Alaska Miles’ Legal Boomerang with Stopover

I’m going to show you how to get a oneway to Hawaii and a later ticket to Asia… for the same price.

But this is just one of the many amazing uses of Alaska miles. With all the other airlines devaluing, and getting rid of stopovers, Alaska is a great option.

And while BOA has gotten more strict, it seems you can get the Alaska card (personal and business) if you don’t have one open.

Again, the prices are great, the earnings are good, the stopovers are great… and I’m about to show you how it gets even better.

Let me first briefly give two details that will help you understand the concept overall… then we’ll jump into the trick. Then I’ll go over some more of the trick later this week.

(Those of you who were signed up for the newsletter a few months ago, already know the basics of this trick).

1) Alaska allows a stopover on oneways

This effectively gives you two stopovers on a roundtrip.

However, there is a rule that makes it more difficult to use:

You are only allowed to use miles for one partner per oneway, although you can fly Alaska and 1 other partner.

This rule means that you really have to stopover in hubs. Like you can’t fly to Seoul on AA, and then fly to Bali on Cathay. But you could fly to Hong Kong (Cathay’s Hub) on Cathay, and then continue from Hong Kong to Bali, also on Cathay.

2) Routing rules are somewhat based on the award chart

This isn’t a complete view of the routing rules, but it comes into play. Which is, things allowed in their award chart are allowed.

This only make sense if you’ve seen their award chart.

Alaska’s award chart varies airline by airline and region by region.

Here’s an example where I selected “Africa” and “Asia” and the only result is Cathay.

So, because it doesn’t list Emirates… you can’t fly Emirates between Africa and Asia. Which is odd, but Alaska has a lot of regions left hanging.

And it doesn’t list BA or Air France, so you can’t route through Europe.

However, if it did list British Airways, that would automatically mean that you are allowed to route through Europe on an Africa to Asia ticket.

So I decided to look at all the region combinations, and see if it lists any airlines with hubs that are out of the way. This is what I found…

Hawaii – US – Asia

When I searched Hawaii to Asia it listed American and Delta as valid options.

Hawaii – Asia on AA (oneway prices):

• Hawaii to China = 35k/55k/67.5k
• Hawaii to Japan / Korea = 25k – 32.5k/50k/62.5k

Hawaii to Asia on Delta (roundtrip prices):

The reason I gave Delta prices in roundtrip, is because oneway prices are unfortunately the same. So the better deal is the roundtrip.

Trying with a stopover

Think about this. No AA hub is on the way from Hawaii to Asia. It’s very out of the way.

And remember you get a stopover on one-ways, and they can be as long as you want!

This means you can go to the Multi-city booking and do Hawaii to Dallas, and then Dallas to somewhere in Asia.

The prices are the exact same as a ticket from the US to Asia, or Hawaii to Asia. But this way you can get two tickets. (These are the prices I just listed above).

You can do the Hawaii ticket in winter, and the Asia ticket in summer. Or you could do it in reverse.

It get’s better: off-peak pricing all year

I just tried doing Hawaii to Dallas in February, and then the Dallas to Tokyo in June and it came out to 25,000 miles.

First, the 25,000 miles price is because it’s the off-peak price.

This is such a great price, that a oneway from Hawaii to the US would be 22.5k miles on AA. Now, for nearly the same price, you can do both Hawaii to the US and then US to Asia.

The crazy part is that without the oneway ticket from Hawaii, just a oneway Dallas to Tokyo in June would normally cost 32.5k.

But since the ticket started in off-peak season (October 1 – April 30) with the Hawaii to US segment, it considers the second segment as part of the off-peak time, regardless of the date.

In other words, the date that the ticket starts on is what qualifies it for off-peak season.

This applies to all AA’s destinations in Asia that aren’t China.

Hawaii to Australia works too

There are a number of airlines listed available for Hawaii to Australia, but I’ve only been able to confirm that Qantas works… and only sometimes.

I could do HNL-LAX-SYD and HNL-SEA / LAX-SYD, but I struggled to get much else to work.

The problem is that Alaska only allows 1 partner per ticket, although you’re allowed to fly Alaska and a partner. So I could get Alaska back to Seattle from Hawaii, and then fly Qantas, but it still means there are limited options.

Qantas prices are 42.5k/55k/70k.

Conclusion

I think the Hawaii to Asia with a stopover in the US, is one of the best mileage deals around.

It’s two tickets, possibly cheaper than if you had just done one. Crazy good deal.

Tomorrow, I’ll do a part two. I’ll go over more good uses of stopovers with Alaska miles, with similar concepts.