A premium Alaska Airlines credit card has been rumored for some time and it’s now definitely on the way.
As you can see in the image above, the new card will be launched next summer, but there’s no exact date yet as to when it’ll be launched. Alaska Airlines has opened a waitlist though which an earn you up to 5,500 bonus miles on top of whatever bonus will be offered as part of the welcome offer.
You’ll receive 500 bonus miles simply for joining the waitlist by December 31, 2024 – there’s no obligation to subsequently apply for the card in order to receive those miles. If you do subsequently apply for the card using the link they’ll send you next summer, you’ll get 5,000 bonus miles on top of the welcome offer, similar to how things worked with the new Aeroplan credit card a few years ago.
There are limited details about the new card right now, but here’s what we do know about some of its upcoming benefits and features:
- Annual fee will be $395
- Earn Global Companion Award Certificates
- Receive waived award ticket fees
- Earn 3x miles on
- All eligible foreign purchases
- All eligible dining purchases
- Receive Alaska lounge passes & Wi-Fi vouchers
- Get same-day confirmed fee waivers
- Earn elite status on an accelerated basis
How some of these features and benefits will be implemented remains to be seen. For example, will the Global Companion Award Certificates be earned at renewal, or will they be part of the welcome offer too? Will you have to spend a certain amount on the premium card to earn those?
Similarly, will the Alaska lounge passes and Wi-Fi vouchers be earned once you hit a certain spending threshold, or will you receive perhaps a couple of both when first applying for the card, with the ability to earn more when hitting spending thresholds? Will an unlimited number of award ticket fees be waived, or only a certain number of those each year? As for earning elite status more quickly, how will that work? Will spend on the card earn elite-qualifying miles at a faster rate in order to reach their new milestones more rapidly?
As you can see, there’s a lot that’s unknown as things stand right now. However, one thing that is certain is that joining the waitlist is a no-brainer. If the card comes out and the details don’t interest you, you’ll have earned 500 bonus miles nonetheless. If it does interest you, you’ll earn an additional 5,000 bonus miles courtesy of being waitlisted.
For me, one of the most interesting features of the card is that it’ll earn 3x on all eligible foreign transactions. Provided this new premium card doesn’t charge foreign transactions fees, earning 3x on purchases when you’re outside the US could come in very handy for expats and other people who spend a significant amount of time outside of the country.
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Its probably just the $25 award booking fee that they will waive, no way they are eating BA’s wild YQ fees
AA’s path to One World Emerald is fairly easy. Might Alaska afford a comparable path? It’s a tall order to fill.
AA’s path to OWE is easy for card spenders or MSers.
As for Alaska, provides a much easier path for butt-in flyers. Much easier than United and Delta because you can get 100% EQM on any non-basic economy Alaska metal.
AA’s path also includes lucrative LPs from its shopping portal and hotel portal. Holiday multiples on the shopping portal go a long way.
If you look at Alaska’s implementation of these, it is nowhere nearly as competitive.
The relative value of their various respective portals will depend on how “rich” the rewards are at any given moment. You need 60% as many “points” to make Emerald with AS as you do with AA. I think they’ll be awarding 1 “point” per 3 non-flight miles earned. So, 1.8 AS hotel portal miles will be the same as 1 AA hotel point mile in terms of status earning. So, if a hotel would earn 10,000 AA and 18,000 AS, they’re tied. Plus, the AS purchase would earn more (and more valuable) redeemable miles.
Also, AS will be awarding 1 mile/point for partner award redemptions. And they have reasonable rates, even last minute, on AA awards. I could fly my common route of of NYC – SAF 8 times a year on miles and be halfway to Emerald.
Is there a different method for booking that would earn Alaska miles more quickly, or are you just assuming someone who books a LOT of stays through Alaska’s portal? I ask because earning rates seem to be a fraction of what you’d earn through AA, especially for AA elites who hold an AAdvantage credit card.
For example, the cheapest rate I see for a two night stay at the Arlo Chicago for 1/10 through 1/12 is $149 per night, which would earn 298 AS miles (1 mile per dollar.) The cheapest room at the same hotel on the same nights through the AA portal is a little more expensive and non-refundable, but also earns 700 miles for general members, or if you’re an AA elite with a credit card, it earns 7,600 miles/Loyalty Points. If you’ve already earned 60,000 or 100,000 Loyalty Points, you also get a 20% or 30% LP bonus on top of that. If you book using an AA credit card, you’d earn an additional LP/mile per dollar and if you have AA’s Citi Executive card, it earns an extra 10 AAdvantage miles per dollar (but still just 1 LP per dollar, though.)
So, for a two night stay I could get 298 Alaska miles, plus an additional 3 miles per dollar for paying through Alaska’s visa for a total of 1,366 Alaska miles, of which 455 would be elite qualifying.. Or, I could pay a little more to book through AA (with a non-refundable rate) and get 7,600 LPs for the stay (plus maybe a bonus of 20% to 30% depending on where I’m at in my requalification cycle), an additional 400 LPs for paying with an AA credit card, and a total of around 11,600 redeemable miles as AA elite paying with AA’s premium credit card.
Right, I personally have more than a million LPs because of it. I rarely spend money on actual AA metal but rather using miles. I would never ever get OWE, probably not OW Ruby by my flight habit. I was advocating for people who travel regularly for business/leisure that would have organically earn OWE through flying. For them, Alaska could be a much better choice since they have so many butt in miles with them.
The 3X on foreign purchases like you said if there’s no foreign transaction fee is a complete game changer for me. I moved to Mexico two years ago and a 3X catch all for an extremely valuable currency!!!
If this isn’t gated when the card is released, I can’t believe it will last in unlimited format for more than a year or two (although you’ll do very well in that year!).
Agreed. Hitting bonus categories, and frankly most of the best deals are hard to come by for full-time travelers. I can’t think of a better everyday spend option for expats.