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-   -   Using Alaska miles for car rentals? (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/alaska-airlines-mileage-plan/1004274-using-alaska-miles-car-rentals.html)

ASflyer Oct 9, 2009 3:39 pm

Using Alaska miles for car rentals?
 
Is there a way to use AK Airlines miles for car rentals? I know there's no way to do it directly, but it's sometimes possible to go through an intermediary. Any ideas?

MagicCarpetRider Oct 9, 2009 8:21 pm


Originally Posted by ASflyer (Post 12587235)
Is there a way to use AK Airlines miles for car rentals? I know there's no way to do it directly, but it's sometimes possible to go through an intermediary. Any ideas?

Yes, through www.points.com

But, it will cost you.......

Example:

A $25.00 Avis Certificate will cost you 8,015 Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan Miles.

If you have miles to burn, then maybe this is for you.

beckoa Oct 10, 2009 1:20 am

Or if you win an auction with AS, rentals are often thrown in ;)

CDKing Oct 10, 2009 8:56 am


Originally Posted by MagicCarpetRider (Post 12589548)
But, it will cost you.......

Its about as cost effective on spending 25K points to fly from PDX-SEA when BOS-ANC can be purchased for the same. Why not just pay for the rental? If you want to throw miles away you can always give them to me :D

sdsearch Oct 10, 2009 10:34 am

I don't specifically know exactly at what value AS miles turn into rentals, but I would not expect it to be signficantly better than how UA does it. And the other day, I just priced a 10-day rental at LAX that woud have cost about $300, and it came to 45k-ish UA miles. I've used used 25k UA miles before for a flight that would have cost $500+ on UA all-mainline and still $400+ on AS/QX (with much of it on QX), so 45k for $300ish does not seem like a good value to me at all.

However: It is still a better value than redeeming for gift cards.

And they came up with the 45k-ish by taking 4k-ish per day and multiplying it by the number of days. Since a car rental costs less per day in moeny the longer it is, it could be that miles for car rental might be a bit less ridiculous if you need a very short rental only. But I still suggest you do the above kind of math to see if it's really a good use of miles for you.

At AA, the trick to using AA miles for car rentals is to use AAVacations (and essentially book a rental-only vacation, and then pay for your vacation with miles).

Btw, one important thing to note: With both UA and AA, there's big penalties for cancelling you car reseravation, if you even can. So you shouldn't be comparing this to a car rental reservation made direct with the rental company which allows you to not show up and still not be charged, you should comparing it to making a car rental reservation with some discount broker that gets you a cheapo "use it or lose it" prepaid car rental!

COpltASgldPHX Oct 10, 2009 10:42 am


Originally Posted by ASflyer (Post 12587235)
Is there a way to use AK Airlines miles for car rentals? I know there's no way to do it directly, but it's sometimes possible to go through an intermediary. Any ideas?

I think your question of how to best use AirAsia miles should probably be posted in another forum. :p

CDKing Oct 10, 2009 12:35 pm


Originally Posted by COpltASgldPHX (Post 12593502)
I think your question of how to best use AirAsia miles should probably be posted in another forum. :p

I was wondering how long it would take for someone to mention that.


Originally Posted by sdsearch (Post 12593455)
$400+ on AS/HX (with much of it on HX),

I don't recall AS partnering with Trans North Aviation

beckoa Oct 10, 2009 10:00 pm


Originally Posted by CDKing (Post 12594263)
I was wondering how long it would take for someone to mention that.



I don't recall AS partnering with Trans North Aviation

Thanks for looking up HX, never heard of them before ;)

BLI-Flyer Oct 11, 2009 9:06 am

You might do better with a Priceline rental.


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