Alaska Airlines now letting you earn status from British Airways flights

Links on Head for Points may pay us an affiliate commission. A list of partners is here.

Alaska Airlines is a little-known British Airways partner. Whilst it is not a member of the oneworld alliance, you have always been able to earn and redeem Avios points on Alaska (which operates in the American North West) as per this page on ba.com. It is a similar arrangement to the one with Aer Lingus.

Alaska also offers members of Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan the opportunity to earn miles when flying on BA. Since January 15th, this has been expanded. British Airways flights credited to Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan now count for status with Alaska as well.

I can see a scenario where – for a small number of people – crediting some BA flights to Alaksa might be beneficial. This is especially true if you have already retained BA Gold for next year and so no longer need the British Airways tier points.

Why do this? Because Alaska has an interesting range of redemption partners.

You can redeem on the usual oneworld mainstays such as American Airlines, LAN, Cathay Pacific, Qantas and of course BA.

But you can also redeem on Emirates, Aeromexico, Air France, Delta, Era, Fiji Airways, KLM, Korean and PenAir.

Most (not all) partners now allow one-way redemptions. There are also some good deals in there – the best from a UK perspective is probably 85,000 miles for a RETURN Cathay Pacific business class redemption from Hong Kong to anywhere in Europe!

Emirates is a bit of an issue, as there is no award priced for London to Dubai. You can only redeem from/to North America, which ironically means (if you live in the UK) having to book the Milan to New York flight I think.

You only need to credit 25,000 flying miles across Alaska and/or its partners to achieve MVP status. This will give you a 50% mileage bonus on future BA flights credited to the programme.

Alaska may also be an option if you know you will be doing a limited amount of flying on Emirates, Aeromexico, Air France, Delta, KLM and Korean. By crediting these flights to Alaska, you would be able to top up your account to a decent redemption using British Airways flights, or indeed a Starwood Preferred Guest points transfer.

At the end of the day, this is very much going to be a minority interest – but there will be value here for some people.

How to earn Avios points from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards. Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus: