Alaska Airlines miles can be used to book Hainan Airlines flights starting March 30, 2016!

The partnership was announced last year, and the Alaska-Hainan page originally said award bookings would be available in November 2015.

American Airlines off peak awards are one of the best deals with miles. At the moment, for between two and seven months a year, American Airlines miles can book discounted economy awards from the United States to (one way price):

Mexico: 12,500 miles
Caribbean: 12,500 miles
Central America and Northern South America: 15,000 miles
Hawaii: 17,500 miles
Southern South America: 20,000 miles
Europe: 20,000 miles
Korea and Japan: 25,000 miles

Read more about American Airlines off peak awards here.

Until March 31, 2016, you can buy 56,000 or more Alaska Airlines miles for 2.11 cents each.

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

To buy 56,000 miles (40,000 + 16,000 bonus) during this sale costs $1,182.50, which is 2.11 cents per mile. This is not the best sale we’ve seen.

Emirates First Class on the A380 is amazing because you have your own blinged out suite as well as access to an onboard shower spa and onboard bar.

You can book Emirates First Class with Alaska Airlines miles with no fuel surcharges. Alaska charges 90,000 miles one way to Dubai and 100,000 miles to Europe, Africa, or Asia.

Alaska Airlines miles can now book Icelandair flights. This is something I have hoped for since September when the partnership was announced. Here is the award chart for Icelandair flights with Alaska Airlines miles.

The good news:

You can book Icelandair flights with Alaska miles between North America and Iceland, North America and Europe, or the opposite direction.
You can book one way awards.
You can get one free stopover per one way award. You can get two per roundtrip.
You can book Medium and High economy award space, and they really aren't that expensive.

Alaska Airlines' newest miles sale offers miles as cheap as 1.97 cents each, which means Emirates First Class from the United States to Dubai for around $1,800 (or anywhere else in the world for around $2,000) or Cathay Pacific First and Business Class from the United States to Hong Kong and Johannesburg for around $1,400.

Until December 23, 2015, Alaska is offering an instant mystery bonus on miles purchases of 35% to 50% more miles.

Trip Report Index

Emirates Lounge Zurich
Emirates A380 First Class from Zurich to Dubai
Emirates First Class Lounge Dubai
Emirates A380 First Class from Dubai to Houston: Seat, Suite, Entertainment Amenity Kit, Pajamas, Bed, Sleeping
Emirates A380 First Class from Dubai to Houston: Onboard Bars
Emirates A380 First Class from Dubai to Houston: Food
Emirates A380 First Class from Dubai to Houston: Shower Spa

I have broken my 16 hour flight from Dubai to Houston into four parts because I had over 200 photos and several videos from the flight.

On alaskaair.com, the following message appears:

AeroMexico is a SkyTeam member. Including seasonal destinations, AeroMexico serves 13 American destinations from Mexico City.

From Mexico City, you can connect through Mexico, Central America, and South America. The South American destinations:

Delta is the American member of SkyTeam, so I went to delta.com to see if Delta miles can book AeroMexico award space at the moment. I found this itinerary on October 18 from Chicago to Buenos Aires on AeroMexico flights.

If Alaska had access to AeroMexico award space, the same exact flights would be 45,000 Alaska miles.

Alaska Airlines is charging 10,000 miles fewer than it should for one of my favorite awards!

Alaska Airlines miles are awesome because of the breadth of interesting oneworld, SkyTeam, and non-alliance partners on which you can redeem Alaska miles.

The Mistake Fare
One of the coolest awards you can book is from the United States to Australia or New Zealand on Fiji Airways flights because you can get a free stopover for as long as you'd like in Fiji.

Alaska Airlines is having an award sale from 47 of its cities. Awards start at 5,000 miles one way, and I see Hawaii and Mexico awards discounted to 12,500 miles one way.

Start on the award sale page. Select your city from the dropdown menu to see its sales. For instance, here is the sale from Kona, Big Island (Hawaii.)

If there is a discount in the market you're searching, it is good in both directions, so San Jose to Kona would be only 25,000 Alaska miles roundtrip.