Because of airline partnerships, travelers can redeem miles for flights on partner airlines to travel to destinations all around the world. For example, you can now redeem Alaska miles to fly Qatar Airways to the Maldives or redeem American miles to fly Air Tahiti Nui flights to Tahiti.

However, there's a limit to the flexibility of these programs. Airline partnerships typically don't let travelers transfer miles between the programs. Instead, you're limited to redeeming miles with that particular partner program. So, if you’re hoping to transfer Alaska miles to American or vice versa, there are some things you’ll want to know.

Can you transfer American Airlines miles to Alaska?

American Airlines AAdvantage miles can't be transferred to Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles. Not only can you not transfer miles from American to Alaska, but American miles can't be transferred to any other airline or hotel loyalty program.

Instead, you're limited to redeeming American Airlines miles for:

Flights on American Airlines (or its partners, including Alaska Airlines).

Mileage upgrades.

Booking cars, hotels or vacations.

Admirals Club lounge memberships.

Seat reservations.

VIP treatment through American Airlines Five Star program.

Or, if you don't want to redeem miles for travel, you can redeem miles for magazines or for charitable donations.

However, just because you can't turn your AAdvantage miles into Alaska Mileage Plan miles through a transfer doesn't mean you can't use American miles for travel on Alaska Airlines.

Booking Alaska flights with American miles

Here's how you can redeem AAdvantage miles for Alaska flights even though you can't directly transfer American Airlines AAdvantage miles to Alaska.

When searching for a flight on the American Airlines site or app, select “Redeem miles.” Search results will include award travel on any available partner airline flight, and you can choose to filter the results for Alaska Airlines flights. From there, continue with your normal booking process to reserve an Alaska flight with your AAdvantage miles.

As both airlines are members of the Oneworld alliance, redemptions will be based on the AAdvantage award chart for Oneworld partners.

Within the contiguous 48 U.S. states or Canada. Fly Alaska Airlines for as few as 12,500 AAdvantage miles each way in economy or 25,000 miles each way in first class — which codes as business class for the sake of award redemptions. Or fly to Hawaii for as few as 22,500 miles each way for economy or 55,000 miles for business/first class.

Between the contiguous U.S. and Alaska. You can book an Alaska Airlines flight for as few as 15,000 AAdvantage miles each way in economy or as few as 30,000 miles each way in first/business class. (That might seem a bit steep for a flight between the West Coast and Alaska, but you can also pair it with a flight from the East Coast for the same price.)

The contiguous U.S. and the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America. ​​Fly Alaska Airlines for as few as 17,500 AAdvantage miles in economy or as few as 27,500 miles in business/first class each way.

Can you transfer Alaska miles to American?

Similarly, Alaska Mileage Plan miles can't be transferred to American Airlines AAdvantage miles. As with American, Alaska members can't transfer Mileage Plan miles to any other airline or hotel loyalty program.

To reiterate: While these two companies exist as partner airlines (as in, you can book a flight on the partner via the other's booking site), they are not transfer partners. This means you cannot transfer your points between the two loyalty programs.