Hainan Airlines redemption resumed on Alaska Atmos Rewards

There are actually quite a few hidden-gem frequent flyer programmes among US airlines. The one w talk about most is Alaska Airlines: it has a relatively large number of airline partners, and because there are fewer ways to earn its miles, they have managed to retain a fairly high value.

One of the lesser known partner airlines is Hainan Airlines in China. The redemption option disappeared for quite a few years, but it has finally come back! Hainan’s number one hub is Haikou, but they have many flights from Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Chongqing too.

The biggest highlight is that flights of up to 1,500 miles cost just 7,500 miles in Economy or 15,000 miles in Business Class. That’s enough to cover most domestic routes in China, including Beijing to Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Haikou.

Good thing about China’s domestic flights: the surcharge is fixed and mandated by the government, so you won’t see the crazy fees imposed by European airlines.

The real trick is Alaska’s very generous stopover policy. You can effectively build a two-segment itinerary, and as long as the combined distance of the two flights is no more than 1,500 miles, the total cost remains just 7,500 miles! The maximum stopover seems to be around 14 days.

Xiamen – Haikou – Fuzhou

Haikou – Shenzhen – Sanya

Then there are international routes within Asia, for example Japan.

Even rarer are the North American routes. Beijing – Seattle:

Beijing – Boston:

Long-haul Business Class availability seems to be pretty hard to find, though.

As mentioned above, one downside of Alaska miles is that there aren’t many ways to earn them. Marriott is probably the most useful option: 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points can be converted into 25,000 Alaska miles.