Alaska Airlines award sale: Save 50% on flights to/from skiing destinations

Alaska Airlines is running a new award sale giving 50% off when booking flights to select skiing destinations worldwide.

The Deal

• Save 50% on award flights booked with Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles to destinations including:
  • Geneva – from 20,000 miles one-way
  • Zurich – from 20,000 miles one-way
  • Vienna – from 20,000 miles one-way
  • Kelowna – from 10,000 miles one-way
  • Almaty – from 30,000 miles one-way
  • Yerevan – from 30,000 miles one-way
• Direct link to offer.

Key Terms

• Book by December 31, 2024 for travel from January 1–April 30, 2025.

Quick Thoughts

Award pricing starting at 10k miles one way could be a good deal, but it’s worth checking all your options – including paid fares. For example, if you were wanting to fly from Fort Lauderdale to Kelowna in January, about a third of the month is available at the 10k rate.

That pricing could come with a catch or two though. I checked the January 14 option and that lowest price option requires a couple of connections for a total travel time of almost 18 hours. The 10k pricing also doesn’t look very low compared to the cash pricing either. There’s a flight that day on WestJet for only $109, although that doesn’t include a carry-on. A different routing on Alaska Airlines with a carry-on that day is available for only $131, so you’d barely be getting 1cpp (cent per point) by redeeming your miles.

If you do happen to go to Kelowna, that’s less than a two hour drive to Spirit Ridge Resort in Osoyoos. We stayed there earlier this year and loved it, so that’s a great place to add a few days before or after skiing.

Depending on your departure and destination airports, you might find better award availability. For example, here’s what New York to Geneva looks like in January:

Keep an eye out for pesky high taxes and fees; although nearly every day in January is available for 20k Mileage Plan miles between those cities, almost half of those days include fees of $265-$355. The dates that I checked with taxes and fees of only $26 were on Finnair, connecting in Helsinki. The cpp value is potentially good, but there are some low cash rates to Geneva out there too.

Note that this award sale only seems to be valid on flights in economy and possibly premium economy too; I haven’t been able to find any discounts on business award pricing to/from these destinations.

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