There have been a number of recent reports about a targeted offer on the Bank of America Alaska Airlines Visa Signature card good for 40,000 miles after spending $2,000 in the first 3 months. That offer has been via email and the reports I’ve seen indicate that those in West Coast states are being targeted. However, a comment on Flyertalk this morning led us to the discovery that if you are located on the West Coast (or you have a VPN with a West Coast Server), you can find the 40,000 mile offer on the AlaskaAir.com website.
The Deal
- Get an offer for 40,000 Alaska Airlines miles plus a $0 Companion Fare in the first year (you just pay taxes & fees for your companion fare code) after spending $2,000 in the first 3 months by going to AlaskaAir.com from a computer in a West Coast state
Key Card Details
| Card Name w Details & Review (no offer) |
|---|
FM Mini Review: Alaska miles are quite valuable so this offer is better than it appears $95 Annual Fee 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
The Alaska Airlines Visa Signature card has featured a welcome offer of 30,000 points for a couple of years (for a time, the standard bonus was just 25,000 miles). That sounds like a pittance in an era of 60K, 80K, and 100K bonuses, but Alaska miles are quite valuable thanks to excellent partners, great award rates, a free stopover on a one-way ticket, and no fuel surcharges on most partners. They have a system that can be maximized to offer a lot of benefit — which is why people have long been willing to sign up for the card despite the low welcome offer. Further, the annual companion certificate is a benefit that doesn’t get nearly enough attention; I’d venture to say it can compete for the title of the most valuable annual credit card perk out there. For quite a while now, the first-year companion fare has been $0 plus taxes (it’s $99 in subsequent years). Note that this is good for a companion on one itinerary (though I’ve previously shown that one itinerary can be pretty complex).
Lately, Alaska has been targeting West Coast residents with a 40K new cardmember offer, which is notable since it is the highest bonus we’ve seen on this card in years. We’ve seen 30K + a $100 statement credit and a $0 companion fare with a dummy booking; we’ve seen 32,500 miles with the $99 Companion Fare when applying through an employee, but we haven’t seen anything with more miles in years.
However, a commenter on Flyertalk today noted having seen a 40K offer on AlaskaAir.com earlier in the day. I went to AlaskaAir and only saw the 30K offer, but it led me to wonder whether the offer is more widely available to those located out west. Since neither Greg nor I are located out west, that led us to test using a VPN on a west coast-based server. For those unfamiliar, VPN stands for Virtual Private Network — a way to encrypt/protect your data when on the Internet. It is common (and recommended) for folks who travel often to subscribe to one in order to securely access the Internet when using public Wi-Fi, such as in hotels and cafes. I would never consider logging into important accounts from public Wi-Fi without one. One of the additional “benefits” of a VPN is the ability to route your traffic through a server in a specific location. This can make it “appear” to websites as though you are located somewhere you aren’t — a handy trick for accessing sites that are geographically-restricted (such as accessing Netflix while traveling abroad or sites like Facebook and Google in China). If you subscribe to a VPN where you can specify a west coast server — likely in Washington, Oregon, California, or Hawaii as those are states where people have reported being targeted for the 40K offer — you may see the 40,000-mile offer show up on AlaskaAir.com as shown in the screen shot near the top of this post.
Clicking through, here are the details of the offer:
Note that you may need a fresh browser with cleared cookies to see the 40K offer. Play around with different browsers and/or private or incognito modes if you don’t see it right off the bat. Doing those things made it possible to replicate the offer, but ultimately YMMV.
As always, I recommend keeping screen shots of everything as you apply in case you aren’t awarded the proper bonus for the offer under which you applied. While I would expect you to receive the 40K miles if you apply via a link that advertises them, it’s best practice to keep good records in case you need to later follow up on missing miles.
Finally, keep in mind that Bank of America has a 2/3/4 rule whereby you can not open more than 2 BOA cards within a month, 3 within 12 months, or 4 within 24 months. That only includes Bank of America cards. Further, approvals have become tougher. My wife applied for the business card last year and they wanted her to open a CD before they would consider her credit card application — a marked change from the way things once were with these cards. You further have to consider whether the extra 10K miles are worth more to you than the 30K offer with a $100 statement credit that you’ll find via a dummy booking. I’d value Alaska miles at well over $100 — but beauty is in the eye of the beholder. For those in need of more Alaska miles, this offer would be a sight for sore eyes.
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I didn’t know this hack with AlaskaAir specifically, but I have discovered that you can save a bunch of money while planning a trip if you’re using a VPN. I found these tips, and I couldn’t believe that it was true, so I tried them out myself, and I was pleasantly surprised to realize that they work (https://medium.com/@antonstout0/travel-smart-tips-for-cheaper-and-easier-travel-60f7619dc304). From now on, I always use a VPN, while planning a trip, you don’t always find major price drops, but sometimes you can save up to 100$.
If you are trying to get a 40K offer with a VPN, try clearing your cookies and connecting through obfuscated servers. If you are using NordVPN, for me it started to show 40K only after I completely cleared my browser. You should not have any issues if you use a new browser as well.
TOS have changed. This offer is not available to anyone that currently has the card, or has had the card in the last 24 months.
Applied for 40k offer. It asked for identity related questions and then showed the Application as Pending. Then I called Reconsideration Line and they said too many accounts in Last 2 years. They did not mention only BOA accounts (I just checked and it seems like I had opened 3 in the last 2 yrs. If I am Auth User on someone else’s account – Does that count ?). They said they are looking at my Experian Report.
Even another friend of mine who applied doesnt even have any BoA credit card but had applied for 4 other cards in last 2 years. His application for the 40K Alaska was rejected too. Is it possoble that they have revised their formula for checking on us ?
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Used my VPN with San Francisco server location. First screen 30K offer. Refreshed and 40K offer appeared 🙂
Nope. I’m in Washington state, location turned on, with my Washington address in my profile. I’m seeing 30k.
I’m in Hawaii and been trying but no go. I just got off BofA 4/24 too.
[…] Update 10/5/18: This offer is showing up on the front page of alaskaair.com. Apparently it’s showing up for those on the West Coast only, you should be able to use a VPN to get the offer to show (although I wouldn’t apply using the VPN. Once you get to the application page you should be able to disconnect). Hat tip to reader David & FM, […]
What VPN are you using? How do i do this with NordVPN?
I’m not familiar with NordVPN. Most VPN services allow you to choose which server you’d like to connect to and have a number of countries and then within some countries you can choose more specifically. I’ve always used ExpressVPN in the past, and they have that ability. Greg saw this offer using PIA (Private Internet Access, another VPN).
I was rejected for too many recent cards, but my SO was approved. We have very similar application patterns, so go figure…
Tried VPN exit points in LA, Seattle, and Las Vegas – still only seeing 30,000
Did you clear cookies and try a private/incognito mode?
Might also try a different browser — sometimes I see something in Edge that I don’t see in Chrome, etc. I run Edge, IE, Chrome, Firefox, and Opera on my laptop to be able to have a variety of testing points for stuff like this.
Tried again today with Firefox. Cleared everything, private browsing – still only seeing 30,000. Tried with IE and now see 40,000. I use UBlock Origin with Firefox, so that may have been the problem.
The offer was just there on the home page at alaskaair.com yesterday. I’m not located on the US West Coast. I’m on Maui.
And it’s still there today.
I think Maui counts as West Coast for this (they’ve been targeting ppl in WA, OR, CA, and HI in the latest round of targeted offers on this, so I’d expect this offer to show there.
Same experience. My wife logged into her account (WA) and saw the offer immediately. Applied and went pending.
Does this card have a limit on lifetime bonuses language? In the past, it was churnable. Is it still now?
AFAIK, it’s only lightly churnable right now. As in, you can’t open 6 of them in 10 minutes. You’re limited by 2/3/4 and I don’t think they’ll approve you if you currently have the personal version open.