Since most business or first class flights cost a fortune, it’s sure nice to save at least (half) a fortune when buying them. Right? There’s a really simple and easy way to buy first or business class tickets with JAL, Cathay or Qantas for a fraction of the usual cost, and we’ll show you how…
You Buy Alaska Airlines Miles At A Discount, And Use Them On JAL, Cathay Or Qantas, Which Are Partners Of Alaska…
Alaska Airlines operates one of the most generous airline mileage programs in the world. You can occasionally buy their miles at 40% off, which creates the opportunity to take incredible trips on top airlines for far less than the cost of a ticket using cash. Here are some examples, and if you want to find more, use Alaska’s award chart…
For different currencies, simply convert these US dollar quotes to your local currency. All these examples work vice versa as well, double the cost or less for round trip…
Cathay Pacific Business : London To Hong Kong (Round Trip)
Cost Using Alaska Miles: $1773 (85,000 Miles). Buy Points.
Cash Cost: $4773 if purchased using cash.
Qantas Business: US To Australia Or New Zealand (One Way)
Cost Using Alaska Miles: $1182 (55,000 Points). Buy Points.
Cash Cost: $6891 round trip if purchased using cash.
Japan Airlines First: US To Japan, Korea (One Way)
Cost Using Alaska Miles: $1478 (70,000 Miles). Buy Points.
Cost Using Cash: $5612 if purchased using cash.
Cathay Pacific First: US To India With HK Stopover (One Way)
Cost Using Alaska Miles: $1478 (70,000 Miles). Buy Points.
Cash Cost: $14,332 if purchased using cash.
Qantas Business: Intra Australian Flights (Round Trip)
Cost Using Alaska Miles: $916.44 (55,000 Miles). Buy Points.
Cast Cost: $2400 if purchased using cash.
The Instant Pros And Cons…
This is an amazing opportunity if you have a need for one of these flights, and would like to save. Booking flights using miles is more difficult than booking flights with cash, because you are subject to availability using miles. Some flights will have no availability, therefore miles can’t be used on dates you may want. If you know how to search using miles and find availability at a significantly lower rate than the cash price, this is a no brainer and you should buy miles here.
How To Search For Space…
There are plenty of people who can book these for you, like my good friend Matthew at Award Expert. If you’re more enterprising, you can also use the British Airways search engine, Expert Flyer or Award Nexus to search for space on all these flights. Some of these flights can also be booked directly on the Alaska website. The rates quoted on any site other than Alaska are irrelevant, because each airline charges a different amount of miles. Once you find the space you can book it using Alaska at these discounted rates.
One Last Heads Up…
Your account must be alive with Alaska for a minimum of 10 days before you can purchase miles. If you haven’t already created a free MileagePlan account with Alaska, head over and do that, so next time there’s a sale on miles you’ll be all set. The sale will likely still be going on in a further 10 days, so by all means you should be able to purchase after the 10 day window if you register today. This is a great deal, if you can make use of it…
