In an earlier post , we compared using Alaska miles for Virgin flights versus for Alaska flights. In most cases, it would cost fewer miles to fly on Alaska than on Virgin. But before you spend your valuable Alaska miles, there is one more option to consider – Virgin’s own Elevate program! You can still redeem Elevate points on Virgin flights! So should you book Virgin America flights using Alaska miles or Elevate points? Let’s compare.
[SEE ALSO: Alaska Airlines published award chart for Virgin America flights ]
Using Alaska miles for Virgin flights within Continental U.S.
Here’s Alaska’s award chart on Virgin flights within the continental U.S.
- Economy award starts at 7,500 Alaska miles for intra-state and 12,500 miles for out-of-state flights.
- First class award starts at 15,000 Alaska miles for intra-state and 25,000 miles for out-of-state flights.
Case #1 – Â transcontinental flight SFO to JFK
To start, let’s look at Virgin’s transcontinental route between San Francisco and New York JFK airport. For the one-way flight on Saturday February 4, award seats are wide open as shown on Alaska’s website: one-way coach award at 12,500 miles and first class award at 25,000.
Take a look at the cash fares. First class fares are super expensive. I would rather use 25,000 Alaska miles than paying $799, or even $1,299! Coach fares however are super-cheap at $119 one-way. Â At that price, I would just pay cash instead of using 12,500 Alaska miles.
But wait, how about the Elevate program? We can redeem the same flight using Elevate points. Because Elevate program is revenue based, a coach seat for that day would cost only 5,079 Elevate points. If you factor in the 1.3 transfer ratio from Elevate to Alaska MileagePlan, it is equivalent to about 6,600 Alaska miles. It is much cheaper than Alaska’s price of 12,500 miles!
On the other hand, a first class seat would cost as much as 62,708 Elevate points!  The same first class seat can be booked using only 25,000 Alaska miles!
Conclusion? For this flight, Â you would want to book coach award using Elevate points, and book first class award using Alaska miles!
Case #2 – Â Intra-state flight SFO-LAX
Let’s look at a short flight between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Here’s the cash fare for February 4. It starts at $49 in coach and $169 in first class.
The cheapest redemption using Alaska miles will cost 7,500 miles for a coach seat and 15,000 miles for a first class seat.
But if you book using Virgin Elevate points, the same seat would cost as little as 1,661 points in coach and 7,522 in first class!
Clearly in this case, the Elevate program wins out!
In conclusion, when booking Virgin flights, be sure to compare the cost of using Alaska miles versus Elevate points. Although you can now transfer Elevate points to Alaska MileagePlan, you may want to hold off unless you really need Alaska miles. The transfer is only one-way from Elevate to MileagePlan. You never know when Elevate points might come in handy!
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How about better first class cabin in Virgin than Alaska planes to places like Hawaii?
That is definitely worth considering besides comparing the number of Alaska miles and Elevate points. If they are similar, then I would probably pick Virgin. But most dates I look at, Virgin wants 40K Elevate points (equivalent to 52K Alaska miles) vs Alaska wants 40K miles for the same Virgin first class seats from SFO to Maui. So it really depends how much more you value Virgin’s first class versus Alaska’s first class.
I booked a flight from SFO to Maui on Virgin America in March. The flight was $285 + $24 in taxes. Should I credit the miles to Elevate or Mileage Plan? I also applied for the BofA Alaska Visa card, which allows up to 6 checked bags. Do you think this would apply to the bags on this Virgin America flight? Thank you.
Do you have elite status with either one? If not, you would earn more miles by crediting to Alaska, based on the distance between SFO and Maui (2388 miles). Virgin Elevate is revenue-based and you earn 5 points per dollar of base fare, in your case it would be 1,425 points, an equivalent of 1,852 miles. Also, at this moment, the free baggage benefit of AS cardholders do not apply when flying with Virgin. But that might change by March as the two airlines continue to integrate.