Even though Alaska Airlines joined the Oneworld alliance early in 2021, Mileage Plan members are still unable to book award flights on many Oneworld airlines. Slowly but surely, Mileage Plan has been adding award partnerships one-by-one. The latest Oneworld partner to be added is Spain’s Iberia.
As is typical with Alaska, however, only a specific few region pairs can be booked. And you cannot combine partners, other than Alaska + Iberia. However, you CAN include a stopover, which in most cases would be Madrid, Spain.
The following rates are for one-way awards…
Economy Class
- North America to/from Europe –> 35,000 miles
- USA to/from Africa –> 50,000 miles
- USA to/from Middle East –> 50,000 miles
- Europe to/from Middle East –> 25,000 miles
- Europe to/from Africa –> 17,500 miles
- Europe to/from South America –> 50,000 miles
Business Class
- North America to/from Europe –> 75,000 miles
- USA to/from Africa –> 100,000 miles
- USA to/from Middle East –> 110,000 miles
- Europe to/from Middle East –> 55,000 miles
- Europe to/from Africa –> 45,000 miles
- Europe to/from South America –> 90,000 miles
Bottom Line
These newly-published award charts continue a disturbing trend with Alaska Mileage Plan. When a new partner is added, it invariably costs far more miles to book the award flight through Alaska than via other Oneworld options. (or indeed to book awards on the new partner instead of a pre-existing Alaska partner such as American or Finnair)
Even though Alaska does not add Iberia’s small fuel surcharge, you can book these exact same flights for substantially fewer Avios (via Iberia Plus) or indeed by redeeming AAdvantage miles. As a result, it’s hard to imagine very many Alaska mileage collectors rushing to book an award flight on Iberia…
