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Until December 20, 2014, you can buy Alaska Airlines miles for as little as 2.19 cents each.

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The sale is structured as a bonus on the normal number of miles you’d receive. The bonus is tiered, so the biggest 35% bonus comes from purchasing 35,000 to 40,000 miles at the normal price of about 2.96 cents each after tax.

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To buy 47,250 miles (35,000 + 12,250 bonus) during this sale costs $1,034.69, which is 2.19 cents per mile. This is the cheapest amount of miles that gets the maximum 35% bonus.

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I don’t think Alaska miles are worth 2.19 cents each, but they are worth close to that, and if you have a specific redemption in mind, it isn’t hard to get more than 2.19 cents of value per mile.

  • What are the best redemptions for Alaska miles?
  • Does this miles purchase count as airfare or travel spending for category bonuses?
  • How does this compare to past miles sales on Alaska?

Here are the Alaska partners on which you can redeem.

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The two redemptions I am saving miles for are Emirates First Class on an A380 (100,000 miles one way for two flights to Africa or Asia) and Cathay Pacific First Class (70,000 miles one way from US to Johannesburg with free stopover in Hong Kong.)

DSCN1588Emirates First Class

You can also fly from the United States to Fiji to New Zealand or Australia for only 55,000 Alaska miles one way in Business Class with a free stopover in Fiji.

Alaska Airlines is extremely generous allowing a stopover on one way awards, anywhere you’d like en route.

Unlike many miles sales when you are capped at how many miles you can buy, with Alaska miles sales, you can generally make several maximum purchases to get all the miles you need.

Here are the basics for redemptions of Alaska miles.

Remember that Alaska Airlines miles sales are handled through points.com, so they are not considered airfare or travel purchases for the purposes of earning a category bonus on your credit card.

By contrast, Avianca miles are sold through lifemiles.com and DO count as airfare/travel spending.

Alaska runs a 35% or 40% bonus on miles purchases every quarter. The last one ended just last month and offered a 40% bonus on purchased miles making miles slightly cheaper at 2.11 cents each.