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Second quarter promotions are off to a great start. Alaska Mileage Plan has announced its most lucrative offer yet – buy Alaska Milage miles with 50% bonus!
Three out of the four accounts I manage were targeted with up to 50% bonus offer. Alaska regularly sells miles at 30-40% bonus but this is the highest bonus offer I have seen and is available until July 1, 2017. If you were holding back on buying Alaska miles, this is the time and hopefully your account was targeted with the 50% bonus as well. As per usual, the bonuses are tiered and 50% bonus kicks in with purchase of 40K – 60K miles.
If you max out the offer and purchase 60K miles, get a whopping 90K miles at $1773.75 USD which converts to 1.97 cents per mile, wow!
Buying Alaska miles with 50% bonus is is an excellent deal and my verdict is Buy-Buy-Buy! Obviously, its still a lot of money if you are simply buying without a use in mind. Cathay and JAL Business/First Class redemptions anyone? 🙂
IHG Flash Sale – 100% Bonus
IHG is back with a 4 day flash sale – purchase points with 100% bonus until May 19, 2017.
The bonus is triggered with a minimum purchase of 5000 points (10K with bonus) for $67.50 USD to a maximum of 60,000 points (120k with bonus) for $690 USD.
I don’t recommend buying points just to fatten your account balance. This is a great sale to top-up your account to a required amount or even buying points outright for an award redemption when the listed retail prices are overly expensive.
Example: I will be in Toronto for a Ricky Gervais show in July and the hotel prices downtown are through the roof. IC Toronto is listed at $343.60 USD whereas buying 40K points under sale is $250 USD. A saving of ~27% if I buy the points and redeem them.
Take Away:
Depending on the promotion your account was targeted for (Alaska miles), and with specific use in mind, both promotions have merit. Golden rule is to not purchase points unless you plan to use it within a calendar year.
Do you plan on buying Alaska miles or IHG points?
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2 comments
It’s a good deal for Americans. Add the added HST and the dollar conversion for Canadians and it is a lot of money.
That conversion rate does hike up the price. Still cheapest Alaska miles I have seen. There is a way around the HST, email me pointsmilesandbling@gmail.com
You should also consider one of my meetups where we discuss many such tips and tricks 🙂 – http://pointshogger.boardingarea.com/ottawa-travel-hacker-meetup-may-28-2017/