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The Alaska Airlines Visa Signature card is now featuring a welcome offer of 60,000 miles and a $100 statement credit along with the usual $99 (plus tax) companion certificate with $3,000 in purchases in the first 3 months. While not the best offer we’ve ever seen, that’s still a solid offer on the card for now.
The Offer & Key Card Details
| Card Offer and Details |
|---|
Up to 75K miles + Companion Fare ⓘ Non-Affiliate 70k miles + Companion Fare ($99 fare + taxes) after $3K spend in 90 days + additional 5K if you apply with an Alaska employee's name and id number.$95 Annual Fee Alternate Offer: There are usually better in-flight offers available that require the name and id number of an Alaska employee. 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
Alaska miles have long been considered among the most valuable individual airline currencies given some great award chart sweet spots like business class to Australia for 55K miles each way (even with a stopover in Fiji!) or business class to much of Asia on Cathay Pacific for 50K miles in business or 70K in first class or on Japan Airlines for 60K in business or 70K in first. A free stopover on a one-way makes already solid award pricing even better.
This welcome bonus could therefore be highly valuable. My hesitation at this point is that we still haven’t seen a unified oneworld award chart out of Alaska despite previously being told to expect it during 2021. The fear has long been that when Alaska creates a single oneworld award chart it would devalue its miles. With the wider travel picture to Asia and Australia pretty uncertain still, I’d be hesitant to collect Alaska miles given that I expect award charts will change at some point and it is hard to imagine them getting better.
That said, if you are confident that you’ll have a good use for the miles and/or confident in Alaska doing right by customers and giving plenty of notice before a devaluation, this offer certainly has some strength — just keep in mind the overnight devaluation of Emirates first class awards a few years ago.
Getting a $100 statement credit negates most of the cost you’ll incur on the companion fare (which is probably my favorite airline credit card feature), so it could be a good time to pick the card up if you’ve been waiting for an increased offer. Since Alaska isn’t transfer partners with any of the major transferable currencies, this marks a rare instance (in the current market) where a 60K offer might be enticing.
H/T: Doctor of Credit
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I understand your hesitance to accrue lots of Alaska miles given that they’re already late on the promised partner award charts but do you really see the impending devaluation (let’s call it what it will be) changing Alaska miles from arguably the most valuable among accessible OW programs to below average? That would go a long way toward torpedoing the thing that made MileagePlan such a winner for Alaska fans. Why screw up your best selling point?
Hey Nick, I would love to see a post about your favorite credit card features. I think the 10% rebate on Wyndham redemptions would make my list. Have a great weekend 🙂