Last week I published a post on my reasons for swapping Peru trip for an Alaska Cruise. In it I’ve mentioned that I decided to burn Alaska miles for a suboptimal redemption where I would get less than 1 CPM (cent per mile) in value. Getting 1 cent per mile is something I shoot for normally, but our current circumstances make conserving cash a priority.
Anyway, I have been checking the awards daily and was delighted to see that our flight from Seattle to Fort Myers has gone down from 17,500 miles to 12,500 miles per person. Perfect! Nancy and I have mentioned many times that babysitting your reservations is a must in this hobby. Of course, you don’t want to be obsessive about it. Still, when there is free cancellation available, why not spend a few minutes rebooking, right? A minor victory: I would now achieve my goal of 1 CPM after all.
However, I now had a dilemma on my hands. Since 12,500 miles is technically a “saver” redemption, I knew that these awards would also be accessible via AAdvantage program at the exact same rate. So, I figured it might be beneficial to write down my thinking process on how I choose which currency to save and which currency to use. Obviously, this isn’t an exact science and I will say upfront that it doesn’t pay to obsess over this decision too much. None of us know what the future holds, and your least valuable miles may end up giving you spectacular value someday.
But here are the factors I normally consider:
1) Ease of cancellation
AAdvantage and Alaska Mileage plans are equal in this regard. You can cancel and redeposit award tickets at no cost.
It’s a tie.
2) Which miles are the most useful for domestic flights in relation to where we live
I would say they are also equal, and Alaska program may actually become more valuable to us in a near future. That’s due to award chart changes that will be implemented starting in March. Of course, I’m banking on being able to redeem Alaska miles towards AA flights, and it’s hard to say whether AA program will release many award seats to partners. Still, if you offered me the same amount of AA or Alaska miles, I would normally have a hard time choosing.
It’s a tie.
3) Which miles are harder to earn (for us)
At this point in time, AA miles, no question about it. Citi has pretty much blacklisted me and my husband, and I’ve been denied several times when applying for Barclaycard Aviator product. On the other hand, Bank of America is still happy to hand us Alaska co-branded credit cards (for now). Then again, it all could change next month. We used to have no issues applying for Citi cards, alas…
Currency I should conserve: AA miles.
4) The size of our Alaska stash vs. AAdvantage stash
At the moment, I only have 35k AAdvantage miles, though I also have 50k miles tied up in a speculative redemption. It will likely get canceled, but I don’t know that for sure. On the other hand, I have 140k Alaska miles and my husband has 52k miles. So, by default, AA miles would be more precious.
Currency I should conserve: AA miles.
5) Our future plans
I’ve mentioned that I fully intend to rebook our canceled trip to Peru. Even better, I’ve decided that I might as well add Easter island into the mix, and take the kids with us. You should have seen my husband’s face when I told him that we will add Easter island since it’s relatively close to Peru. He started laughing and then pulled up a map.
Well, sure, it’s a trek, but you can only fly to Easter island from Santiago, and we would only be 3.5 hours away from Santiago when visiting Cuzco in Peru. They even have a direct flight from Cuzco to Santiago on certain days. How cool is that?
This is my tentative plan:
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I might even return home by the way of Tahiti if Easter Island-Papeete route returns. No, I’m not crazy. Why do you ask?
So, this is where Alaska miles win, by a mile (pun intended). At the moment, Alaska program partners with LATAM, which gives access to flights from Lima to Cuzco and from Cuzco to Santiago, not to mention a flight to Easter island. In fact, since CUZ-SCL route is under 1,400 miles, it will run at only 7,500 miles one-way starting in March. Another sweet spot is a business-class redemption from Miami to Santiago which will soon cost 50k miles person (up from the current rate of 45k miles).
Alaska also partners with AAdvantage, so there is a possibility of redeeming miles on Miami-Santiago and Miami-Lima flights. When it comes to AAdvantage program, those are the only routes where I can burn miles. They don’t partner with LATAM, so I have limited options with AA.
Of course, Alaska-LATAM partnership may dissolve in a near future, but I can only make decisions based on the knowledge I have at the moment.
Currency I should conserve: Alaska miles.
What I ended up doing
As you’ve probably guessed, I ended up burning AA miles. The biggest and most important factor when it comes to this sort of decisions are my tentative travel plans in the next couple of years. Of course, my circumstances could change, but as of right now I fully intend to take my family to South America with the help of miles in the next year or two. And Alaska stash is what will hopefully help me with this goal by preserving cash that I can use for other trip expenses.
Readers, share your own thought process!
Author: Leana
Leana is the founder of Miles For Family. She enjoys beach vacations and visiting her family in Europe. Originally from Belarus, Leana resides in central Florida with her husband and two children.
@Audrey That is a good point! Yes, free checked bag is for domestic flights only.
@Boris Wow! Can you adopt me, so I can tag along on your adventures? 😉
That is such a cool itinerary, though my husband would never agree to it. It’s all I could do to convince him to visit Tahiti, NZ and Australia on the same trip in 2018. I was like, how can we NOT do all three! He thinks I’m nuts, but chooses to indulge me anyway.
With AA the free checked bag is only for domestic flights anyway, a fact that often seems not to be acknowledged, or maybe realized…
@Leana. The kids loved Easter Island. They were 7 and 5 at the time. That was the summer of Pacific Rim. JFK to Tokyo for some Disneyland, then to PPT to Easter Island for a week, back to French Polynesia for 2 weeks ( IHG certs still got you over the water bungalows at Bora Bora at the time), straight to NZ for 5 days, then Galapagos for 2 weeks via Santiago, Lima and Guayaquil ( land based as cruises there were way above our budget), then Costa Rica, back to NY for 2 days and off to Almaty and Kyrgyzstan. Almost entirely funded by AA program. All in Y, but still a lot of savings. Good luck with Peru and Easter Island!
@Christian Nothing nefarious, and I don’t think we are actually blacklisted. I tend to get a bit dramatic in my posts!
We just can’t get approved for new Citi cards due to the number of recent inquiries. But at some point I plan to try again, of course. I’ve seen hints in the blogs on some lucrative (shady?) earning opportunities via Citi AA cards, but I honestly don’t know anything about it.
@TJ Johnson Sweet! That’s thinking out of the box, for sure. I guess there is a way to include IPC flight on Alaska itinerary as long as you don’t leave out of US.
If it’s not too personal I’d be interested to hear about your experiences with Citi. I’m fine with them but don’t want to lose the stash of Thank You points I’m trying to accumulate by doing something wrong.
I just booked MEX-SCL-IPC round trip in business using 45k Alaska miles each way for December.. Now I need to buy a positioning flight to MEX from PDX. I wanted to book before March 1st when the mileage chart changes for Alaska airlines.
@Nancy I can see why AA miles are more valuable for you. We do fly from Miami on occasion, but it’s a bit far from where we live (3.5 hours). For AA-hub captives, this currency is a no brainer.
Fingers crossed AA doesn’t devalue JAL awards in the next six months. But be aware, availability may be your biggest issue. Since Japan has reopened, people have been snapping up the seats via Cathay Pacific or Avios programs, despite hefty fuel surcharges. Hopefully you guys get lucky, and checking constantly will help.
@Boris That sounds like such a cool trip!
It does appear that hiring a guide is required for most historic sites in the island https://www.globeguide.ca/travelling-to-easter-island-rapa-nui/
I still want to take my family there, though it might take me awhile to actually pull it off. I want to do it right, and Peru+ Easter Island combo sounds right up my alley.
This made me think. For me, since I’ve had such great luck finding Web Special Awards out of DFW, AA miles are more valuable.
@Leana No! I don’t want JAL awards on AA to devalue until after I book my awards this summer. 🙂
Maybe something had changed but in 2019 we needed no guide to explore Easter Island. We rented a car for like 6 days and drove ourselves around. I think we got there from PPT and flew back to PPT afterwards as availability to SCL was lacking. After PPT we flew to NZ. Those were pre AA shut down days when you could churn Citi cards like every 30 days, so AA miles were plentiful. Banned for life from AA program.
@Hal
Heck, if I get a few million dollars, I’m not sure I’ll care that much about earning AA miles. Though who am I kidding? I’ll still care, I can’t help myself.
Totally agree on Bilt program and Bask banks being decent options for getting AA miles. Unfortunately, there is opportunity cost in pursuing either one. Sure, Bilt credit card offers 5x earning to many folks for a short time after approval, though you can’t count on it. There is no sign up bonus, and we don’t rent. Sure, we would pick up some extra points, but it wouldn’t be a game-changing amount. Plus, I would likely dump my Bilt stash to a program that offers a huge transfer bonus, assuming those continue. AA miles are valuable, but they aren’t worth double compared to Aeroplan currency.
With Bask bank you are stuck with low interest rate on savings account, so miles end up costing you a good bit. Certainly more than I’m willing to pay for them speculatively. And we don’t really have that much in savings anyway, our goal is to maximize 401(k) contributions.
We usually end up pursuing sign up bonuses, and Citi or Barclays will not approve us at the moment. But hey, I’m an optimist!
@ GBSanDiego Thanks for reading!
I think both programs are valuable (at least in theory) and have unique strengths.
Personally, I think JAL awards via AA are ripe for devaluation. So unless you plan to use your miles soon and have a lot of flexibility, I would not count on the same rates a year or two from now. Though I hope I’m wrong! I’m glad we were able to take advantage of this deal for our recent trip to Japan.
@Hilde H Unfortunately, since the flight is operated by Alaska, AA credit card will not help you with luggage fees. You may want to look into applying for Alaska co-branded card for your future flights. Though not so much to avoid fees, that would be a side benefit. The airfare has to be paid with the card, though, in order to get free checked bag.
@Kim Very interesting! I did see the requirement to hire a guide, but didn’t look into any details. It’s likely that I’ll book this trip in 2025 ( for travel in 2026), so everything could change by then. Depending on the cost it may not be a deal breaker for us, but I get why it was for you. I know they have a similar set up in Bhutan. It’s an extra burden on tourists, for sure.
As far as redeeming Alaska miles from US to Easter Island, yes I’m aware that it’s not possible. It’s a bummer, though that may change when the new program will be implemented next month.
I recently cancelled an Easter Island trip that I booked a year ago. I had initially hoped to book IPC-SCL-LAX with a stopover in Santiago using AS miles. But couldn’t do that, miles to memories has an article about why you can’t. Used Avios to get from Santiago there and back. In the end we ended up cancelling the trip because you need to hire a guide to go practically everywhere, besides two beaches, with a guide. Which we respect and would’ve probably hired for a couple of days but would’ve liked to do some exploring and hiking on our own. We discussed it and for us it wasn’t financially something we wanted to do right now.
Question: I purchased flights on AA site; operated by Alaska, I was surprised to see that I need to pay for luggage; I have both the Citi and Barclay AA cards. Is this correct?
Great article, to say the least!!
I am also making the decision between AA miles and Alaska miles. Alaska miles can get me from the West Coast to FRA on Condor business. AA/Alaska can get me from the West Coast to HND on JAL business (possibly on the a350!).
I noticed that Delta tends to drop their award pricing about 3 months before domestic flights.
I think AA miles are much much easier to earn. Bilt and AA Citi and Barclays all work. Plus you dump a few million in a Bask Bank account and you’ll get tons of AA. Alaska has no easy way other than CC spend. I didn’t use my card for a year then I got an offer of 3x for 9 months, so I managed to spend $450k on it to get 1.35M miles