The Alaska Airlines Visa Signature card is now featuring a welcome offer of 62,000 miles and 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, especially in comparison to most common 50K offer that’s currently available.
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. Given that, I’m a little 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.
The companion fare 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 62K offer might be enticing.
(h/t: reader Tejas)
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Only the Primary cardholders can have Free Checked Bag Benefit, or it is also available for co-holders?
what is the rumor date that Alaska award redemption will be devalued?
At 3/24, this would normally be worth a 5/24 slot for me, but like others I hesitate to further commit to AS miles, especially considering the CX/JL F sweet spot might soon be dead both due to lack of seat availability and likely chart nerf.
I canceled the card after the $6000 per year spend was added to get the companion fare. Not worth it. Also Alaska fares tend to be higher than Delta and American in many markets.
You get the companion pass by just holding the credit card.
At this point, the best I’m hoping for is a Hyatt like devaluation (15-25% increase on average on their award chart) rather than a Marriott like one.
The companion pass is worth it on it’s own sometimes as you can use it on any economy flight even if you aren’t traveling on that flight. A relative wanted a last minute trip to Hawaii between Christmas and New Year (crazy I know) and the companion pass basically saved them $900.
So card might be worth applying even if you expect a major devaluation. Also 62k + 3k points from spend is just enough for a one way JAL business class ticket with free stopover in Tokyo if you can get in pre-devaluation.