Global Getaways: A Points Goldmine
Tl;dr: If you have Bilt and/or Atmos points, Alaska’s recurring Global Getaways promotions might be a great way to snag an award redemption with a big discount.
The name of the site might be a hint—we’re all about avoiding complicated points strategies to find low-effort, high-value ways to earn and redeem points. And as far as the latter goes, it doesn’t get much better than Alaska Airlines’ “Global Getaways.” If you’re looking for a truly lazy, high-value way to travel abroad, here’s why you’ll want to know all about them.
What are Global Getaways?
Alaska launched Global Getaways in November 2023, saying at the time that they would offer “regular global partner award sales with quarterly, limited-time promotions featuring special pricing of up to 50% off specific partners, routes or destinations.”
There have been six Global Getaways promotions so far, and you can see all the deals that have been offered so far below. But we can see some general patterns in the promotions to date:
There’s usually about six destinations, often connected via a theme (e.g. skiing or beach destinations)
The deals are for economy class seats
They typically occur every 3-5 months, with an average of about 4 months between promotions
The booking window is typically about a month, although it has been as short as one week
The travel window is usually 3-6 months long
The travel window sometimes opens immediately, although there is often a gap between when you must book and when you can travel.
So far, the tightest travel window has been for travel roughly three months or less after booking
Pricing is one way, but not red flag pricing; round-trips are just double that price (at least while discount seats remain in each direction)
The deals are usually not limited to a narrow set of specific departure airports (though not every airport will necessarily be included)
I haven’t booked a Global Getaway deal yet, but I always check at least a few deals to make sure it’s real availability, and I’ve never had trouble finding the advertised rate in both directions from my home airport (and a few others I’ve tested), at least early on in the booking window. In my experience, the pricing typically ranges from “a solid discount” to “wow.”
Why are these deals important?
They’re predictable and reliable(-ish).
Although they aren’t released on a set schedule, and nothing is ever guaranteed in this industry, Alaska has been releasing these deals pretty consistently over the past two years. So if you don’t want to hunt for deals, you can be fairly confident a Global Getaway will be coming in the next four to six months.
The value can be outstanding.
Some of the deals can be tremendous, like 50k points to the Philippines, 40k to Argentina, 35k to Ireland, 40k to Switzerland, 50k to Taiwan, or 40k to Fiji.
There are great ways to earn Atmos points.
The Bilt card (currently in flux) and Atmos Summit are two of my favorite cards, and they can help you rack up a ton of Atmos points to use on these deals. Atmos also has other cards (the Ascent and Hawaiian cards) to earn points via sign-up bonuses or spending. And you can earn Bilt and Atmos points even without holding a Bilt or Atmos credit card through things like Bilt rent payments, Rakuten, Atmos Dining, and more.
There are unique destinations.
Although they often feature popular destinations like Italy or Fiji, Global Getaways have featured more adventurous destinations like Georgia 🇬🇪 and Uzbekistan 🇺🇿.
Booking is easier than with other airline award sales.
For context, here’s how Global Getaways compare to other discounted award programs:
Delta flash sales: Delta often offers steep discounts on award flights, but they are somewhat unpredictable, so you’ll need a strategy to make sure you know when they happen.
Paid services: deal-alert services like Thrifty Traveler can help alert you to points deals, like those Delta flash sales. You can also use a service like Roame to locate cheap flight deals. But, of course, these paid services cost money.
Flying Blue promos: The shared loyalty program of Air France and KLM offers steeply discounted award pricing on the first of each month. However, departure airports are limited and cash costs can be high. And in my personal experience, I have almost never succeeded in finding availability for the advertised deal even when my home airport is listed.
Singapore Spontaneous Escapes: Singapore Airlines regularly offers deeply discounted award flights, but departure and destination pairs are limited, and the travel window is usually very tight (thus “spontaneous”)—usually within about a month from date of booking.
You can hear about them for free in LazyPoints Weekly.
LazyPoints is not a deal-alert service, but Global Getaways are such a good deal that they always get a mention in the (free!) newsletter, so you can stay in the know about Global Getaways and other points deals with a single weekly email—sign up here. (We keep it to once a week, though, so if you want a faster notification, consider something like Thrifty Traveler).
Downsides of Global Getaways
Things can change.
Nothing is ever set in stone in the points world. You can see past promotions on this page to give you an idea of what to expect, but nothing is ever guaranteed.
Lack of transfer bonuses.
Unlike some loyalty programs like Avios, Aeroplan, Lifemiles, or Virgin points, transfer bonuses to Atmos are rare. They only have one transfer partner (Bilt), and there has only ever been one transfer bonus opportunity (but it was a doozy). So there probably won’t be many opportunities to get additional discounts on top of the Global Getaway promotion itself.
The travel windows and destinations are somewhat tight and unpredictable.
We like to plan ahead, and we’re already planning a Japan trip for next winter with our Atmos points. With Global Getaways, we could probably get a much cheaper flight, but we won’t know where we’d be going, when we could book, or what the travel dates would be. Although the promotions have historically left enough time (3+ months) to secure time off and make other travel arrangements like hotels, you’ll need to be comfortable with a certain amount of flexibility and adventure to make the most of these deals.
Global Getaways Offer History
Below are the Global Getaways offers so far, with destinations and one-way pricing; all awards are in economy. Below each, you’ll see the booking and travel windows, and a summary of how long the booking window lasted, how long the travel window was, and how long the gap is between the end of the booking period and the start of the travel window.
November 2025
Manila: 25k points
Bangkok: 30k points
Hong Kong: 30k points
Sydney: 35k points
Auckland: 35k points
The Cook Islands: 35k points
Book Nov. 4-11 for travel between November 4 and March 30, 2026.
Booking window: 1 week
Travel window: 5 months
Gap: Immediate
June 2025
Monterrey: 10k points
Buenos Aires: 20k points
Naples: 20k points
Lisbon: 22.5k points
Tbilisi: 25k points
Bangkok: 30k points
Book in June for travel between August 1 and November 15, 2025.
Booking window: 1 month
Travel window: 3.5 months
Gap: 1 month
March 2025
Calgary: 12.5k points
Dublin: 17.5k points
Reykjavik: 17.5k points
Tashkent: 20k points
Sydney: 30k points
Book between March 11 and April 11 for travel from March 11–July 31, 2025.
Booking window: 1 month
Travel window: 5 months
Gap: Immediate
December 2024
Kelowna: 10k points
Zurich: 20k points
Geneva: 20k points
Vienna: 20k points
Almaty: 30k points
Yerevan: 30k points
Book by December 31, 2024 for travel from January 1 through April 30, 2025.
Booking window: 1 month
Travel window: 4 months
Gap: 0 months
July 2024
Guadalajara: 12.5k points
Athens: 25k points
Muscat: 25k points
Taipei: 25k points
Rome: 27.5k points
Delhi: 30k points
Book between July 10 and July 31, 2024 for travel between October 1, 2024 and January 31, 2025
Booking window: 3 weeks
Travel window: 4 months
Gap: 2 months
April 2024
Bahamas: 15k points
Fiji: 20k points
Tahiti: 20k points
Zanzibar: 30k points
Maldives: 30k points
Bali: 30k points
Book in April for travel between September and October
Booking window: 1 month
Travel window: 2 months
Gap: 4 months
Lazy take 🦥
A little adventurous and a little flexible? Global Getaways are a great, lazy way to snag an award deal and explore a new destination, and a great reason to consider accumulating Bilt and Atmos points. Plus, when they come around, they will be featured in our free once-a-week newsletter to hear about them when they drop—no paid subscription necessary.