Today Is The Last Day To Transfer AMEX Points To Virgin America/Alaska
You probably won’t want to do that as AMEX points transfer into Virgin America points at a 2:1 ratio. AMEX points don’t directly transfer into Alaska miles, but you do get a 30% bonus when you transfer Virgin America points into Alaska miles, although that still means you are effectively trading AMEX points into Alaska miles at a 2:1.3 ratio.
If you wanted to transfer AMEX points into Alaska miles after today you would have to transfer 60K AMEX points into 20K Starpoints which could then transfer into 25K Alaska miles. However by transferring those 60K AMEX points today you can get 30K Virgin America miles which can be transferred into 39K Alaska miles.
If you are flush with AMEX points there are lots of great uses for Alaska miles.
Here is their interactive award chart.
Domestic awards start at just 5K miles and transcontinental travel is available for just 10K miles.
A one-way flight to Europe or South America on American is just 20K coach off-peak, 30K coach peak, 50K business, or 62.5K first with no fuel surcharges, though those awards are changing starting in January.
A one-way flight to Asia on award-winning Cathay Pacific is just 30K in coach, 35K premium economy, 50K business, or 70K first with no fuel surcharges.
A one-way flight to Israel on Cathay Pacific is 50K in coach, 55K premium economy, 62.5K business, or 70K first with no fuel surcharges and a free stopover in Hong Kong if you want one.
A one-way Cathay Pacific first class flight from JFK to Vancouver is 35K miles and a Cathay Pacific business class flight is 25K miles.
You must call Alaska to book travel on Cathay Pacific.
I wouldn’t speculatively transfer points at this ratio, but if you have a specific redemption in mind, it can make sense.
HT: Elazar K
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8 Comments On "Today Is The Last Day To Transfer AMEX Points To Virgin America/Alaska"
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once the Alaska merger is complete, will you still be able to book on Cathay?
So to get this right, to go Cathay first class to HK, it would cost 91K amex miles?
Yes.
108K AMEX=54K Virgin America=70.2K Alaska.
Does Alaka allow you to book for other passengers? ( ex. Korean x not let). If my company travels to HK pretty often, is it a safer bet to store miles in Alaska, or do you smell a potential cost of miles increase in the next two years. (We currently use Asiamiles and store the points in Amex) and only transfer when needed.
Thanks
FYI if you do a RT with Asia miles in First it’s only 110K each way.
any programs transfer at a 1:1 ratio to va because then you would be better off transferring that way to alaska because you would get 30 percent as opposed to transferring from spg you would only get 25 percent assuming you have plenty of points to spare in all cc rewards programs
” one-way flight to Europe or South America on American is just 20K coach off-peak”
Including Brazil?
Yes.
Would that be included in the Alaska BOGO?