Does Alaska and AA offer the best awards?
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2017
Location: US
Programs: United
Posts: 52
Does Alaska and AA offer the best awards?
I am consistently seeing great award prices as well as availability with Alaska and some with AA.
Alaska in particular, has bargain awards, but it appears to be impossible to get them without having actual Alaska miles, or transferring through a 3rd party, which greatly devalues the points/miles transferred.
Is this is it, or are there other ways to get Alaska awards?
Alaska in particular, has bargain awards, but it appears to be impossible to get them without having actual Alaska miles, or transferring through a 3rd party, which greatly devalues the points/miles transferred.
Is this is it, or are there other ways to get Alaska awards?
#2
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: MEL CHC
Posts: 20,923
I am consistently seeing great award prices as well as availability with Alaska and some with AA.
Alaska in particular, has bargain awards, but it appears to be impossible to get them without having actual Alaska miles, or transferring through a 3rd party, which greatly devalues the points/miles transferred.
Is this is it, or are there other ways to get Alaska awards?
Alaska in particular, has bargain awards, but it appears to be impossible to get them without having actual Alaska miles, or transferring through a 3rd party, which greatly devalues the points/miles transferred.
Is this is it, or are there other ways to get Alaska awards?
Questions about AS ffp are best asked in the AS forum
There are threads in the AS forum and people joining the AS ffp, transferring credit card points, booking high value premium awards and then having issues (having never flown AS). Major issues.
From where are you wanting to travel to, on awards?
Each ffp has its own ff mile cost for awards, that is nothing to do with other ffp's or the airline travelling on
OP other recent threads:-
- Where are all the incredible award values that I am reading about? (this sub forum)
- Who are Alaska's miles transfer partners
- What is a good and exceptional rate to buy UA miles?
- Which are AA's miles transfer partners?
- Who are Asiana's miles transfer partners
- Strategy for flying 5 people SFO/LAX to TLV - June 2020
- US West coast to TLV - business award suggestions (this sub forum)
The grass in not always greener on the other side
Last edited by Mwenenzi; Jun 10, 2019 at 8:37 pm Reason: spelling
#3
In Memoriam, FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: Benicia CA
Programs: Alaska MVP Gold 75K, AA 3.8MM, UA 1.1MM, enjoying the retired life
Posts: 31,849
Well, you could fly Alaska or some of its partners to accrue miles (like Qantas where cheap fares accrue 100% based on distance plus your Alaska elite bonus), get an Alaska credit card with 40,000 bonus miles, or just buy the miles during one of their mileage sales (though without elite status you're limited to 150,000 miles per year).
#4
Join Date: May 2009
Location: South Park, CO
Programs: Tegridy Elite
Posts: 5,678
The question of which is "best" can't really be answered in a vacuum. You will want to consider ability to earn/acquire the miles, redemption rates for routes you actually want to fly on, and award seat availability. Like anything in life, there are tradeoffs among those 3 basic categories. For exploring redemption rates and availability, these two sites are excellent:
https://www.awardhacker.com/
https://awardnexus.com/user/login?url=%2F
I've realized great value from AS and AA miles...but also from many other programs. And I've also been frustrated with all of the programs at one time or another. It's good to have some diversification in the miles/points you hold as that provides flexibility when you run into award seat availability problems and lets you leverage sweet spots for the different programs. But of course you also need to accrue enough miles/points to be usable - so it's a balance.
#5
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: home = LAX
Posts: 25,927
I am consistently seeing great award prices as well as availability with Alaska and some with AA.
Alaska in particular, has bargain awards, but it appears to be impossible to get them without having actual Alaska miles, or transferring through a 3rd party, which greatly devalues the points/miles transferred.
Alaska in particular, has bargain awards, but it appears to be impossible to get them without having actual Alaska miles, or transferring through a 3rd party, which greatly devalues the points/miles transferred.
The hotel program Best Western seems to realize this. It has for the past year had redemption "sales" in winter where all hotels are 10k points per night, but it non-coincidentally takes away the ability to buy points during and near this time, so that these deals are there only for people who were already"committed" to collecting Best Western points before these sales happened. I bet if people start buying Best Western points in droves hoping for this sale to repeat, then Best Western may see that behavior and because of that not repeat the sale!
#6
Moderator: American AAdvantage
Join Date: May 2000
Location: NorCal - SMF area
Programs: AA LT Plat; HH LT Diamond, Matre-plongeur des Muccis
Posts: 62,948
American Airlines is turning the corner and offering award travel that will be priced dynamically (variably, depending on revenue demand,) in the near future, for its MileSAAver awards as it has been doing on its multi-tiered AAnytime awards. Dynamic Award Pricing to Expand, AA announces 30 May 2019
Personally, at this time Id not recommend starting with the AA Advantage program. You can earn AA miles quite easily, but theyre no longer easy to use economically. MileSAAver / SAAver award reduction / scarcity discussion
Personally, at this time Id not recommend starting with the AA Advantage program. You can earn AA miles quite easily, but theyre no longer easy to use economically. MileSAAver / SAAver award reduction / scarcity discussion