Frequent Miler on the Air - AA vs Alaska: Which miles are more valuable? | Coffee Break Ep30 | 10-22-24

Episode Date: October 22, 2024

In a lot of ways, American Airlines and Alaska are similar programs - both in the One World alliance for example, with some reciprocal elite benefits as well. But they're plenty different as well. We'll discuss how these programs differ and why you mind find one better than the other. (00:26) - Comparing AA to the new Alaska program (starting 1/1/25) (00:34) - American Airlines and Alaska are Similar programs in a lot of ways... (01:48) - Why AA miles might be more valuable... (05:30) - Why Alaska miles may be more valuable... (08:36) - Free stopover on one-way award Learn how to book a stopover on Alaska award flights here: https://frequentmiler.com/how-to-book-alaska-mileage-plan-stopover-awards-video/ (10:57) - So which one do we think is best? Visit https://frequentmiler.com/subscribe to get updated on in-depth points and miles content like this, and don’t forget to like and follow us on social media. Music Credit – Beach Walk by Unicorn Heads

Here we go. This is not your typical frequent miler on the air episode. This is a standalone segment we're calling Coffee Break. Each Coffee Break segment will cover a single topic related to miles and points. And each Coffee Break is limited to 20 minutes or your money back. Enjoy. In today's coffee break, we're going to discuss American Airlines versus Alaska. Which miles are more valuable? Yeah, that's, you know, that's a great question because we have two very similar programs in a lot of ways. So, I mean, obviously, they're both major U.S.-based carriers, so they're familiar to most readers and listeners, probably.

They're both in the One World Alliance, so they have some partner similarity. I'm not going to say they have the same partners, but they have a number of partners in common. So you can use miles from either program to redeem to travel on, for example, British Airways, Qantas, Qatar, Japan Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, etc., etc. You got some reciprocal elite benefits. So if you have elite status with Alaska or elite status with American, you can enjoy some benefits on both airlines. You get free changes and cancellations. And so that's nice because you can book a speculative award and cancel if you need to. Low award surcharges. So you're not going to pay very much in terms of surcharges with most partners. You're going to pay the taxes, but no carrier imposed surcharges with most partners.

But you will unfortunately have to pay the surcharges if you want to fly British Airways, whether you book with American Airlines miles or Alaska miles, either way, those are unavoidable. But other partners like Finnair, Iberia or Qatar, there's no surcharges, whichever program you book with. All right. Now, I'm going to get into reasons why you might argue American Airlines miles are more valuable. And then Nick's going to follow up with why you might argue Alaska miles are more valuable. And then we'll come together and ultimately say which ones we each think are, which we think is most valuable. So American has a lot going for it.

Even though they got rid of their own award chart, like for flying on American Airlines itself, they still have award chart for flying partners. And it's a darn good award chart. I mean, it's very, very competitive with just about any other program. They have business class from North America to anywhere in the world, ranges from under 30,000 points to 80,000 points one way. So for example, you can fly to Europe for 57,500. You fly for either 60,000 or 70,000 miles one way,

depending on where in Asia you go. You can fly all the way to South Africa. So anywhere in Africa for 75,000 miles one way and to Oceania. So like, you know, Australia, New Zealand, and other islands for 80,000 miles one way. Those are all from North America. They also have a few amazing sweet spots elsewhere in the world. Flying Middle East to Asia, only 40,000 miles one way for business, and only 50,000 for international first class. And so let me tell you, you could have some really long flights from Middle East to Asia and going all that way for 50,000 miles in like, for example, Etihad first class is an amazing deal.

Very similar, you could fly from Asia to the South Pacific for those same prices, $40,000 in business, $50,000 in first. Another cool thing with American Airlines miles is so if you're booking American's own flights, the price is kind of, it almost seems like random. And so when you do an award search, you know, you might not see good prices, but if you come back 10 minutes later and do it again, you might all of a sudden see great prices and be able to book it. And so that's really useful. Also, there's of course, much better award availability for their own flights. So meaning, you know, if you want to fly American Airlines itself, they don't, they often do not release award availability to partners so that you can book with Alaska or any other partner. But they will release to their own members for using American Airlines miles to book them. Now, of course, Alaska has the same situation in the

other direction, but American just has such a much stronger route network that I think that's a big advantage for American more than Alaska, especially for people who aren't flying around the West Coast, basically, where Alaska has a strong presence. American also lets you mix and match multiple partners on a single award, which Alaska doesn't allow yet. That's that is promised to be coming soon though. Um, and finally, uh, American doesn't have a partner award booking fee versus Alaska, which charges, it's not much, but $12 and 50 cents each way per person on awards.

Yeah. I mean, so those are definitely some quote unquote advantages of the American Airlines Advantage Program. I see what you did there. But Alaska Mileage Plan has some sweet spots and great uses of their own and some advantages, if you will. So first up, they have a combo distance-based and zone-based award chart. So you can kind of think of this as being somewhat similar to Air Canada Aeroplan. Not exactly, but same kind of idea in the sense that you've got one zone to another and then the distance. And so that creates some really good opportunities with shorter distance awards between regions or even within regions. For instance,

if you want to fly in American Airlines, if they release partner award availability, you can often save a lot of miles using Alaska because you can fly flights under 700 miles in distance flown for 4500 Alaska miles each way. And I just recently I ran into this, it was significantly cheaper, like 12,000 miles a person cheaper via Alaska than it would have been to book the same flights with American Airlines. So that can be a great deal. You fly to Europe from the East Coast from just 22,500 in economy class, or even more exciting to me, 45,000 miles one way in business class, again, from 45,000 miles, there are different prices depending on how far you're going to go in Europe, but you can get to a bunch of Western Europe for 45,000 miles in business

class one way from the east coast of the United States. Now, if you're based out west, then prices are going to increase because it is somewhat distance based. Asia in business class for 60 to 75,000 miles one way, so not quite as good as American Airlines, but not much worse either. And it gets a little bit better when you consider some other things we'll talk about in a second. So unfortunately, right now, you cannot mix and match partners on an award. However, they keep telling us that's coming soon. And the speed with which things have been moving lately in terms of the merger between Alaska and Hawaii, and I believe that that's going to come sooner rather than later. So the ability to mix multiple partners will be nice when that happens, but it

hasn't happened yet. They have more non-alliance partners than American Airlines. And this is where I think there are some keys for a lot of people out there anyway, that might be particularly useful. So Aer Lingus is one of them. And American partners with them for mileage earning, but not for redemption. And you can redeem Alaska miles to fly on Aer Lingus. And Aer Lingus sometimes has quite a bit of business class award space. And so it potentially 45,000 miles one way from New York or Boston to Dublin, I think even DC to Dublin is the same price. That can be a great deal. They partner with Condor. There's another one that American doesn't have. They serve a number of US cities with a decent business class product that

flies to Europe, to Frankfurt. So that can be another good one. There are quite a few others, but the other particularly useful ones, we'd say, are LATAM, because you can still fly in business class to South America for decent rates with LATAM. And they have a little bit more access to Singapore Airlines award availability than many Star Alliance airlines do, oddly enough. Speaking of Star, you've got Starlux flying to Taipei from the West Coast. And then there are some other interesting partnerships here and there, Iceland Air, Oman Air, Hainan Airlines, some other things that could potentially be useful. But what makes all of those things exciting to me is that you can get a free stopover on a one-way award. And so that's awesome because

it enables you to kind of see two places on a single award. And I say kind of because the limitation right now is you can only fly one of these partner airlines plus Alaska. Whenever they open this up to being able to book multiple partners on a single award, this is going to become a superpower of the Alaska Mileage Plan Program. Because once you can start booking stopovers and kind of mix and match partners, that's going to make it wildly more valuable in a lot of situations. Like we said a minute ago, business class to Asia for 60 to 75,000 miles one way, which is close to the same as what American charges. But if you could add a free stopover,

that makes it to me a significantly better deal, particularly when you're able to combine perhaps Korean and Japan Airlines or Japan Airlines and Starlocks or whatever it may be. So I think that'll be pretty cool. Award bookings will start earning elite credit in 2025. So not yet in 2024, but coming in 2025, you'll earn elite mileage credit for your award booking. So however far you fly, you're going to earn that many elite qualifying miles on your award bookings. That's awesome if you're going to pursue status. If you're not going to pursue status, it doesn't matter at all to you because you're not going to earn any redeemable miles, but you'll earn credit towards elite status. So that can be good if you are going

to chase Alaska elite status, which is potentially valuable since it is one world elite status. The biggest downside, I think, with Alaska Mileage Plan, rather upside, I'm sorry, upside, I think, with American Air, with Alaska Mileage Plan, excuse me. Well said, Nick. Okay. Biggest upside, I think, with Alaska Mileage Plan is that it's very unlikely that this program is going to significantly devalue anytime soon because they just launched this new award chart within the past year, and they're just launching the ability to book multiple partners on an award. Whereas American Airlines had the same partner award chart for quite a few years at this point, they are ripe

for devaluation at some point soon. I think I think everybody has thought that for the last like couple of years already. So I'd be pretty surprised if that doesn't come in the next year or two, whereas I would be equally surprised or perhaps more surprised if we see any significant devaluation from Alaska in the next year or two, because they're really just ramping things up. So that's a particular advantage for them. Very good. All right. Now let's get into the final answer. Nick, you have to pick one, which is more valuable, AA or Alaska? Did you talk yourself into Alaska or did I talk you into American? Well, you know what?

Yeah, I think I did talk myself into Alaska. And there's two reasons why. Number one is because I do think that their partner award chart is going to stick around for a while. And as someone based on the East Coast, their partner award chart is going to stick around for a while. And as someone based on the East Coast, their partner award chart is pretty good. I've got a number of options now to get to Europe for a reasonable number of miles in business class and with a stopover. That'll be great. And so I like that.

And then when you add on top of that the unlikelihood of a devaluation anytime soon, that's really nice. And I do think that I'll pursue elite status because some of these long distance flights, I mean, I could earn elite status with just a couple of trips each year with partners. So I'm pretty excited about the new Alaska mileage plan and the new opportunities to earn elite status. They're kind of matching American in many ways. American offers a chance to earn loyalty points to the shopping portal, for instance, and credit card. And Alaska is going to be doing similar things at slightly different rates, but it kind of works out pretty close. So I'm pretty excited about Alaska mileage plan. I'd be more excited if Hawaiian was going to remain a transfer partner of Amex long term.

But since we know that that's not going to stick around long term, that tempers my excitement a little bit. I wish we could get a transferable currency. But yeah, I think I'm probably going to pursue elite status with Alaska in 2025 and beyond. So Alaska it is. Finally. Very good. All right. So my answer is going to be a little more nuanced in that I have two answers. You can't have two answers, Greg. Come on, take a stance. I can't, but I do. I do.

Let me explain. The miles that are most valuable to me right now, miles I have that when I go to book an award right now as things stand in October-ish 2024, I find American more often has the ability to book what I want at a reasonable rate. And often that's because I'm playing that American Airlines roulette wheel in award booking and I'm finding decent award prices to fly to or from Europe, to or from South America, things like that. However, if I were to, so if I were to be investing in one versus the other, I think Alaska's miles are more valuable in the future. when they get the multi-partner booking ability, when they get the free stopover on those multi-partner bookings. And because I do think American is going to devalue their partner award chart.

So for that combination of things, I think that Alaska miles are the more valuable to invest in. American is more valuable to have right at this moment until things change. That's a great point. I'll agree with that. I think that's a fantastic point because yes, it's much easier to use American Airlines miles right now, in part because of the ability to book multiple partners on an award. And definitely don't ignore what Greg's saying about the roulette wheel. I recently had a domestic award where prices were crazy. And the best price I could get was 42,000 miles on American. And I just kept searching and searching and searching every day. And I'd see a change

between 38 and 45 or 50 even. And I was like, I don't want to pay that much for a domestic award. I booked it at the 42. And I just kept searching and searching and searching. And then one time, all of a sudden, I came up at 22,000 miles and I was like, whoa, canceled, rebooked at 22,000 miles next day, right back up to 42 or 45. And so, you know, if you just keep searching enough, you might get a good deal now and then. And that's not an example anybody's going to be excited about. You're going to say, well, you paid 22,000 miles for a one-way domestic award. Yeah, I know it was on a holiday. It was just what I needed to do for that situation. But I found it on international business class awards many times before also. So definitely something to keep in mind. So, all right,

I'll agree with you. As things stand, American Airlines is more valuable now. But looking to the future, I'm definitely more excited about Alaska Mileage Plan Long-Term. Yeah. And it bears repeating, those interested in elite status, the fact that Alaska Miles will earn elite credit even when booking partner flights is incredible. And so, you know, you can have an incredible business, first-class adventure across the world and earn all kinds. And, you know, by redeeming your miles on partner airlines.

And when you get back, you'll find that you probably have elite status with Alaska Airlines. And that's unheard of and really cool, really cool trick that they're introducing.