With the release of the new Alaska award chart yesterday, people were understandably excited–when was the last time an “enhancement” to an airline award chart positive? Survey says: Never. So I think the entire blogosphere let out a cry of excitement when they saw this:
5,000 miles to go from San Francisco to San Diego or from San Francisco to Seattle is FANTASTIC, and Alaska Mileage Plan members are going to get even more from their miles. But what if I told you that there was something even better lurking in the new Alaska award chart? Mommy Points was the first I saw to post about this (also OMAAT), but not only are sub-700 mile redemptions only 5,000 miles, but Alaska Airlines allows a free stopover on award tickets, even one-ways. Dan used that to fly first class on Emirates from Singapore to Dubai and then on the Emirates A380 from Dubai to New York, all on one award ticket.
[Read more: The Emirates First Class lounge in Dubai is ridiculous]
The great news is that these sub-700 mile redemptions work with stopovers at the same price as well! You could fly from San Fransisco to Portland, have a free stopover, and the fly on to Seattle, all for only 5,000 points! Cha-ching!
Examples of 5,000 and 7,500 mile redemptions with the free stop over
Here are some examples of possible stopovers
SAN-BOI-GEG, 1,036 miles, 7,500 mile redemption
SJC-SLC-LAX, 1,174 miles, 7,500 mile redemption
Even a flight with a connection AND a stop over can be eligible for this rate! For example, look at Spokane to Seattle (connection) to Portland (stopover) to Medford for only 5,000 miles!
(READ MORE: Linking my Virgin America and Alaska Airlines Accounts)
This is not to say that you will always see the lowest fare available. Saver fares seem to be limited to a few seats per flight, so some sub-700 mile flights are still showing up as a 7,500 mile redemption.
Additionally, I’m not sure there are many of you that want to fly Spokane-Seattle-Portland-Medford, but I could be wrong :-). All of these searches were done rather quickly on my part, and should serve as an example that you can find these fares relatively easily!
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Seems like all Denver to Seattle trips are still at 12.5k instead of being lowered to 7.5k according to the chart 🙁
In many cases, yes. I am seeing some though for DEN-SEA for 7.5k in February. Gotta shop around a bit for dates.
is this only for alaska or also for their codeshares (i.e. American)?
Just on Alaska metal unfortunately. I’m not sure if it would work on codeshares (if it has an Alaska flight number), but I know it doesn’t work on just partners. Try it out and report back!