Snacks: Alaska joins Bilt
Also: half off London flights, check if you're flying Boeing, and more
Hi Shreycationers,
It’s been a minute! Some awesome stuff coming soon, but for now, a nice ol’ bag of snacks.
Alaska Airlines Joins Bilt
Alaska Airlines has some of the best redemptions in the market, but they’ve always been so hard to claim since Alaska wasn’t a transfer partner of any major credit card. Read: if you want Alaska miles, you gotta fly Alaska.
That changed last week, when Bilt signed on Alaska as a transfer partner. I swear, I’m not sponsored by Bilt but they do keep rolling out the hits. I’m actually surprised they managed to make this partnership work, but they also did manage to break through with American Airlines, and American + Alaska have their own partnership too now … maybe just a simple matter of 2 + 2.
Alaska Airlines’ Mileage Plan program has a couple awesome attributes:
You can book flights across all of oneworld (e.g. American, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, Qatar, Qantas, Iberia) AND their non-alliance partners (e.g. Korean Air, Singapore Airlines, LATAM). This list covers some of the best airlines in the world!
You can book free stopovers even on one-way awards. If you don’t know what a stopover is, I’ve written extensively about them before — it’s your way to turn a single trip into multiple for free.
Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan is one of the most popular ways to book premium cabins on Japan Airlines (credit: Prince of Travel)
Here’s how you can use all this to your advantage. Let’s say you want to do a huge Asia trip. You can book NYC <> HKG (Hong Kong) with a stopover in Tokyo on the way there and another stopover in Singapore on the way back. This would usually cost you 152k miles if you booked every leg individually, but thanks to the free stopover policy, you only spend 108k miles. Valuing your miles at 2¢/point, that’s $880 saved on a 3 destination Asia trip.
H/t to my buddy Sweyn for sending me this even before it came up on my news feed.
Check if you’re on a Boeing plane
Boeing has been in the news for all the wrong reasons lately. I won’t care to speculate on the causes here, but even though air travel remains remarkably safe, it’s understandable if you to avoid Boeing so you can sleep better on your flight.
If you’ve got a flight coming up, you can check out amiflyingonaboeing.com, made by yours truly to quickly check what aircraft you’re flying on.
50% off London flights via Virgin Atlantic
Virgin Atlantic has a 50% off deal on all award flights from the US to the UK ending midnight tonight!
That means for a sample NYC <> LHR trip:
economy roundtrips start from 10k miles (usually 20k)
premium economy roundtrips start from 17.5k miles (usually 35k)
business economy roundtrips start from 47.5k miles (usually 95k)
Note that this only applies to flights on Virgin Atlantic itself, and must involve trips that complete before June 30.
Now there is one somewhat unfortunate issue preventing this from being one of the greatest points deals this year. Virgin Atlantic charges fuel surcharges on award flights, meaning you can’t just focus on the miles cost. For example, a roundtrip starting May 10th requires 10k Virgin miles + $492, but the equivalent “Economy Classic” ticket would cost $667. That still values your miles at 1.75¢/point (($667 - $492) / 10000), but it’s not amazing. Premium economy gives you some better value, at 3.1¢/point (would usually cost $1773 in cash).
But there’s a hack. I won’t get into the weeds here, but often you can get cheaper fuel surcharges if you book two separate one-way tickets rather than one roundtrip. For example, here’s what happens if I book the same premium economy itinerary, but as two one ways.
Note the points cost remains the same: 8.75k + 8.75k = 17.5k miles. But the fuel surcharge is cheaper; instead of $1227, it’s $453 + £394, which converts to $957. You save $270 literally by clicking some buttons differently.
Wait I don’t have Virgin Atlantic miles though. Oh my friend, you most definitely do. Virgin Atlantic partners with every major card program, so transfer away. (If you ever forget who transfers to who, I’ve made a super nice diagram here.)
What if I’m not ready to commit to a flight now? It’s inconvenient that this deal expires tonight. But you can always change your flight for $50. You can also cancel at least 24 hrs before the flight to get your miles and taxes back. Fuel surcharges should also be refunded in most cases.
Use AirTags to save your bags
One of my favorite travel hacks is sticking an AirTag in your luggage. There’s nothing like having peace of mind that your checked bags have truly made it onto the plane! And if something goes wrong, you have some reference of where your bag might be.
Since chances are someone handling your bag has an iPhone, you can usually track your bag’s journey in granular detail. Also, as soon as you log onto inflight wifi with an iPhone, chances are some other iPhone user is sitting just above where your bag is in the cargo hold, and you can make sure your bag is happily enjoying its flight too 😄
AirTags are on discount right now too! AirTags usually cost $100 for a set of 4, but Amazon is selling them for $80 right now.
Thanks for reading! I know I’ve been away for a while; I’ve been gearing up for a launch that’s very near and dear to my heart, and you’ll be hearing it first here.
I’ve also got so many awesome in-depth articles planned for the coming weeks, including how to hack basic economy, the (only) hotel program that’s worth pursuing, and a framework on how to actually think about using your points. If you’re not subscribed yet, be sure to subscribe and share with a friend so you don’t miss out!
Bon Voyage,
Shrey
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