Alaska Airlines is offering members of its Mileage Plan frequent flyer programme the ability to earn double the usual miles on flights operated by Cathay Pacific and Japan Airlines to and from Seattle from March 31 until May 31.
Cathay Pacific and Japan Airlines are each launching new routes to Washington State’s largest city on March 31, connecting Seattle with Hong Kong and Tokyo Narita, respectively.
Cathay Pacific’s service is particularly notable as it will be the only non-stop flight connecting Seattle and Hong Kong following Delta Air Lines’ decision to axe its own service on the route in October.
Japan Airlines, meanwhile, recently expanded its codesharing agreement with Alaska Airlines to include 20 new flights through Seattle.
The promotions are applicable to business, premium and economy class fares with Cathay Pacific and business and economy class tickets with Japan Airlines.
Members must register for either promotion separately in order to qualify to accrue bonus miles. Registration for Cathay Pacific flights can be done here and for Japan Airlines flights here.
While both Cathay and Japan Airlines are members of the Oneworld airline alliance, Alaska Airlines is not – in fact, it is not a member of any alliance. Instead, the carrier partners individually with various airlines across multiple different alliances. These include:
- Aer Lingus
- American Airlines
- British Airways
- Cathay Pacific
- Condor
- Emirates
- Fiji Airways
- Finnair
- Hainan Airlines
- Icelandair
- Japan Airlines
- Korean Air
- LATAM Airlines
- PenAir
- Qantas
- Ravn Alaska
- Singapore Airlines
This presents business travellers in Asia-Pacific with an interesting miles-earning option, being able to accrue and redeem points across Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines and Qantas (Oneworld), Korean Air (Skyteam), and Singapore Airlines (Star Alliance), among others.
While Mileage Plan members won’t enjoy the same alliance benefits as they would if they joined the frequent flyer programmes of any of the above carriers, those more concerned with miles earning and redeeming across airlines that don’t typically cooperate may find Alaska Airlines’ programme tempting.
Cathay Pacific will be flying its Airbus A350-900 on the route, providing 38 seats in business class (pictured below), 28 in premium economy and 214 in economy.
Business Traveller has previously reviewed the airline’s business and premium economy product and service offering on the A350-900, which can be read here and here, respectively.
Japan Airlines, meanwhile, will fly the route using its two-class Boeing 787 to Seattle, outfitted with 30 business class seats (pictured below) and 156 economy class seats.
The Japanese carrier’s service will launch as a daily offering from the get go, while Cathay’s will only fly four times per week for the first three months before also going daily on July 1.
