Booking Award Flights on Alaska Airlines

You could book your next Alaska Airlines flight with miles.

Like most other airlines, Alaska doesn’t offer fixed award rates. But it's still possible to find good deals on both Alaska-operated and partner flights. Here's what to know.

Make sure you have enough miles

Alaska doesn’t publish traditional award charts with fixed redemption rates. Instead, you’ll find charts that disclose only starting award levels, based on the seat class and distance of your desired destination.

For example, below is the award chart for Alaska and Hawaiian Airlines flights:

Alaska also publishes a similar chart for nonstop flights through its partner carriers; this chart is organized by travel continent, distance and award level.

Award flights are based on dynamic pricing, so you’ll need to ensure that you’ve accrued enough miles to cover the fare, not including the cost of taxes and fees.

By selecting the “show pricing in miles” option during the booking process, you can see how many miles are required for each fare, plus the fees to be paid in cash. If you’re short on miles, Alaska lets you purchase miles, but this option generally isn’t a great value.

Reminder: You can’t double-dip with award flights — these bookings don’t earn miles toward future travel.

» Learn more: The guide to Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan

Search and book Alaska award flights

When you’re ready to redeem your award ticket, finding available flights and booking your travel is straightforward.

1. Log in to your Alaska Mileage Plan account. If you miss this step at the beginning, you have the option to log in later at checkout.

2. Enter your desired flight details. On Alaskaair.com or the Alaska Air mobile app, start the booking process by entering your departure and arrival airports, departure date and passenger count. Select “Use miles,” and then click on “Find flights.”

3. Browse and select your flight. View the award flight options based on your search parameters, and note how many miles the ticket requires and the cost of taxes and fees shown below it. Select the flight you want, and click on “Add to cart.” 

4. Verify your cart details. Ensure your flight summary information is correct, and double-check mileage requirements. Then redeem your miles for your award flight.

Search and book award flights for partner airlines

Thanks to the Alaska-Hawaiian merger, Mileage Plan members can unlock 29 international destinations between the two carriers. You also have the option to redeem award flights to an additional 1,200 destinations through the Oneworld alliance and Alaska’s global partners.

Oneworld partners are:

• American Airlines.

• British Airways.

• Cathay Pacific.

• Fiji Airways.

• Finnair.

• Iberia.

• Japan Airlines.

• Malaysia Airlines.

• Qantas.

• Qatar Airways.

• Royal Air Maroc.

• Royal Jordanian.

• SriLankan Airlines.

You can access 1,000-plus destinations by redeeming Alaska Mileage Plan miles for an award flight through a nonalliance airline partner. Alaska currently partners with 12 “earn and redeem” carriers:

• Aer Lingus.

• Air Tahiti Nui.

• Condor.

• Hainan Airlines.

• Icelandair.

• Korean Air.

• LATAM Airlines.

• Oman Air.

• Philippine Airlines.

• Porter Airlines.

• Singapore Airlines.

• STARLUX Airlines.

» Learn more: The best airline credit cards right now

Best sweet spots for booking with Alaska miles

Finding sweet spots for your Alaska miles award flights can help you maximize your redemptions, especially if you’re flexible with when and where you travel. Some examples of the best sweet spots for booking Alaska miles include:

• International stopovers. A major Alaska Mileage Plan perk is its free stopover program for international itineraries at select partner hubs. You’re allowed one free stopover per one-way trip on one partner carrier. To use the stopover benefit, go to Alaska’s website and click “All search options.” Then select “Multi-city” and enter two flights, one to your desired stopover destination and one from there to your final destination. Click “Use miles.” Book the itinerary with the free stopover shown.

• Short-distance flights via American Airlines. You can find short-haul flights on American Airlines at a great value. For example, a one-way flight from Los Angeles to Cabo San Lucas is only 7,500 miles, plus taxes and fees.

• Seattle to Tokyo via Japan Airlines. Redeeming your Mileage Plan miles toward an award flight from Seattle to Tokyo on Japan Airlines can be as low as 37,500 miles and only $19 in taxes and fees.