to find direct flight award availability from Seattle to Tokyo, this is one of the most valuable redemptions for your Alaska miles. Here’s a sample cash price for a direct flight to Tokyo-Narita (NRT):

Your 60,000 miles here would be worth 6.80 cents per point.
Hotel Stays
We previously discussed Mileage Plan Hotels as a way to earn Alaska miles for hotel stays. You can use the same portal to redeem your miles. Unfortunately, you’ll seldom find great deals redeeming your miles this way.
For instance, let’s look at the redemption rates for the same Millenium Hilton New York hotel we examined earlier.

Previously, we saw that the cash rate for this room was $1,365.04. At 219,700 miles, you’d only be getting 0.62 cents per point in value. Given how many great redemptions there are with partner airlines, we definitely don’t recommend using your hard-earned miles in the Mileage Plan Hotel portal.
Exclusive Experiences
Alaska Airlines offers an Extras page where you can redeem your miles for various experiences such as sporting events. However, there aren’t usually that many options to choose from, and the value of these redemptions leaves a lot to be desired.
One offer at the time of writing is two courtside seats at a college men’s basketball game between UW and Stanford, for 30,000 miles.

It’s difficult to find the actual cash pricing for these seats, but it’s not going to beat redeeming for flights. For example, even if the tickets were worth $300, you’d only get one cent per point in value.
Donate Your Miles
You can also donate your Alaska miles to a great cause. The CARES Miles program currently partners with a few charities and organizations, listed below:
- Alaska Airlines Disaster Relief Pool
- Alaska Airlines Miles for Youth
- Angel Flight West
- Dream Foundation
- Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center
- Fisher House Foundation (Hero Miles)
- Honor Flight Network
- Make-A-Wish Foundation
- Medical Teams International
- National Forest Foundation
- The Nature Conservancy
- Seattle Children’s Hospital
- UNCF
The Bottom Line
While Alaska Airlines is a domestic airline with a relatively small route network, its frequent-flyer program is worth considering. This is especially true given the number of ways you can earn and redeem your miles, including with its Oneworld partners and other partner airlines. The merger between Alaska and Hawaiian has also made it easier to earn Alaska miles quickly.
With the multitude of Mileage Plan shake-ups in recent years, the value of Alaska miles may have decreased slightly, but there are still plenty of potential sweet spots for members to take advantage of. In particular, international flight awards in premium cabins can offer excellent value, especially when paired with Alaska’s generous free stopover policy. It’s also easier than ever to pursue Alaska status following changes to earning EQMs in 2025.
Premium travel awaits. Sign up for the Mileage Plan for free today and start racking up Alaska miles using the many methods we covered in this article.
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Editors Note: Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.