A couple of years ago, Alaska Airlines launched a partnership with the Canadian airline Porter Airlines. Up until now, it wasn’t possible to redeem Mileage Plan miles for those flights, but that’s recently changed. Even better, there’s some excellent value to be had depending on your travel routes/dates.
For example, let’s say you want to fly from Newark to Ottawa. Cash tickets on Porter can be booked through Alaska for $168 in main (economy) or $363 in premium economy.
Compare that to the award pricing of 4,500 miles + $19 in economy or 6,000 miles + $19 in premium economy. That’s 3.3 cents per point and 5.73 cents per point of value respectively which is superb.
That value could be a little misleading though. That’s because economy and premium economy can be had from only $106 and $265 when booking with Porter directly, although that still represents very good value for your Alaska miles.
What should be noted is that those lower prices aren’t necessarily a fair comparison depending on your needs, particularly when it comes to the regular economy fare. If booking the $106 fare directly with Porter, you don’t get complimentary seat selection, there’s no carry on bag and checked baggage fees start at $40. If you book using Mileage Plan miles, while you still won’t get free seat selection nor free checked bags, you will get a complimentary carry on bag. A booking with Mileage Plan miles will also be refundable, giving you greater flexibility than Porter’s cheapest cash fare.
The fact that Porter Airlines flights are now bookable with miles is a great enhancement, especially if you’re interested in visiting Canada. It could also be a useful positioning option. It’s sometimes possible to find better award availability out of Canada; being able to redeem as few as 4,500 miles for a positioning flight in order to obtain a desirable premium cabin flight is fantastic news.
We also sometimes see cheaper award flights bookable from Canadian airports, particularly when it comes to Air France/KLM Flying Blue Promo Rewards. Discounted business class seats are rarely available between the US and Europe, but they do sometimes become available from Canadian cities. For example, in last month’s batch of Promo Rewards you could book one way business class flights between Ottawa and Europe for 45,000 Flying Blue miles. A cheap positioning flight from the US to Canada can therefore come in handy in that kind of scenario too.
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Great news, I’ve been hoping the partnership with Porter would expand. They are still growing out their route network but seem to earn high marks on product quality versus the other Canadian carriers and this gives some good redemption options for those in more One World hubs. Maybe a prelude to Porter joining One World?
Premium is greatly priced @6,000 Miles and it includes a carry on and 2 Checked bags.
Does it include seat selection are you randomly seated in any premium economy seat?
Next time they steal my Alaska miles they can charter a whole Porter flight!
RIP
Porter does not have premium economy as that term is commonly known. They do have regular seats with extra leg room (“stretch”), and a few rows with a bit more leg room and free drinks (“reserve”). Not sure which this “premium” redemption would be for of the latter two. Excellent if reserve.
I find Alaska points are much more useful for booking a stranger’s first class tickets.
Hah Ha