Frequent Miler on the Air - American Airlines vs. Alaska Miles - Which are Better? | Coffee Break Ep04 | 3-19-2024

Episode Date: March 19, 2024

Bilt is gaining Alaska as a transfer partner...but it's losing American Airlines as a partner in June. This has Greg and Nick asking...which miles are better? We love talking about points and miles all day, every day. That's why we've decided - in addition to our full-length Frequent Miler on the Air podcast episodes, we're going to share a little something to enjoy during your Tuesday coffee break too. Not a full hour of discussion and analysis like you'll find on the full episodes, but a mini version with a single topic of focus. (00:33) - Bilt has gained Alaska Airlines as a transfer partner, but will lose AA as a transfer partner in June (01:42) - AA and Alaska have a few things in common... (03:34) - Greg argues why American Airline miles are better  (06:07) - Nick argues why Alaska Airlines are better (10:10) - Final Answer... 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. You'll find all other Frequent Miler on the Air episodes here: https://frequentmiler.com/frequent-miler-on-the-air/  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. Today's coffee break, American Airlines versus Alaska Miles, which are better? So recently, Built has gained Alaska Airlines as a transfer partner. That's huge news, but it was followed right on the heels of us learning that they're going to be losing American Airlines as a transfer partner in June.

And so a friend asked me, well, is it net even, net positive, net negative? Is this good or bad that basically built is replacing American with Alaska? That had me thinking about, well, which airline miles are better? If you could only have one, Alaska or American, which would you be better off with? That's what we're going to discuss in today's coffee break. Very good. We should start out, actually, let me start out by reminding everybody, you can always find links to the timestamps in the show notes, we should start out. Actually, let me start out by reminding everybody, you can always find links to the timestamps in the show notes.

So check that out. And don't forget to check out Frequent Mile Around the Air, our full length episodes also because we have a more full length show. This is our 20 minute coffee break where we kind of condense things in in a short form. So please check that out. Don't forget to like and subscribe wherever you're watching. All right. So American and Alaska, you know, a little bit of a trade here, one for the other. And they're very similar in a lot of ways because both of them are now

One World Airlines. So they have access to some of the same partners, many of the same partners, since they're both in the One World Alliance. They're both US-based. So they're relatively familiar to most of us because they're airlines based here in our country. And there's no bank points program that transfers to either of them. So and that's, you may say, oh, we built transfers. And that's true. But built rewards is a rewards program, not a bank. And so there is no bank program like American Express or Citi or whatever that transfers to either of these programs. So they're relatively harder to get than other types of airline miles that partner with many transferable programs. So they're relatively harder to get than other types of airline miles that partner with many transferable currencies. So that makes it a little bit more of a challenge.

And they're close partners with each other. If you have elite status with one, then you'll get reciprocal benefits with the others. So both American and Alaska share a number of those things there. There's no award change or cancellation fees with either program. So if you book an award and you want to cancel it later, you can do that for free. And that's really nice because it allows you to book backup flights or speculative trips and things like that. Though we should mention that Alaska does have a non-refundable $12.50 partner award booking fee. So you do have to pay that when you're booking with their partners. And both of these airlines partner with Aer Lingus and Air Tahiti Nui.

Those are both partners that are outside of the One World Alliance, but they airlines partner with Aer Lingus and Air Tahiti Nui. Those are both partners that are outside of the One World Alliance, but they both partner with them. So you can use miles from either of these programs to book flights on those carriers. Yeah. And you missed a big commonality between them as well, which is they both start with the letter A. So, you know, if they have monogrammed towels, they're both AA from that point of view. True story. So which is better, Greg? I mean, what do you think?

Or can you make an argument? Yeah. So I'm going to list the ways American Airlines is better. American Airlines miles, to be clear. We're not talking about flying one or the other or elite status with one or the other. We're talking about the airline miles, which is better. So here are some reasons why American Airlines miles are better than Alaska miles. First of all, there's no partner award booking fee. Alaska has a $12.50 partner booking fee per direction of travel. So if you book a simple little round trip,

domestic economy flight, you'll be paying $25 on top of the TSA fees. And unfortunately, with Alaska, you can't get those back if you cancel that award. So I think that's a pretty big one with American. American has some excellent non-alliance partners. So they both have all the one-world partners, but American adds Fiji Airways, Gol, G-O-L, and Hawaiian. And most exciting to many of us is Etihad. So if you want to fly Etihad first, like Etihad First Apartments or Etihad Business Class, then American Airlines is a great choice. American Airlines also kind of randomly has really great award pricing on its own flights. We've talked about American Airlines as being kind of like a casino-like game because each time you run an award search, you don't know what you're going

to get. The same exact award search, same dates, same destinations, and everything might result in very, very different pricing from one moment to the next. And sometimes the award pricing you get, if you're lucky, is actually fantastic. So that's great. And that's with their own flights, because they don't have an award chart for their own flights. And so you get what you get. And sometimes it's very good. Now with their partners, they do have award charts and they have some fantastic business class award pricing for their partners worldwide. Just almost every route, their award pricing for business class is close to as good or better than most other mileage programs you can get. And in some cases, that's true of first class as well, but not as widely spread with that. So terrific program overall.

Yeah. Yeah. So those are definitely some great strengths for American Airlines, but Alaska Airlines has its strengths or has strengths of its own. So Alaska Airlines mileage plan still has award charts. That's the first major strength they have over American Airlines. American Airlines only has award charts for partner flights, not for their own flights, but Alaska still has them for their own flights as well. So that's nice because it gives you an idea of what to expect. You know how many miles you need to save up if you want a specific type of award. Now, of course, obviously the best pricing, the saver level sort of pricing is not going to be available on every single flight. So you still have kind of a little bit of a gamble

there. But at least you know where the goalpost is, which is always kind of helpful. They have some excellent non-alliance partners. I mean, American does admittedly have some good non-alliance partners, but so does Alaska. Alaska's got Condor, which is one that I think probably many of us ignored for a long time. But Condor has pretty nice looking business class nowadays, and they fly a number of different routes from the United States and also from Canada to Germany and then other parts of the world. Also, there's quite a few Condor routes that are, I think, pretty appealing. So it's cool to have access to those with Alaska miles. They also have LL, Iceland Air, Korean Air, LATAM, Singapore, that's right, Singapore Star Alliance Airline, and Starlocks, which Greg recently flew and he loved. So it's not a short list of partners beyond the One World. They have quite a few of their own that are unique and

interesting and useful for different purposes. So whether or not those fit your needs, that's another question altogether, but they do have a good set of non-alliance partners. And the reason I particularly like the fact that they have those non-alliance partners, and one of my favorite things about Alaska Mileage Plan is because they allow a free stopover on a one-way award. So if you book a one-way award ticket from here to wherever, you can stop at that carrier's hub. Let's say you fly Condor, you could have a free stop over in Frankfurt on your way somewhere else on Condor. Or if you fly on Japan Airlines, you can have a free stop over in Tokyo and then continue on somewhere else in Asia. So that's really nice,

because it kind of allows you to combine two trips in one and be able to see two different destinations for the single award price to get to whatever region that is. Now, I say the single award price, and of course, Alaska's new award chart is distance-based also, so I suppose it's not quite the same as it used to be in the sense that now you will pay more depending on how far you fly. So it may cost you a few more miles, but not as much as booking two separate awards would, probably, with most other programs. And speaking of the cost of awards, we should mention that many awards are relatively similarly priced to American Airlines, or the short of it anyway, is that Alaska has a

good award chart. It's not the best that you'll find anywhere, but it's competitive. The prices in general are not outlandish. There have been quite a few changes, and we're seeing more changes by the end of March 2024, where awards that used to price very cheaply are going to cost more now, but still pretty competitive with most other programs. So that's kind of nice. And there's far less risk of further devaluation with Alaska because Alaska just launched their new award chart. Their new award chart, in fact, is not fully launched yet as we're recording this. By the end of March 2024, we expect that new award chart to be fully launched. And so since they're just relaunching a brand new award chart, very, very, very slim chance that we're going to see a devaluation of those miles anytime, particularly soon. I mean, I wouldn't imagine we'd see any changes for at least a year, if not years. So very little chance of devaluation. Whereas I think a lot of us expect that at some point American Airlines is going to devalue their partner award chart. So you have less risk in that way with Alaska.

But of course, I mean, less risk. We're sort of just making predictions here that we don't have any inside information on that and don't know for sure. We can't place a certain bet on that. But if I were a betting man, then I would bet on an American to make changes sooner than Alaska. So those are some strengths for Alaska. Yeah. All right. So let's get into the final answer. Which is better, Alaska miles or American miles? I'm going to go first. My pick, it is so hard because all those things that we just listed of both programs are really kind of some big deals. I really do love playing the American Airlines roulette game where

if you keep searching and eventually get a great award price. But you know what it comes down to? I should say on the flip side with Alaska, I love that they have free stopovers on one-way awards. I think that's really big. I love some of their partnerships. What it comes down to for me ultimately is that I think American is very, very likely to devalue their business, their partner awards sometime soon. And so if I were to invest in Alaska miles or American miles right now, I would pick Alaska miles. So I'm going to pick Alaska overall. Very nice. Very good. Interesting pick. I kind of thought you would go with American Airlines. So American Airlines has some other strengths here that were kind of unspoken in the sense that

I think you have to somewhat consider the ease of collecting miles, right? And we talked about that in the sense that neither one of them partner with a major transferable currency or a bank program, I should say, anyway. And so that makes it more difficult to collect their miles. But both of them have both consumer and business credit cards. American has more credit cards, though, because they have two different issuers. So there's more opportunities to amass a useful number of miles that way. And their shopping portal more often has better rates, better payout rates than others. And when you're using the shopping portal to shop, you're also earning elite status, which makes that a little bit easier to earn. Now, those aren't the things we're comparing here. We're trying to compare the value of the miles, but I have a hard time separating the value or the ease of earning from the value of using.

Because, you know, if I can earn three American miles for every one Alaska mile that I i earned then even if they're a little bit less valuable i may value them a little bit more all that said let me let me just cut in for a second before you get to the final answer okay um on the earning side remember some people still pay for flights and alaska is way better especially when you're paying for certain partner flights, like British Airways, Premium Cabin, and a credit to Alaska. You earn just heaps and bucketfuls of Alaska miles when you do so. Okay, back to your answer. No, that's absolutely the next thing I was going to say. On the flip side, if you're paying for those business class awards, yeah, especially on British Airways, you earn tons and tons of miles on the Alaska side. And remember, you can use potentially bank points to book those flights through a credit

card portal and still earn boatloads of Alaska miles on those paid flights. Whereas American now maybe will restrict when you earn miles, depending on the online travel agency book. Well, there's a lot of different ins and outs there. That's another show, another topic of discussion for another day, probably. But I think it all boils down to the same thing as Greg. I value that free stopover very highly because it enables you to put together a more complicated award. It enables you to see another place without paying more. And I've often found it a little bit frustrating that I can book a great American Airlines award, but man,

wouldn't it be nice if I could stop for a day or two in the, you know, in the carrier's hub? Like if I booked one of those Etihad awards, wouldn't it be great if I could just stop in Abu Dhabi for a couple of days on my way to wherever it is I'm ultimately going? And I don't like that you can't do that with American Airlines, Miles. I really wish you could. And I like that you can with Alaska. So I think if I had to pick which one I value more right now, it's leaning very slightly towards Alaska. I think once Alaska enables the ability to book multiple carriers on a single award, then it will tip even more heavily towards Alaska for me.

And that's worth mentioning because right now you can't include multiple partners on a single award. You can only include Alaska and one partner airline. But once you can put together, say, a Condor flight with a Japan Airlines flight or something crazy like that, then I think the one-way stopover on a one-way is just going to be so huge that it's going to be hard to ignore the value of that in collecting Alaska. So I think I probably value Alaska a little bit more right now. But I think one thing that we're both leaving out is that Alaska doesn't serve nearly so many routes in the United States. So for me,

I can't book an award from my home airport using Alaska miles. It's not practical for me because Alaska doesn't serve my airport. So I can only book on American Airlines or I've got to get to a different city in order to drive to New York City, which is what I typically do for international anyway. But for a lot of people, that's not practical. And so it's more difficult to use Alaska for folks that aren't, especially because you aren't able to mix carriers. If you're not in an Alaska hub, that's kind of a pain because you can't hop on an American flight for your first leg. So I think we're kind of ignoring that, that American does have a lot more reach in the United States. And so especially if you're looking to travel domestically, too, then maybe a little bit

more easier of a program to use. But I think still that that stopover is something I value very highly on international awards. A couple of little things about that last point you made. I have to say that when I picked Alaska, I was looking forward to when they have mixed partner awards. You know, I'm picking Alaska partly because of that. I'm assuming they'll follow through on that promise. And I believe that, so one of the interesting things with Alaska's new program that they're rolling out now is that with partners, they're going to often, if the partner does not have award space that would normally be available

to their partners. So like right now, if American does not release award space for a domestic flight, let's say to their, to one world partners, then you can't book it with Alaska or British Airways or whatever. But I believe Alaska's intent is to often, with many partners, make those flights available just for more miles. And the question will be, how will that compare with American's own award pricing? And we won't know until it happens. I mean, maybe it'll be way worse, but I wouldn't necessarily bet on that. And so it'll be interesting to see, because once Alaska has that plus the ability to mix partner awards, it should have nearly the reach of American Airlines miles for American-based flyers.

Yeah. And when that's, again, if and when that becomes true, then I think Alaska just becomes that much stronger in terms of a program. I think it is harder for most people to amass lots of Alaska miles. And so I think that's maybe the biggest challenge at this point is that it's pretty easy for people who can qualify for the credit cards anyway to amass a lot of American Airlines miles. And you can't quite amass so many Alaska miles with just one business and one consumer card. And they're not super easy to get because Bank of America can be kind of weird. So like the business card, I've heard lots of data points of people

that say that they've got to open a CD or something in order to get the business card open, and they've got their own application rules. So that makes it a little bit more challenging. But in terms of a transfer partner, if I had to pick one or the other, I would rather have Alaska, I think, because if I've got a way to generate those points, then that to me suddenly becomes more valuable. And I think that's where this trade becomes a little bit more interesting to me in the sense that, well, okay, there are some ways to collect built points at a reasonable clip and then being able to transfer them to Alaska. And now suddenly we do have another way to earn Alaska miles. And so I think that actually

is very close to a net positive, if not a net positive. And I think it will be a net positive as Alaska really fully builds out this new award chart. Yeah, there you go. So we both agreed, surprisingly, that we think the trade is a slight net positive. That's not going to be true for everybody. There'll be plenty of people out there where American would be the better choice for sure, no doubt whatsoever. But for us, we're leaning towards Alaska as being a slight positive. And so overall, it's slightly good news. Slightly good news. There you go. Which is better than slightly bad news. There you go. We'll take it. All right. Well, I think that wraps up this episode of Coffee Break. If you've enjoyed this and you'd like to get more of this stuff in your email inbox each day or each week,

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Very good. So I guess that that's it for today. Bye, everybody.