My Secret to Paying Economy Price for Business Class Airfare
I’ve been dreaming about visiting Japan for a while. I knew I wanted to fly in business class as I cannot imagine a 15 hour flight in coach. The cheapest round trip in business class I have found was ~$5,000 a person, so it would have been $10,000 for both of us for the flights alone. This would have required quite a few years of savings, so I put my dream on hold until I discovered the Alaska Air miles trick.
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Alaska Air Bonus Miles Promo
From time to time Alaska Air offers 40% bonus when you buy at least 20,000 miles. The maximum amount of miles you can purchase in one transaction is 60,000. This will give you 24,000 miles bonus. The total cost of this transaction, including tax recovery fee, is $1,775, so about 2.11 cents per mile. I would suggest subscribing to Alaska Air emails and/or following them on social media if you want to take advantage of this offer so you won’t miss the promo announcement.
Alaska Air Partners
Alaska Air partners with these oneworld® Alliance members and Global Partner airlines:
- Aer Lingus
- Air Tahiti Nui
- American Airlines
- British Airways
- Cathay Pacific
- Condor
- E Al Israel Airlines
- Fiji Airways
- Finnair
- Hainan Airlines
- Icelandair
- Iberia
- Icelandair
- Japan Airlines
- Korean Air
- LATAM Airlines
- Malaysia Airlines
- Mokulele Airlines + Southern Airways Express
- Qantas
- Qatar Airways
- Ravn
- Royal Air Maroc
- Royal Jordanian
- Singapore Airlines
- SriLankan Airlines
Booking Airfare With Miles
Once you have the miles, you can book award flights on Alaska Air website.
If you don’t see availability on your selected date, try using Award Calendar and narrow down your choices based on cabin type to pick an alternative date.
Sample Airfare
For example, one way flight in business class on Japan Airways from Boston to Tokyo on September 9th, 2019 is 60,000 miles and $19 in fees. 60,000 miles X 2.11 cents = $1,266. $1,285 including the fees.
If you purchase this flight with cash, it will cost more than $5,000!
Economy price is $1,099, which is only $186 higher than business class purchased with miles. Less than $200 for benefits like Sky Suite with fully-flat bed and ample storage, gourmet meals, on-demand dining, lounge access and more.
Booking A Multi-City Flight
The best part about using Alaska Air miles to book your travel is that they allow a free stopover. Meaning you can get two flights for a little over the cost of one flight. Perfect if you want to cross off a few (or all!) Asian theme parks off your must-visit list 😉 .
For example, a flight from Boston to Tokyo and then from Tokyo to Hong Kong a week later is 65,000 mile and $51 in fees. 65,000 miles X 2.11 cents = $1,372. $1,423 including the fees.
To search for stopover flights, use the Multi-city search option:
LifeMiles
Since 2019, we have tested another airline that sells miles at a discount:
Avianca, a Colombian airlines, offers bonus miles (from +140% to 200%) quite often. You can redeem LifeMiles with Star Alliance member airlines. See the list here.
A detailed post on using LifeMiles is coming soon.
See our review of Boston to Tokyo flight we booked using this trick here:
