How To Use Your Alaska Airlines Miles For An Airbus A380 Flight

Of course, Alaska Airlines does not operate the Airbus A380. However, its loyalty program, Mileage Plan, offers extensive options for spending miles, including on several airlines that do operate the type.

Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan, in fact, probably offers the most options of any loyalty program besides Emirates for booking the A380. It allows miles to be spent on all oneworld partner airlines plus many more partner airlines. Together, this gives access to five operators of the A380 – including oneworld airlines British Airways, Qatar Airways, and Qantas, plus partners Korean Air and Singapore Airlines.

It gets even better for long-haul A380 travel as Mileage Plan offers relatively good redemption rates in premium cabins. It also allows a free stopover on international itineraries – a rare benefit among loyalty programs these days and potentially very valuable.

Using miles for British Airways A380 flights

As Alaska Airlines is a member of the oneworld alliance, Mileage Plan allows miles to be used for flights on all oneworld airlines. This includes A380 operators British Airways, Qatar Airways, and Qantas.

British Airways currently operates its fleet of 12 Airbus A380 aircraft on many routes to the US (including Boston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Washington Dulles, Miami, San Francisco, and Los Angeles), plus Singapore and Johannesburg.

Mileage Plan uses dynamic pricing for all awards (including for Alaska Airlines flights and for partners). This was changed from a fixed price system in 2023. Such schemes are difficult for partner flights, and in reality, there is still an element of fixed pricing.

Mileage Plan publishes starting prices for all routes. These vary based on region, flight length, and cabin flown. A different chart is used for each region, and these rates apply to all flights to/from the US and that region and within that region.

So, for British Airways, A380 flights between the US and Europe, Middle East, or Africa, the EMEA chart is used – this is shown below. This includes flights from the US to EMEA and flights within EMEA. This will cover all the US A380 routes, plus London to Johannesburg.

Photo: Alaksa Airlines

For example, London to Los Angeles is 5,437 miles. So booking the A380 with BA would cost from 37,500 miles in economy (World Traveller), from 75,000 miles in business (Club World), and from 110,000 miles in First. A connecting flight (or a flight with a stopover) could be added to any of these routes.

Photo: Thiago B Trevisan | Shutterstock

For Asia flights, there is a different chart. The Asia Pacific chart includes flights from US to Asia, within Asia, and between Asia and EMEA – this is shown belowThis would cover the London to Singapore flights.

Photo: Alaksa Airlines

Remember that these are just starting levels. In theory, the rates offered could go much higher than this, but experience at the moment shows they tend not to (this can, of course, change). Partner awards are generally based on availability released by partner airlines, not on the underlying ticket price.

For more details on spending Alaska Airline Mileage Plan miles – see our guide

Using miles for Qatar Airways A380 flights

As another oneworld member, miles can also be used to book flights with Qatar Airways. It currently operates its A380 fleet of eight aircraft to five destinations – Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK), Paris Charles de Gaulle International Airport (CDG), London Heathrow Airport (LHR) , Perth Airport (PER), and Sydney Airport (SYD).

In this case, flights would price using the same charts as British Airways. The EMEA chart would apply to fly to Paris and London, and the Asia Pacific chart for Bangkok and Australia.

Photo: Alaksa Airlines

Looking at the longest Doha to Sydney flights, this is a distance of 7,695 miles so would price from the following:

• Economy: 65,000 miles
• Business: 130,000 miles
• First class: 195,000 miles

Using miles for Qantas A380 flights

The third and final oneworld airline flying the A380 is Qantas. It operates the A380 between Sydney and Singapore, London, and Los Angeles – and between Melbourne and Los Angeles.

These flights would all be priced using the Mileage Plan Asia Pacific chart.

Photo: Alaksa Airlines

The longest routes to London will be the most expensive mileage routes possible with Mileage Plan. At over 10,000 miles, these start at the following rates:

• Economy: 42,500 miles
• Business: 85,000 miles
• First class: 130,000 miles

Photo: Ryan Fletcher | Shutterstock

Using miles for Korean Air A380 flights

Alaska Airlines is unusual among alliance member airlines in also offering miles booking on many non-alliance airlines. Other airline partners for award booking include:

• Aer Lingus
• Air Tahiti Nui
• El Al Israel Airlines
• Hainan Airlines
• Icelandair
• Korean Air
• LATAM
• Ravn Alaska
• Singapore Airlines
• STARLUX Airlines

Two of these airlines – Korean Airlines and Singapore Airlines – operate the A380. Korean Air operates its A380s from Seoul to New York and Los Angeles. Pricing for all these routes is, unsurprisingly, based on the Asia Pacific chart.

Photo: Komenton | Shutterstock

Using miles for Singapore Airlines A380 flights

The last option for booking the A380 is with Singapore Airlines. We have saved one of the best for last. Singapore Airlines offers some of the best cabins in the sky—in 2024, it won the Skytrax award for best first class (although Qatar Airways is now winning for best business class and best overall airline).