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Costco.com is offering a $500 Alaska Airlines or Southwest Airlines gift card for $449.99. If you book a lot of airfare with either airline, this could be a nice chance to save 10%.
The Deal
- Costco.com is offering the following airline gift cards on sale for 10% off:
Key Terms
- Limit of 10 per customer on Alaska, 5 per customer on Southwest
Quick Thoughts
It is typically difficult to get a discount on airfare. Locking in 10% off can be a decent deal if you regularly book with one of these airlines (though be aware that you’ll be sacrificing a credit card bonus category on airfare and potentially travel protections). I typically try to make sure that I pay at least a portion of my fare on a card that covers trip delay / protection (cards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve or Preferred or the Ritz-Carlton Visa Infinite offer travel protections when you pay for part of your airfare on the card).
Costco previously offered this deal on Alaska Airlines gift cards for quite a while. It’s great to see the deal come back. One thing I like about Alaska Airlines gift cards is that I believe they still work in conjunction with an Alaska Airlines companion certificate (which otherwise requires paying with an Alaska Visa).
The best card to use is likely the Point Debit Card since the Point card is currently offer 5x points (worth 5% back) at Costco on up to $1,000 in purchases during the current offer period. That’s another $22.50 back on a $500 gift card for a net cost of $427.49. That’s a solid discount.
H/T: GC Galore
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BTW, this deal is back. Last time it took 14 hours to get the e-certificate, let’s see how long it will take today. Hopefully not too delayed being Sunday, but Costco does say “Codes Deliver Within 24-48 Business Hours (Additional Processing Time Required on Holidays and Weekends)”
I’m going to buy some of these as the deal is back now. Also note that gift card purchases count toward the Executive costco 2% back as well. Sure, I’m passing up points if I paid cash to Southwest but 12% off is hard to pass up!
If you purchase the Alaska Gift Card from Costco with a Capital One card, will it code as travel so that you can get a statement credit for travel expenses? I am guessing not, but thought I would see if that has been done. Thank you.
No.
That’s what I figured. Thank you.
Rookie here…will the SWGC purchase count towards Companion Pass spending?
It’s not clear to me what you mean.
The Southwest Companion Pass doesn’t have a “spending” requirement per se….
You need to earn 125K points in a single calendar year. Points earned from credit card spend and paid flights count. So…
-Buying the gift card with your Southwest credit card will earn 1x on the credit card and the 450 points you’ll earn do count toward the Companion Pass (though if you’re buying now, they’ll apply to the 2021 year – if you’re aiming to get a pass next year, you’re too early on spend right now)
-You earn points on paid flights (depending on your status) and yes using the gift card to pay for the flights is the same as using a credit card – you earn points based on the paid fare. But you don’t earn those points until after you have completed your flight(s).
Does that make sense and answer your question?
Sorry for the badly worded question…told you I was a rookie. And yes, you did answer my question. Thank you!!!
This is nice thanks for the share!
This is great article thanks for sharing!
[…] devotee of either Alaska Airlines or Southwest Airlines, here’s a deal — reported by Nick Reyes at Frequent Miler — you won’t want to pass […]
Thanks for another great article! Do you think the BOA Cash Rewards MC would count this as warehouse spend, triggering 5.25% back (with the 75% account bonus)?
Probably.
How can I use it in airfares lower than $500 but still get some travel protection? Can I pay partial gift card and partial Amex plat or CSP?
No, you can’t choose an amount of gift card to use that is less than your gift card balance.
It would be a hassle, but I guess what you could do is find a refundable fare that reduces your gift card balance by enough to where it won’t cover the flight you really want to book and then you could use your remaining gift card balance and put some on a credit card.
For instance, let’s say you want to book a flight that costs $201. Find a different refundable fare that costs $300 and book it with your gift card. Now you have $200 on the gift card. Use that on the flight you want and put the $1 balance on a CC offering travel protections. Then cancel your refundable fare and you should get the $300 gift card balance back. Again, that sounds like a pain to me, but I guess it would be worth it if you ran into a situation where you needed a last minute expensive hotel night because of a flight cancellation. The one time I had to make a claim it was for the full $500 that the credit card allowed and it definitely saved me hundreds.
That is just brilliant! Thanks! I also plan to use Costco GC or $500 VGC at checkout! I love Alaska, their credit is transferrable, very flexible.
Alaska fares are consistently more expensive on popular routes so the 10% discount is not worth it
That’s a very broad statement that can’t possibly be universally true. In fact, I have some upcoming travel on routes served by Alaska and in all situations they had the best price on the routes I was searching. I was willing to pay a little more for a better flight experience (flat bed) and to pick up some elite credit, but Alaska was definitely cheapest. I don’t doubt that they haven’t been the cheapest in the situations where you need them, but airfare pricing is pretty dynamic.
Good point. Maybe my data point is unique to the cities that I travel to.
Thanks for sharing this deal. Its like a 10% hedge on future travel as air fares are surely going to go up when the pandemic subsides.
Great blog by the way. I am frequent reader. Pls keep posting