A reader pointed out to us today that the Alaska Airlines Visa credit card is now offering a bonus of 50,000 miles after $2K in purchases in the first 3 months. That is an increase of 10K miles over the previous offer, but the $75 annual fee is no longer waived in the first year. This may still be an excellent deal for those interested in stocking up on Alaska miles.
The Offer & Key Card Details
| Card Offer and Details |
|---|
60K miles + Companion Fare ⓘ Non-Affiliate 60k miles + Companion Fare ($99 fare + taxes) after $3K spend in 90 days$95 Annual Fee Information about this card has been collected independently by Frequent Miler. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy. FM Mini Review: Alaska miles are quite valuable so this offer is better than it appears Earning rate: 3X Alaska Airlines ✦ 2x gas, EV charging, local transit, rideshare, cable, and select streaming services purchases ✦ 1X elsewhere Card Info: Visa Signature issued by BOA. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Big spend bonus: $121 companion pass every year after $6K spend. Noteworthy perks: ✦ Free first checked bag for you and up to six other passengers on your reservation ✦ Priority Boarding ✦ 10% bonus on earned miles with eligible BOA account ✦ During 2024, earn 4K EQMs/$10K spend, up to a maximum of 20K EQMs. |
Quick Thoughts
As noted at the top, the key difference here is that the new offer is good for 10,000 more miles, but the $75 annual fee is no longer waived in the first year. Most people familiar with Alaska Mileage Plan miles would likely agree that 10,000 miles are worth more than $75, so I think that is probably a good trade-off. Alaska currently has some terrific sweet spots in its award chart — like business class to Asia on Cathay Pacific for 50K miles one-way (and you could get a free stopover in Hong Kong on a one-way trip).
Other notable sweet spots include Japan Airlines first class for 70K each way to/from Asia, Cathay Pacific first class all the way to South Africa with a free stopover in Hong Kong for 70K miles one-way, or 55K miles in business class to/from Australia (which could be done on Fiji Airlines with a free stopover in Fiji).
All that said, we don’t know whether these sweet spots will remain intact when Alaska fully integrates with oneworld. At the very least, we expect that they will not continue to have separate award charts for each partner as they do today but rather have a oneworld award chart that is more standardized. We just don’t know if the current values will remain intact.
That said, you could book travel about a year out at current rates, so it might be worth picking up this bonus given the very low spend required. We did previously see a 65K bonus last fall, though that required a total of $8K spend in 6 months. The bar here is much lower.
Keep in mind that Alaska did slaughter its Emirates award chart overnight and without notice years ago, so while I’d like to believe that they won’t change the current award chart without notice, I can’t say that with confidence. I’m personally sitting on a nice balance of Alaska miles and expect that they will still be valuable, but it is questionable proposition. Still, I can’t imagine that 50K miles for $2K spend will have been a bad deal.
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Was just reading on VFTW that apparently alaska is joining OW in March but they aren’t allowing redemptions for OW awards until summer. So hopefully that means their current charts will remain intact until then!
I canceled my Alaska Airlines card six months ago. When can I reapply and be eligible for the bonus?
Didn’t Alaska pretty much publicly swear that they would never do another no-notice devaluation after the outcry over the whole Emirates debacle?
I just got a 60k for 3,000 spend offer in the mail today. AF not waived. I just got approved for the 50k offer last week. I called BAC to ask if they’d match me to the new offer and they denied me.
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There’s also a public offer for 65,000 Alaska miles. That offer has 2 stages. Earn 40,000 miles after 2K spent in the first 3 months. Earn an additional 25,000 miles after 8K spent in the first 6 months. There’s an article on DOC from 1/6/2021 with a link to that offer.
That’s right, I applied for that 65k offer yesterday and was instantly approved
So, spend an extra $6000 to get 15,000 additional points? I don’t think that’s a better deal at all.
Remember that you also get 1x… so 21k total, or effectively 3.5x on the extra $6000. In my opinion that’s an excellent return if you can manage the additional spend.
I agree with what James said about gaining 21k total. Also, keep in mind that Alaska miles are worth more than most other frequent flier miles. TPG says that Alaska miles are worth 1.8 cents each. Most other programs’ valuations are between 1.2-1.4 cents per point.
I respectfully disagree, as the opportunity cost of the extra $6000 spend is just too great. I would rather get another card or two and put that $6000 toward getting other bonus rewards. I definitely see your point, of course, but I already have a good stash of Alaska miles from the days when the card was churnable and the bonus miles given after the first purchase.
[…] Update 2/9/21: Previously this offer was targeted only, now it’s publicly available. Hat tip to FM […]