Two pieces of quick news in regards to purchasing Alaska miles:
- Alaska is now limiting the amount of miles you can buy annually. Non elites are limited to 150,000 miles per calendar year. Elite members are not capped.
- Alaska is offering a 40% bonus on purchased miles. Remember this is through Points.com so don’t forget to go through a portal for additional cash back. This deal lets you buy miles from 2.11¢ each before taking into account the portal and rewards from using a credit card.
The fine print I see seems to indicate that the cap is only on gifted points (I’m not an elite member). Actually on second reading, the first part seems to contradict the second part?
“Your Mileage Plan account may be credited up to a maximum total of 150,000 miles acquired through Points.com in a calendar year, whether purchased by you or gifted to you. MVP, MVP Gold and MVP Gold 75K.
Mileage Plan member accounts have no annual limit on the number of miles which may be purchased or gifted through Points.com.”
Unless “Mileage Plan member” refers to elites? It kind of just sounds like regular members though.
Never mind ignore me, thought that the period they threw in there actually meant to represent the end of a sentence….
Too easy to get miles now, I’m always booked with a bunch of points college kids in business/first they stand out so badly with the “HEY LOOK THERES (amenity kit/wifi/reclining etc) with a doofy look on their face yelling across the aisle to their other friends
With the limit it’s not worth it buying at 40% bonus.
Wait for 50%.
Fair move
i personally would prefer ALL programs put such limits, would finally leave award space to people other then the for profit brokers
Do you know how much award space goes to brokers?
“Elite members are not capped.”
I wonder how many non elites even know that they can buy miles, let alone actually buying miles rather than paying cash for trips (on a specific carrier) that happen maybe once or twice a year.
btw. honestly, it is not like it is a good idea for most non elites to buy miles anyways.
When is it a good idea for ANYONE to buy any significant amount of miles? The only time it really makes sense is if you’re super close to an award and need the miles ASAP. The way I see it, these miles sales are nice for taking some of the pain out of the situation if they happen to line up with when you find yourself in that almost-but-not-quite predicament, but are still terrible deals otherwise.