Alaska Airlines has announced the return of mile purchases with up to a 60% bonus. This is a limited time offer that expires on February 14, 2021. This offer may be targeted.
Buy Miles With Up To A 60% Bonus
This offer includes a bonus on miles purchased from 3,000 to 39,000 miles receiving an additional 40% bonus. Purchases of 40,000 miles or more will receive a bonus of 60%.
In the example above, a purchase of 40,000 miles will receive an additional 24,000 miles for a cost of $1,100.00. There is a federal excise tax charge of $82.50 for a total cost of $1,182.50. The cost per mile from this purchase would be 1.87 cents per mile.
You are allowed to purchase a maximum of 100,000 miles from this promotion with a bonus of 60,000 miles. The cost of these 160,000 with federal excise tax would be $2,956.25. This brings the cost to 1.84 cents per mile. This is pretty close to the retail value of Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles as valued by The Points Guy.
To purchase miles, sign in to your Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan account. After signing in, click on Mileage plan and then click on Buy Or Share Miles. From Buy Or Share Miles, click on Buy Miles and you will be taken to the points.com purchase site.
For me, I would pass on this deal. If you are planning an award trip and your account is short, this would be an excellent opportunity to top off your account and book that award trip.
Terms And Conditions
The purchase of Alaska Airlines miles is through a third-party, points.com. The purchase of miles does not earn the triple mile bonus using the Alaska Airlines Visa credit card like it does with actual airfare purchases. Here are the terms and conditions for this promotion:
- Transactions must be completed between 6:00 AM PST January 20, 2021 and 11:59 PM PST February 14, 2021 to be eligible for bonus miles.
- Miles are purchased from Points.com Inc. for a cost of $27.50 per 1,000 miles, plus a 7.5% Federal Excise Tax*, 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 and MVP Gold 75K 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.
- 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.
Alaska Mileage Plan Shopping Portal Bonus
You will receive an additional 500 bonus miles for purchases made through the Alaska Airlines shopping portal. You will receive an additional 500 miles when you purchase at least $150.00 through the shopping portal through February 17, 2021.
Alaska Airlines has an easy to use shopping portal by the use of the “shopping button”. The “shopping button” works in your browser as an extension. If you don’t have the “shopping button”, you can find it here.
On top of this bonus promotion, many merchants have temporary increases in the number of miles earned through portal purchases. You can find the current bonus merchants here.
Final Thoughts
Purchasing miles with a substantial bonus is always better than no bonus at all. You have to decide if the deal is good for you by calculating how much the miles with the bonus is actually costing you. Since the bonus price is pretty close to the actual retail value of a Mileage Plan mile, I will pass on the deal. If your account is short, it could help you book that award trip sooner than later.
