Buy Alaska Miles with a 50% Bonus

Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan is a popular program for its great deals on redemptions and frequent mileage sales.

With their current sale, you can earn up to 50% bonus miles on your purchase. This sale is on for just a short time, ending on 11:59pm PST on March 15, 2023, so be sure to capitalize on the offer before then if you’re interested.

Buy Alaska Miles with a 50% Bonus

Normally, Alaska Airlines sells miles for 2.75 US cents per mile, plus a 7.5% tax recovery fee, for a total of 2.96 US cents per mile. Luckily, Alaska frequently offers discounts on purchasing miles.

Alaska is known for running targeted “mystery bonuses.” It seems the best available offer is for up to 50% bonus on purchased miles, structured like so:

• 50% bonus when you buy 30,000–100,000 miles
• 40% bonus when you buy 10,000–29,000 miles
• 30% bonus when you buy 3,000–9,000 miles

Log in with your Mileage Plan account to see the exact breakdown of your bonus, as not all members are given the best available offer.

With a 50% bonus, you could buy 150,000 Alaska miles for $2,956.25 (USD) including tax, at a cost of 1.97 US cents per mile.

At our current valuation of 1.8 US cents per mile, that price is above our valuation, but could still represent an good deal if you have a specific use in mind.

Historically, Alaska tends to offer bonuses in the 35% to 60% range, although we’ve seen rare offers as high as 70%. This offer is in the middle range of the bonuses, so if you have your sights set on an aspirational redemption, be sure to take advantage of it if you stand to benefit.

How many miles can you buy?

Unless you have elite status with Alaska, each Mileage Plan member is limited to receiving 150,000 miles per calendar year from mileage purchases, whether buying for yourself or being gifted from someone else.

This limit only applies to base miles, although there’s a limit of 100,000 base miles per transaction. If you split your purchase up into multiple transactions, you could buy up to 225,000 miles including the 50% bonus, assuming you haven’t already bought or been gifted Alaska miles this year.

Which credit card should you use to buy Alaska miles?

Mileage Plan sells miles through Points.com. As you aren’t buying directly from Alaska Airlines, you won’t earn any bonus points for using an Alaska Airlines credit card.

The purchase won’t code as travel for the category accelerator either….