Many travelers have Australia on their bucket list. There really is something for everyone, from the snorkeling and diving at the Great Barrier Reef to wineries, cool cities and spectacular beaches. 

The competition for the very limited number of award seats to get there, however, is fierce. Airlines’ frequent miler programs certainly don’t make it easy and finding award space on the nonstop flights from the U.S. could be quite a challenge.

Through 11:59 PM PST October 4, 2018, you can buy Alaska Airlines miles with up to a 50% bonus. It is a targeted offer, but it seems pretty common to get targeted for the full 50%.

There was a bit of a scare within the miles community last week that the ability to book First Class awards flying Cathay Pacific, one of the highest value awards you can book with Alaska miles, had evaporated.

@CTravelr tweeted the following to catch bloggers' attention:

Not sure if y’all have heard any official word on this because it pretty much kills CX redemptions @garyleff @OneMileataTime @thepointsguy @FrequentMiler
— Brian (@CTravlr) February 13, 2018

If Alaska blocked mileage redemptions within three days of departure, that would pretty much thwart the

Alaska Airlines MileagePlan is running a 40% bonus sale, available to the first 2,500 MileagePlan members who take action. You can buy 10,000 Alaska miles at a time that will come with a 4,000 miles bonus. If 2,500 members don't purchase sale miles by 11:59pm on May 3, the promotion will end then.

Including taxes, you'll pay $295.63 for 14,000 miles, or 2.11 cents per mile. We've seen Alaska miles on sale with as much as a 50% bonus, allowing you to buy them for 1.97 cents each.