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We successfully booked our flights to Asia!!!! You hear about using your miles to book flights, but what kind of value can you get out of your miles? We’ll discuss that today and how we were able to get $16,176 worth of flights with our airline miles. You may have noticed some of the short videos we’ve been posting about our recent Asia trip. We used our Alaska Airline miles for our business class seats to Asia and back. I’ll show you how we did that.
WHY ALASKA AIRLINES
Alaska Airline miles are one of the more valuable travel currencies out there because of the very useful partners they have. They’re not part of an airline alliance, but they partner with several key airlines, such as Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, Emirates, Hainan Airlines, Icelandair and many more.
Another thing that I like is that searching for award space is very easy, and many of the awards are bookable online, so you don’t have to talk to anyone on the phone, or put up with crazy long wait times.
Since we were flying to Asia, and wanted to fly in business class, we decided to try Cathay Pacific since several travel bloggers rave about their first and business class cabins. Cathay Pacific offers various routes from the US to Hong Kong, which is where they’re based out of. From Hong Kong you can fly to several cities in Asia as well, which brings me to my next point.
WHAT ARE STOPOVERS?
Another reason why I LOVE Alaska Airline miles is because they allow a free stopover on their one way award flights. What that means is that we can book a flight from the US to Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific, stay in Hong Kong for a few days, weeks, etc, then fly out to another destination, in this case it was Bangkok, for no additional charge! This flight ran 50K Alaska Airline miles per person.
On the way back to the US, we decided to check out a different airline, Japan Airlines. This airline is based out of Tokyo Japan, which would allow us to take advantage of a stopover there, before flying to the US. We flew from Bangkok to Tokyo, stayed a few days in Tokyo, then flew to the US for 65K Alaska Airline miles per person!
BOOKING AWARD FLIGHTS TO ASIA
To search for our Cathay Pacific flights, we used the British Airways website. Once you’ve logged into the sight, hover over the “Book” tab and select “Book a flight with Avios”.
Next you’ll enter in your flight search information, dates, number of passengers, etc. Then click on “Get Flights”
Next you’ll see this screen. Make sure to select “No, I want to continue without stopovers”, then click “Continue”
After that, your search results will appear. If there is award space available, it’ll show, if there isn’t then it won’t. Notice the 3 Cathay Pacific options available, both in Economy and Business class. We usually search for business class on long haul flights since it gives you a better value for your points.
Write down the flight information, or make a screenshot for your desired flight to Hong Kong. You’ll need this later.
So now you found award space from your desired airport to Hong Kong. If you’re wanting to travel to another part of Asia and stay in Hong Kong for a few days to utilize the free stopover, just search for the next segment the same way.
Enter in your search criteria
Here are your search results, showing multiple flights with business class award space.
Again, make sure to write down or make a screenshot of the desired flight information.
CALLING TO BOOK YOUR FLIGHTS TO ASIA
Unfortunately when booking award travel on Cathay Pacific or LAN with Alaska Airline miles, you must call in to make the booking. The good thing is that I’ve found Alaska Airline reps to be very knowledgeable and a pleasure to talk to. Plus, since we’ve already found the flights we want, all we have to do is feed them the information, making the booking go much smoother.
To do this, have your desired flight information ready, along with your Alaska Airline MileagePlan information with the required amount of miles and call 1-800-252-7522. Go through the prompts to make an award booking. When speaking to the phone agent, be courteous. They want to help you out, so don’t be one of those dreaded callers that demands things. Just let them know what you’re trying to book and that you have the flight information ready. Once you feed them the data, they verify the flight availability. Then they ask for passenger information, so make sure to have your passports ready too. The calls usually take about 20-30 minutes and really aren’t too bad. If you have an agent who is rude or isn’t willing to help, just HUCA (hang up, call again).
JAPAN AIRLINE AWARD SEARCH AND BOOKING
So now that you’ve booked your award flight from the US to Bangkok with a stopover in Hong Kong, it’s time to search for your flights back home. Again for our recent vacation, we chose to fly a different route home. This way we can experience a different airline and a different stopover city.
Booking flights on Japan Airlines with Alaska Airline miles is easy. You use the Alaska Airline site to search for the awards and you’re able to book it online as well. Here’s how to do it.
Go to the Alaska Airlines website. Then enter in your flight search information. In this example, I’ll be searching for the Bangkok to Tokyo segment. Then click “FIND FLIGHTS”
Here you’ll see your search results. There is award space in business class on this Japan Airlines flight. Take a screenshot or write down the flight information.
Next, do the same thing to find your Tokyo to US segment. Again with Alaska Airline miles you can take advantage of a free stopover in Tokyo, which is what we did.
After you enter in your search criteria, check to see if there are any award seats available.
Once you find the flights and dates that are available and that you like, take a screen shot of all the segments, or write down the flight information. Here’s where you’ll do a new search to tie it all in together.
From the Alaska Airlines homepage, click on “All search options”
Then click on “Multi-city” and select “Use miles”. Then enter in your 2 segments where you found award space. In this case it’s Bangkok to Tokyo on 9-9-19, then Tokyo to Seattle on 9-18-19. Then click “Find Flights”
Now your search results will show your award flight with the stopover included!
Select the option you want then click “ADD TO CART”
Once in your cart, notice the price for the award flight. 65K miles and about $88 in fees for a business class flight from Bangkok to Tokyo, stay a few days in Tokyo, then from Tokyo to the US. That’s a heck of a deal!
At this point you’ll be required to log in to your MileagePlan account if you haven’t already done so. All you have to do is follow the prompts to complete your booking. It’s super easy!
CASH PRICE OF OUR FLIGHTS TO ASIA
The cash price for our flights from the US to Bangkok was $4,697 per person
However we spent 50K Alaska Airline miles per person plus $122 in fees to book this.
With this award redemption, we got a value of 9.4 cents/mile!
($4,697 / 50,000 miles = 9.4 cents/mile)
The cash price for our return flights was $3,391 per person
But we spent 65K miles per person and about $150 in fees
Remember, these are business class flights!
For these flights we got a value of 5.2 cents/mile. That’s an excellent value
($3,391 / 65,000 miles = 5.2 cents per mile)
The total cash value of the flights for both my wife and I was $16,176, but we booked them with 230,000 Alaska Airline miles! Overall the value we got out of our miles averaged out to 7 cents/mile. ($16,176 / 230,000 miles = 7 cents per mile) Not bad if I say so myself!
HOW TO GET ALASKA AIRLINE MILES
Now you might be wondering, “well that sounds great, but how can I get so many Alaska Airline miles?” Earning the miles is the easy part! You’ll notice on the Alaska Airline homepage towards the bottom, they have a 40,000 mile sign up offer for their credit card. This will get one person most of the miles needed for a one way flight on Cathay Pacific. If you’re planning this trip for you and someone else, your travel partner can sign up for their own card too!
Again, when dealing with credit cards, you must be financially responsible and use it wisely. Just use it like you do your debit card and you’ll be good!
CONCLUSION
Some more cards to consider are any of the Marriott Bonvoy cards offered by either Chase or American Express. The points earned with those cards can be transferred to Alaska Airlines, plus you earn a 25% bonus when transferring points in 20,000 mile increments! With 2 card bonuses, plus regular spending on those cards, you’ll have enough miles to book these flights for 1 person.
I hope you found this article useful and informative. Let me know what you think down in the comments. We’ll see you in the next one!
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