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Alaska Airlines is the latest U.S. airline to launch a travel portal allowing frequent flyer members to book nonflight purchases — everything from hotel rooms and rental properties to car rentals and activities.
That comes after the Seattle-based carrier announced a new partnership earlier this year with online booking giant Expedia Group.
Through the Alaska Vacations portal unveiled this spring, you can book a combination of flights, car rentals and/or lodging — and earn Mileage Plan miles in the process.
Alaska on Tuesday revealed additional enhancements to the partnership, including redeeming and earning Mileage Plan miles on an extension of the platform called “Stays by Alaska Vacations.”
The new booking portal allows Mileage Plan members to tap into more than 900,000 properties in Expedia’s inventory, with the options to earn Alaska miles for the booking or redeem miles for a stay.
As part of the setup, Alaska cobranded credit cardholders can earn bonus miles on bookings and get access to better redemption rates, the company noted.
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 inventory and unlocking special savings while earning status on an award-winning airline,” Courtney Lansing, Alaska managing director of business development and products, said in a statement Tuesday.
Using Stays by Alaska Vacations
Here’s what the Stays by Alaska Vacations portal looks like when you arrive on the home page.
Just like with any booking site, you can put in a city, airport or other landmark for your location, and then plug in other trip details like your travel dates.
Let’s say I want to book an October long weekend in Rome.
The portal will display options from Expedia’s inventory. From the outset, I see cash prices — and, in blue, how many Mileage Plan miles I’ll earn for the stay.
Hoping to redeem miles instead? On the left, there’s a menu option you can easily toggle over to “redeem miles.”
Then award pricing will pop up for each property.
Of course, you’ll always want to consider the value of your points and miles before a redemption.
Earning 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 cardholders earn an additional 3 miles per dollar on eligible prepaid stays. Cardholders also get “preferred” redemption rates on award bookings.
It’s a similar story for broader Alaska Vacations bookings: one mile per dollar on vacation packages (or 3 miles per dollar for credit cardholders). And that’s on top of normal earnings for the flight portion of the trip.
One thing to keep in mind if you do choose to book a hotel through the Alaska Vacations portal: While you will earn Mileage Plan miles, you likely won’t be able to earn hotel points or tap into elite status benefits in a major hotel loyalty program, since online travel agency hotel bookings typically exclude such benefits.
Read more: How to earn miles with the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan program
Bottom line
Alaska’s partnership with Expedia comes as many U.S. airlines are expanding the reach of their loyalty programs to include nonflight bookings.
Several of the largest carriers have options that allow members to book a vacation package and earn (and/or redeem) frequent flyer miles.
Most recently, JetBlue announced the addition of home rental site Vrbo to its Paisly booking portal, allowing TrueBlue earnings on vacation rental bookings.
Meanwhile, this new earning and redeeming capability for Mileage Plan members comes just months after the program gained a major credit card transfer partner in Bilt Rewards, offering more ways to quickly earn Alaska miles.
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