You can now redeem your Alaska miles for hotels due to a new partnership with Rocketmiles (previously you could only earn Alaska miles with hotel bookings, now you can redeem as well). Virgin Atlantic did something similar with Kaligo in the past as well. The real question readers will have is how much Alaska miles are worth when doing this redemption. Prices in miles are tied to the cash price,2 I did a few searches and this is what I found:
- $402 or 28,400 miles (1.415¢ per mile)
- $139 or 17,200 miles (0.808¢ per mile)
- $455 or 78,100 miles (0.582¢ per mile)
Also keep in mind Alaska credit card holders also receive better pricing (I didn’t account for this in the post). Keep in mind if you’re booking with a chain hotel you won’t receive points, elite stay credits or have your status recognized with these bookings. Also keep in mind in the above we are comparing to a full price booking with no discount, you should always always be getting a discount or cash back on your hotels stays. We outlined how to stack discounts with Hotels.com here to get up to 33% off the booking price for example. I honestly think the first price was some sort of weird mistake, but even at 1.4¢ per mile it’s not that could when you consider other discounts you’re giving up.
Hat tip to shtandingshpoon
