Tips for using miles?

I have found that using Alaska Miles one can get 'one way' tickets at the same rate as r/t or multi-city.

I have found that I could do a one-way 'to' somewhere and a one way return from 'somewhere else', but could not do it as a single multi-city booking.

BA has found a way to commit legal theft. Not at all happy that BA is the only choice to get biz class to Europe. All the other partners only dole out coach for the over salt water segments.

Last year when I had to cancel ( FF ticket) I got a refund to the credit card; not sure if policy is still the same now.

How refundable is refundable--do you get all your miles and fees back, or just miles, or just a credit?

You get your miles back if you cancel but there may be a fee to process this. When you book with miles read all the terms and conditions it should spell this out.

Are there particular times of year when mileage seats are released?

I have Mileage Plus (through United Airlines Star Alliance) and Avios (Aer Lingus, BA and Iberia) you can book whenever you want. But I would not be trying to go in August when the the whole world is traveling before the return to school and work in September.

I don't know about Alaska air as my experience is related to United. But -- in general -- I believe the window to book opens at 330 days prior to departure. On United I can book the entire trip including other airlines. Assume you could do the same with Alaska. I think I would do a couple of practice runs just to get a feel for how the Alaska site works. Trying a couple of fake booking out around the 9 month mark and see what your options are.

On Alaska you have to pay the airport fees which are sometimes a hundred or more dollars. Remember Alaska has the companion fare too. I think that is $100 plus some fees. IDK if companion fare can be used on a partner airline. But, I'd check. And try a booking to see what the fees are like

Mark McG, Alaska's companion fare can't be used on partner airlines. Joe32F, is there a downside I'm missing to booking two one-way tickets if the price is good? With a couple of weeks in between the 2 flights, there isn't an issue with making a connection, and that's the only problem I can think of.

is there a downside I'm missing to booking two one-way tickets if the price is good?

None come to mind

I use Alaska miles for RT to Europe often. A few "tricks of the trade."
1. Watch for extra fees. You have already found them with British Airways which is the notorious one for this.
2. Watch the class of service. Sometimes it will be mixed class and you have to look closely to make sure what you are getting. The column heading might say "business" but then when you look at the actual flights, Rome to London is Business and London to Seattle is coach. If you click on business, make sure you are getting business for the entire trip.
3. I always book the flights as two one ways.
4. You will get everything back if you cancel with these exceptions. The $12.50 ticket fee that Alaska charges, and any seat reservations that you have paid additional for. Miles get refunded to your account and $$ gets refunded to your credit card.

Your flight choices are doable. Consider the possibility of Munich as well as Vienna if that increases flight options.

I'm appreciating this topic. We've never used miles, never even accumulated them (except for British Airways Avios, which didn't work out nearly as well as I had hoped,) and I've decided it was time we looked into it.

My sister tried to get me doing it some years ago, but when I did the math, it wouldn't have worked for us. We literally would have had to charge more every year than our combined income to get enough points to make a flight to Europe. However, we are in a better financial situation now, and it's time to revisit the conversation.

What about miles that aren't tied to a particular airline or partnership? Capitol One has a card that earns miles; are they good on any airline?

I guess I need to start researching this.

Yes, do your research and look at what the different cards offer and most importantly, how it might fit your needs and preferences. Your "home" airport is a big factor in what works for you.

We have a Capitol One Visa that allows us to "erase" travel purchases (hotel, rental car, flights) with accumulated "points/dollars". You have to have enough points to cover an entire expense. If have only $100 worth of points, you can only erase a purchase of $100 or less. We also get reimbursed for Global Entry/TSA prechecck. There is an annual fee but we never pay interest, use this card at Costco (only 2 of us but we find plenty to buy there!) and earn enough to more than cover the annual fee. We always pay the bill in full every month.

We've been AA Citibank card holders for many years; there is again an annual fee. We've taken 5 or so round trips in the last few years to Europe on Business or Business/First. We are spoiled. We are sometimes put on British Airways flights and those taxes and fees are often steep. But we again come out ahead, especially when compared to the full cost of those flights. We always pay the bill in full every month.

We put as many expenses as we can on auto-pay on the card(s). Some places have a fee to pay by card so that's something else to consider.

I'm sure many others on the forum have their favorites and can weigh in with advice and opinions.

We just returned from three weeks in Europe. I used Alaska miles for all four of us. This was the third summer I booked these flights, but we couldn't go in 2020 or 2021.

This year was harder to book. American only releases inventory for mileage booking to Alaska if they have them at the saver level. I had booked AA mileage tickets in 2020 and 2021 for 30k miles each plus about $19 for the taxes/fees. Those were non-existent for Summer 2022. I checked daily for months and they just never were available, even for 1 person. They did have them in the off season, but with kids we had to go in the summer.

We ended up booking premium economy on Condor. It was 45k miles plus $47 each. Since they wouldn't connect to Italy, we just used the miles to book to Frankfurt. We stayed a couple of days on the Rhein and did the castle boat before taking a flight I'd purchased on Lufthansa to Rome. Note: you can purchase a flight on Condor that connects to anywhere in there network, but since they partner with a lot of airlines to make these short hops, you can't use Alaska Miles for that portion as they are not in the network.

We came home on British Air in business. It was 60k miles plus $238 in taxes. I was able to pay less in taxes by only getting Business on the long leg, from London to Portland. The leg from Milan to Pdx was in economy and for some reason that makes the massive taxes go down. It's a little complicated to get their system to ticket in that way, but definitely worth it.

Aer Lingus sometimes has 30k fares, and the taxes are around $60.

Iceland Air varies between 35k and 45k, but they also have some expensive taxes, I think they were just under $200 each.

The best thing you can do to get good deals using Alaska Miles is travel between October 15 and May 15, when there are plenty of saver fares available on American, in my opinion.

So, I've been plying the Miles & Points games for decades. Virtually all the long-distance flights I've done in the past 20 years have been on miles (using the term generically here). I've gotten fantastic value from this. It's definitely possible. It's also definitely complicated, and has plenty of pitfalls and potential "gotchas". A few bits of generic advice first:

• You need to do your homework, and you need to invest some time
  learning how the game works (more time, frankly, than most people are
  willing to invest). Every program is different. Be very careful about
  making assumptions. Be very wary about websites and companies and
  bloggers who purport to be "helping" you (including many that are
  recommended and linked to every day by well-meaning people here).
  They all have agendas, and their primary agenda is to make money from
  "helping" you. Take their advice with a huge chunk of salt.

• The dirty little secret of the game is that getting the miles is the
  easy part (it's actually not that easy, but it's easy compared to
  actually using them and getting a a good value from your points when
  you do spend them....most people don't, and for them, it's just
  another way to get ripped off).

• I'd agree wholeheartedly with the comments above about British
  Airways and Alaska: Alaska is fine, British Airways is shameful in
  how they rip off customers.

Since you asked about one-ways and about cancellations....It's critical to note: my answers to these specific questions apply to award flights booked with Alaska miles -- using miles in other programs the answers would be very different...

Booking two one-ways using Alaska miles should not be a problem, and often will cost you exactly (usually nearly the same) as what it wold cost to book round trips. Other airlines levy huge "fees" for booking two one-ways (eg Delta typically imposes massive surcharges for one-way flights that originate in Europe; Alaska does not).

About cancellations...back before the pandemic, most frequent flyer programs imposed high fees if you wanted to cancel an award flight and redeposit the miles. Because they could. Once the pandemic upended demand, most airlines reversed their longstanding policies about canceling award fees, and proudly trumpeted that "change fees are gone forever!". Well, don't count on "forever" but most major airlines still have much better, more consumer-friendly cancellation policies for award trips. Alaska charges no fee for that (nor do many other airlines, although I expect they will probably backslide and re-impose the same fees they bragged about dropping at some point....for now though, things are pretty good).

I've cancelled dozens of award flights in the past couple years (cancelled two trips yesterday, in fact). Cost is usually zero (Alaska charges a small fee if it's an award booked on a partner). Miles typically re-appear in your account within minutes of cancellation (though it may take longer).

Bottom line: Booking award trips on Alaska is currently safe, low-risk behavior.

Re: Alaska's companion fare deal...you are correct, it can't be used with award flights (nor can it be used in business class or first class, or on Alaska partners....and Alaska doesn't fly to Europe, though I suspect that will change someday, for now, if you use Alaska miles to Europe, you're going on a partner).

It's a complicated game. The best place to get reliable, factual information is FlyerTalk (NOT the credit-card-pushing blogs). FT has its own challenges (jargon, attitude, TMI) but the information there is more reliable than other sources where all they want to do is monetize you.

Hope some of that helps. Good luck and have fun.

In particular, I am looking at one of two multi-city flights: into Paris and out of Nice in May 2023 for RS Loire and the South of France, and into Vienna and out of Budapest for a late Aug 2023 trip. If it's just not practical with miles, that will be good to know too, and I can budget accordingly.

How many people? This will make a big difference between "challenging" and "good luck with that."

You're probably going to find the options using Alaska miles for this trip are somewhat disappointing. The problems you'll face are:

For Paris or Nice...

1. Alaska doesn't fly to Europe. Most of the available options will be on their partner British Airways, which will impose a large surcharge ($250 or so, on top of the miles -- that's in coach, fees escalate steeply for buisness class, like $750 fees...these numbers are all one-way, so double them all). This is not a tax, this is a fee that BA simply charges. Almost every available option will be on BA, but there will be a few flights using IcelandAir (still pretty high fees) or AerLingus (no big fees for Aer Lingus). Fees are charged each way, and are generaly higher for the return.

2. Many (almost all) of the award flights at the "low" level (cost in points) have painful connections -- look carefully at those.

3. You can get to/from Paris pretty easily, there are many options. But when you throw in a small market airport (eg Nice) your options narrow (and that day you come home can get painfully long). It's always a challenge to get from a non-hub airport in Europe all the way home to the US west coast in a single day -- the timing is just difficult (having two connections makes it a miserable 32-hour slog).

I just took a quick look at options for the route you are thinking of. Aer Lingus (very few flights, but worth a look) appears to be a way to get around British Airways setting your wallet on fire, but getting back in one day looks painful. If you can be very flexible on your dates, you should look for an Aer LIngus day that works for you.

For Vienna/Budapest, the same, only fewer options, almost all on BA $200+ fees. Look hard for an Aer Lingus option, you MAY find one.

To be honest, Alaska's program is not ideal for travel to Europe, especially once you get off the biggest hubs. (Great for Hawaii and Mexico, though!) They need more/better partners across the Atlantic than British Airways. Aer LIngus is not a bad choice. I'm hoping Alaska buys some long-legged 787s and starts flying over the pole, direct from SEA to northern European cities themselves. Maybe some day!

Thanks everyone for your insight. I am comforted to find that I find it confusing because it is in fact confusing. But I have some time to learn about this, and I have hope!

It is indeed confusing and complicated. Not an accident. (Its complexity is a feature, not a bug...)

For what it's worth to anyone who might be thinking of getting a new airline credit card to rack up miles faster, since 2015 I've had quite good luck getting United (or partner) seats at the saver level (30,000 to 35,000 miles one-way) from Washington-Dulles to or from Madrid, Barcelona, Rome, Zagreb, Oslo and Venice. Only Zagreb, Oslo and Venice required a connection (just one each). In most cases the tax was nominal; I think I may have paid $75 once. I know the connection situation is very airport-dependent, and IAD has non-stops to quite a few different European gateways, which is very helpful.

All those mileage trips started in May or June and ended in August, September or early October. All were ticketed as one-way segments. In two cases I didn't book the return flight until I was mid-way through the trip, no more than two months in advance. I was fortunate that I didn't need to cancel or change any of those tickets until this year. I have benefited greatly this year from United's full-tax-refund and no-fee mile-redeposit policy up to 31 or 32 days out, because a minor medical issue required me to delay my trip twice, once altering the itinerary. I will be sorry when they tighten the rules for frequent-flier ticket changes, which I agree will happen at some point.

Another thought: Do you face extra scrutiny or trouble with security if you use two one-way tickets instead of a multi-city trip?

We are often traveling on a one way ticket alone, never a question. Why would there be a question??

Another thought: Do you face extra scrutiny or trouble with security
if you use two one-way tickets instead of a multi-city trip?

Maybe. But I would not let that dissuade me from booking one-way awards (most of my flights are booked that way).

Some people have reported getting the dreaded "SSS" (intense screening) after booking multiple one-way trips...but in most cases, that was reported by people who had one-way bookings to Istanbul. Why? Because 1) Istanbul was the longstanding "hub" and entry point for western recruits to ISIS/Daesh/"Islamic State" (they would fly to IST, make their way to Turkey's southwest, be smuggled across the border into Syria); 2) "One way tickets" have a bad reputation, dating from the 9/11/2001 terrorist attacks in the USA. It seems Al Queda is cheap, and didn't bother paying for round-trip tickets, just "one ways."

Incidentally, having no checked bags for long international flights used to heighten your security profile a notch or two (the idea being that only a terrorist on a one-way trip to heaven would leave their heavy bags at home). But ever since the airlines started making checked bags a profit center, that theory has gone by the wayside.

Passengers who encountered frequent SSS screening after their one-way tickets to IST complained (understandably, since some were getting SSSed over and over and over), congresspeople were alerted to the issue, and it seems to have "gone away." I fly almost always on "one way" tickets, and it's been a long time since I won the SSS lottery (I've even flown one-way to Istanbul, and have not had any extra hassles since then). I would not worry about it, there are more likely things to worry about.

Terminology warning: Many frequent flyer systems allow "Multi-city" award flights (and those can sometimes be great deals).

As an example, last year I booked SEA (Seattle) > IAH (Houston) on United, IAH > IST (Istanbul) on Turkish, with a week-long stopover in Istanbul, then IST > MLA (Malta) on Turkish, with a 10-day stopover in Malta, then MLA > ZRH (Zurich) on Swiss, ZRH > YUL (Montreal) on Swiss, and YUL > SEA on Air Canada. I got that for 125,000 United miles + $87 in fees, per person. And that was in business class on all the flights except the first SEA-IAH outbound leg. Heckuva deal!

So, while booking "one way" award tickets is often the right way to go, you can also put together a "multi-city" itinerary. It gets more complicated quickly, but when you can make it work, you can get some awesome deals. So don't assume there are no "multi-city" award flights, there are.