Using Alaska miles for car rentals?
Oct 9, 2009, 3:39 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2005
Programs: AS MVP Gold
Posts: 93
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?
Oct 9, 2009, 8:21 pm
#2
Join Date: Apr 2009
Programs: Alaska Airlines
Posts: 227
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.
Oct 10, 2009, 1:20 am
#3
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend, Moderator, Information Desk, Ambassador, Alaska Airlines
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: FAI
Programs: AS MVP Gold100K, AS 1MM, Maika`i Card, AGR, HH Gold, Hertz PC, Marriott Titanium LTG, CO, 7H, BA, 8E
Posts: 42,953
Or if you win an auction with AS, rentals are often thrown in 
Oct 10, 2009, 8:56 am
#4
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: BOS/ORH
Programs: AS 75K
Posts: 18,323
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 
Last edited by CDKing; Oct 10, 2009 at 9:02 am
Oct 10, 2009, 10:34 am
#5
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: home = LAX
Posts: 25,933
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!
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!
Last edited by sdsearch; Oct 11, 2009 at 10:38 am Reason: corrected Horizon code
Oct 10, 2009, 10:42 am
#6
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Programs: CO OnePass Platinum AS MVP HHonors Diamond SPG Gold
Posts: 2,417
Oct 10, 2009, 12:35 pm
#7
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: BOS/ORH
Programs: AS 75K
Posts: 18,323
I don't recall AS partnering with Trans North Aviation
Last edited by CDKing; Oct 10, 2009 at 3:17 pm
Oct 10, 2009, 10:00 pm
#8
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend, Moderator, Information Desk, Ambassador, Alaska Airlines
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: FAI
Programs: AS MVP Gold100K, AS 1MM, Maika`i Card, AGR, HH Gold, Hertz PC, Marriott Titanium LTG, CO, 7H, BA, 8E
Posts: 42,953