Alaska Airlines is the latest U.S. airline to launch a travel portal where frequent flyers can book not just flights – but everything from hotel rooms and rental properties to car rentals and activities.
This comes after the Seattle-based airline announced a new partnership with online booking giant Expedia Group earlier this year.
The Alaska Vacations portal, which opened this spring, allows you to book a combination of flights, rental cars and/or accommodation – and collect Mileage Plan miles in the process.
Alaska announced further enhancements to the partnership on Tuesday, including the ability to redeem and earn Mileage Plan miles on an extension of the platform called Stays by Alaska Vacations.
Through the new booking portal, Mileage Plan members have access to over 900,000 accommodations offered by Expedia and have the opportunity to earn Alaska miles for booking or redeem miles for a stay.
As part of this solution, Alaska co-branded credit card holders can earn bonus miles on bookings and benefit from better redemption rates, the company said.
Related: Which credit card should you use for Alaska Airlines flights?
“Stays by Alaska Vacations combines convenience and affordability by giving our guests access to Expedia Group’s vast offering and special savings while achieving award-winning airline status,” Courtney Lansing, Alaska’s general manager of business development and products, said in a statement Tuesday.
Use Alaska Vacations stays
This is what the “Stays by Alaska Vacations” portal looks like when you arrive at the homepage.
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Like any booking site, you can enter a city, airport or other landmark as your location and then fill in other trip details like your travel dates.
Let’s say I want to book a long weekend in Rome in October.
The portal shows options from Expedia’s range. Right from the start, I see the cash prices – and in blue, how many Mileage Plan miles I will receive for the stay.
Would you like to redeem miles instead? There is a menu option on the left side that you can easily switch to “Redeem Miles”.
The award prices for each property are then displayed.
Of course, you should always consider the value of your points and miles before redeeming.
Earn miles with Alaska Vacations
Mileage plan members earn 1 mile per dollar on all Stays by Alaska Vacations bookings.
Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® Credit Card Cardmembers earn an additional 3 miles per dollar on eligible prepaid stays. Cardmembers also receive “preferred” redemption rates on award bookings.
Related: Alaska Airlines Visa Signature Credit Card Review: Earn Hard-to-Get Miles with a Valuable Welcome Offer
It’s a similar story for larger Alaska vacation bookings: one mile per dollar for vacation packages (or three miles per dollar for credit card holders), in addition to the normal earnings for the air portion of the trip.
If you choose to book a hotel through the Alaska Vacations portal, keep in mind that while you will earn Mileage Plan miles, you are unlikely to earn hotel points or elite status benefits in a major hotel loyalty program, as such benefits are not typically available when booking hotels through online travel agencies.
Read more: How to earn miles with the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan program
Conclusion
The partnership between Alaska and Expedia comes at a time when many U.S. airlines are expanding the reach of their loyalty programs to include non-flight bookings.
Some of the major airlines offer options that allow members to book a vacation package and earn (and/or redeem) frequent flyer miles.
JetBlue recently announced the addition of the apartment rental site Vrbo to its booking portal Paisly, allowing TrueBlue to generate revenue from vacation rental bookings.
This new way for Mileage Plan members to earn and redeem miles comes just months after the program added a major credit card transfer partner, Bilt Rewards, and now offers more ways to quickly earn Alaska miles.
Further reading:
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