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I’ll first start off by saying that this deal may not be for everyone but if you are short of Alaska Miles or want to fly with one of their amazing partners in Business or First Class and were already going to use cash, this might be a great deal for you.
Right now, Alaska Airlines is offering a 40% bonus for purchases of miles over 20,000. It ends up costing about 2.11 CPM, which isn’t the most ideal but if you need some Alaska miles quickly, it’s a great way to do it.
The Offer
You must have had an Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan account for at least 10 days to purchase miles so if you don’t have one, head over here to create one. If you have had an account for longer than 10 days, you are eligible to purchase miles from Alaska Airlines at a fairly significantly discounted rate, if you purchase more than 20,000 miles.
The offer is only good until February 7th, 2019, specifically, the fine print states:
Transactions must be completed between 6:00 AM PST January 16, 2018 and 11:59 PM PST February 7, 2018 to be eligible for bonus miles.
The Math
There is a 40% bonus on purchased miles for anything over 20,000 miles so whether you purchase 20K or 60K, there is no difference in the cost per mile.
Here’s what it would cost to purchase 20,000 Alaska Miles
To calculate the CPM, we take the total cost and divide it by the total miles purchased and then multiply the whole thing by 100.
Cost of Miles / Number of Miles * 100 = CPM
$591.25 / 28,000 * 100 = CPM
2.11 CPM
The cost is higher than my typical bar of 1 CPM, however, this can be a great deal if you need Alaska Miles and don’t have time to earn them organically.
How To
The offer is facilitated by a third party, Points.com so head over to the offer at:
http://www.pointsnerd.ca/go/points-com/
You will be presented with a login screen that will consist of your name, Alaska Mileage Plan Number, and your email address.
From there, just choose how many miles you want to purchase and complete the form with your billing information.
Conclusion
As I had mentioned, this is not a great deal unless you are planning on booking an Alaska Award and are short on miles, but if you are, this could be the perfect opportunity to load up on some cheap miles. Typically, Alaska Airlines sells their miles for 2.96 CPM so this is a significant savings from the normal offer.
If you aren’t aware, Alaska’s Mileage Plan offers some amazing redemptions with some of the best airlines in the world, including Cathay Pacific, JAL, Qantas, and Korean. If you want to learn where the sweet spots are and how to find availability and make an award booking with Alaska’s partners, check out my detailed series here.