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Costco is offering a $500 Alaska Airlines gift card for $399.99. For a big chunk of last year, we saw the same $500 gift cards on sale for $450, so this is a big improvement and a great deal for anyone with paid travel on Alaska.
Unfortunately, these are only available in-store and can’t be purchased online.
The Deal
- Costco members can get a $500 Alaska Airlines gift card for $399.99 in-store at Costco.
Key Terms
- No Travel Restrictions or Blackout Dates
- No Expiration
- Only valid at alaskaair.com for Alaska Airlines flights
- Valid in-store only, not on Costco.com.
Quick Thoughts
I fly a lot of paid Alaska for work, so this is a no-brainer for me and for anyone else who pays for Alaska travel. These cards can also be loaded into your account as wallet funds and used to pay for a companion fare (awarded as anniversary bonuses on the Alaska Credit Cards), potentially making them an even better value.
The one downside is not being able to earn 3-5x on the airfare purchase. For those with the Point Debit card, although it’s officially against the T&C, it sounds as if gift card purchases have been earning 5% cashback. YMMV.
Stephen notes that these cards can’t be resold on Raise, so be aware of that before buying a bunch if you’re planning on reselling them there.
h/t: GC Galore
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Are these still for sale in Costco stores? 4/22/22
Seems like if you have the Costco credit card you’d get 2% back on top of the discounted price and if you also have the Exec membership you’d get another 2% back annually.
They also do not sell these in the Alaska stores – which is where the airline got their start. The manager at my local Costco said that they are only sold in the markets where AK Air lets them.
I bought this in Kauai Costco
Seattle Warehouse confirmed with me over the phone none in WA state. Closest was Montana or Idaho.
Sad news, I can get them, but don’t fly Alaska out here and doesn’t seem to be any easy liquidation mechanisms
They still seem to be $450 at my Costco 🙁
Where is that at?
Chicagoland. Oakbrook
Just bought 2 x $500 GCs in Santa Rosa, CA 🙂
If i buy a flight using these giftcards on alaska, do I receive miles I would normally receive if i paid cash?
Yes
Do you know which locations these certificates can be purchased? I just called several Costco warehouses in the Seattle area. Nope! Thanx
They may have sold through…sometimes they can get more stock of a card after they’ve sold though initially. I live in Kitsap county and saw we had them at the Silverdale location.
I was told my my local PDX warehouse that they are only available in California. He said 10 people have asked about this in the past 48 hours.
The first warehouse I visited in Chicagoland did not have them (or at least they weren’t signed as being discounted) but I visited another one in Schaumburg and they were discounted to $399
Do they have these gift certificates at every Costco warehouse? I have not seen them at my local one (Kirkland, WA).
no, no northeast locations have them
Some of the Seattle area warehouses sell through very quickly when restocks happen…try further North.
Sweet deal. Finally running low on toilet paper after 2 years, so may be time for a trip to Costco! 🙂
These are on sale now because Alaska Airlines pilots are on strike. Do a Google search and see how many flights have been cancelled in the last week.
Max per person?
The club I went to indicated 10 max
This is not a good deal. Alaska fares are consistently 10-25% higher than competitors.
Hmmm, that’s interesting. Where are you shopping from?
I am almost always searching out of SEA/LAX/SFO and it usually seems that Alaska is the least or near the least expensive for apples to apples comparisons (non-stop vs connecting, bags vs basic, etc). Not always, but usually.
Curious which markets you’re seaching from that you see them so much more expensive than everyone else?
SEA- OGG
SEA- PHX
SEA-PVR
SEA-EWR
All routes, Delta had better fares for any week in April.Cheaper and shorter flights. Also more flights.
Also for these routes, Alaska shows some strange routes where you have to spend the night in Portland and catch the next flight in the morning.
Interesting. I see what you mean about SEA-PVR. But if you’re currently looking for the other routes, you may want to take another look. I didn’t take a deep dive, I just looked through the other three routes on google flights over the last two weeks of April, and Alaska was the cheaper than Delta about 75-80% of the time…often by a significant margin…especially to EWR. In contract, Delta was cheaper than Alaska to PVR about 65% of the time. I was only looking at non-stops.
But that said, I don’t know which specific dates/times you need/want, so that may not be terribly helpful for the travel that you’re planning!
Tim, is there any way to search what warehouses actually carry? I live on Alaska planes and always use these. Does Silverdale still have? I’m in Puyallup.
Meh… I fly DL & AS out of SEA a ton. DL has consistently better award fares in Main. AS has consistently better paid fares in Main. If one puts on a flash sale, the other typically matches. The one exception is if, say hypotheticaly AS has an 11pm flight to ANC & DL’s last flight was at 930pm & next flight isn’t until 430am, AS will charge a premium because no competition in that time slot. DL will do the reverse to it’s other hubs like DTW & MSP, where they fly 4 or 5x per day & AS flys once. Of course, your flexibility or lack of matters most.
“This is not a good deal.” Sounds like you’re not using companion pass as you should, friend.
It depends on your region. I’ve 5 trips planned for this year, originating from Seattle. Alaska airlines was the cheapest compared to all other options available. With the Companion pass, it gets better 🙂
Additionally, AS often runs discounted or 2-for-1 sales (along with companion passes as another option)–all of which are fully stackable with these gift cards.
And since AS remains a mileage based program, unlike DL, the status/miles earnings on very cheap transcons can be startlingly high.
Anyone know if the GC can be used in conjunction with companion pass? Earlier this year, I had to use my Alaska credit card to pay (rather than any other credit) when the companion pass was used.
Load the gift card into your AS account wallet. Then it’s usable.
Any news if the strike is resolved? I noticed a bunch of bad reviews earlier this yr after raving reviews prior. I just booked Msp to Hnl in a month. Prices seemed competitively high. Big hikes all around.