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The question of which airline loyalty programme you should credit your flights to is complicated, but there are some very good reasons to credit BA flights to Alaska Mileage Plan.
Let’s look at a practical example to show you what I mean – the sale fares I posted about yesterday, and in particular the BA Business Class flights from Prague to San Francisco which cost ~£1,178 Return.
If you credit those flights to British Airways Executive Club, you’ll end up with about 18,000 Avios and 360 Tier Points (assuming you don’t already have elite status). That’s fine – I value 18,000 Avios at ~£180 – so it’s a nice little kickback, but we can do better.
Alaska Mileage Plan’s earning chart for BA flights (and other partner airlines too!) is very generous, as you can see below:
The cheapest Business Class fares earn 250% of the flown distance in redeemable Miles and 150% Elite Qualifying Miles. J,C and D fare classes earn even more.
GCMapper calculates the distance as being 12,037 Miles in total, so you would end up with roughly 30,000 redeemable Miles.
Alaska Miles are significantly more valuable than Avios too – I value 30,000 as being worth ~£500! Remember, you only need 42,500 Alaska Miles to fly Business Class on Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong (one-way) with no ‘surcharges’. There are lots of other amazing redemption options too, some of which I covered here.
You would also earn ~18,000 Elite Qualifying Miles, which is 72% of the way to MVP status, 36% of the way to MVP Gold and 20% of the way to MVP Gold 75K.
MVP status earns an additional 50% of flown Miles, MVP Gold 100%, and MVP Gold 75K earns 125% bonus Miles (+ an additional 50,000 Miles bonus on qualification!).
If we take the most extreme example, a MVP Gold 75K member would earn 375% of flown Miles on BA’s cheapest Business Class fares – a staggering 45,000 Miles in the example above! I value those Miles as being worth about £750, which is way more than half the cost of the flight.
Arguably, you could add on another 10,000 Miles too, as the flight is 20% of the way to re-qualifying and you get the 50,000 bonus Miles if you do re-qualify.
Earning elite status with Alaska Mileage Plan can be surprisingly easy too, because of the wide range of partners:
It’s also worth mentioning that Alaska MVP Gold and Gold 75 members can access the BA lounges at Heathrow (sadly not at other airports though, as far as I know)
Bottom line
Anyone convinced enough to credit BA Flights to Alaska Mileage Plan yet?
Alaska is currently my scheme for non-Oneworld flights (where possible) and also use for certain hotel chains. Haven’t redeemed internationally yet, but that is one of the reasons I use them (no contest vs. FlyingBlue!)
If I ever hit GfL with BA I may decide to credit BA flights here too…
Hi Joe,
Thanks for an informative article, however does this apply to cheap economy flights on Qantas? Can you help put it in context by comparing what will be earned on the flights below when credited to BA and Alaska programmes?
QF10 LHR – DXB Economy O
QF8003 DXB – LHR Economy S
100% on Alaska, 25% on BA. No brainer!
https://www.alaskaair.com/content/mileage-plan/how-to-earn-miles/airline-partners/qantas.aspx
https://www.britishairways.com/en-us/executive-club/modalContent/executive-club/avios/collecting-avios/flights/qantas-collecting-avios.html
Cheers!
Crediting to BA Exec Club would earn 1,706 Avios according to the BA Calculator.
Crediting to Alaska Mileage Plan should earn ~6,800 Miles as even lowest Economy on Qantas earns 100% of flown Miles (https://www.alaskaair.com/content/mileage-plan/how-to-earn-miles/airline-partners/qantas.aspx).
In value terms, I reckon the Avios are worth about £17 and the Alaska Miles are worth £100+, so I’d definitely credit to Alaska personally. You don’t want Miles to get ‘stranded’ though (there’s no point having a balance you can’t use), so you would have to have at least some idea of how to earn more Alaska Miles (future flights, Amex transfer via SPG, buying Miles etc). The good news is that Alaska Miles don’t expire unless there is zero activity on your account for 2 years, which should be relatively easy to avoid. Hope that helps!
Thank Jonny and Joe,
Joe really good feedback to clear my confusion! You a superstar as always!
So how do you go about using your status? Do you initially use your BA Exec number and change at the gate to Alaskan?
Good question – yes. Switching it on the app or website is probably easiest, though if the lounge staff are friendly and know what they’re doing they should be able to do it for you if you ask.
Perhaps a bigger point which I should also have addressed is that if you have BA status already the sums obviously work out differently. In the example in the post, a BAEC Gold would ~36k Avios rather than 18k, which is a significant difference. You’d still be better off with Alaska Miles in my view, but there are other factors to consider, for instance:
If you fly BA Economy a lot and really value BA lounge access at airports other than Heathrow.
If you want to requalify for BA status or are gunning for a higher level of status, etc.
Valuing those sort of aspects is hugely subjective – some people might gladly give up a bit of ‘value’ in terms of Miles earned for other perks, where others definitely wouldn’t. As always, everyone ultimately has to run the numbers for their own specific circumstances and priorities, but I could certainly have been clearer in pointing that out.
It depends on what you are using it for. For lounge entry, I just flash my BA card and, if it appears that the lounge dragon is messing around a bit too much, request that they leave the other FF# in place. For seat selection, I believe you get kicked out of your free pre-selected seat if you later change the FF#, so you should make the FF# swap at airport check-in.
Hi Craig
I really can’t see how one switch their FF number on BA app or website to Alaska ?
Thanks
Sharat
You should be able to do it via finnair.com.
Otherwise a good idea is to leave your BA details in place (for any free seat selection, etc.) and then ask an agent at the airport to switch the number for you.