How to Redeem the Welcome Bonus from the Alaska Airlines Visa

After you receive your Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® credit card welcome bonus, the fun begins. Here's this card's current offering: Get 70,000 bonus miles plus Alaska's Famous Companion Fare™ ($99 fare plus taxes and fees from $23) with this offer. To qualify, make $3,000 or more in purchases within the first 90 days of opening your account.

With those miles burning a hole in your pocket and so many options to use them, it can sometimes be hard to make up your mind. Here are a few ideas to make the most out of your Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® credit card welcome bonus.

Domestic redemptions

The first redemption that comes to mind is for those wishing to travel within the United States. Alaska structures its domestic redemptions on their fleet in distanced-based tiers. You will be able to redeem your miles for Hops, Skips, Jumps or Leaps. That way, the longer your flight, the more miles you need:

In many cases, these will not be the most effective redemptions, as Alaska does have very competitive fares on short-distance flights. One example of when these redemptions become very useful is when visiting National Parks near the West Coast.

A revenue ticket from Seattle to Bozeman, Montana, for example, will set you back around $250 on a long weekend — but redeeming 5,000 miles each way will get you there without hurting your pocket.

» Learn more: Here's how much your points and miles are worth

International partner redemptions

While Alaska Airlines may be based on the West Coast, the airline is much more far-reaching when we consider the destinations served by its 15 international partners. In some cases, the miles needed for international partner redemptions are only marginally higher than a domestic award redemption.

Alaska will allow an unlimited stopover on one-way redemptions on their partner awards, which means you can get two trips out of the same booking. Let’s look at some of those really good value redemptions.

United States to Europe with a stopover in Iceland

If you wanted to go to Europe but also maybe stay for a few days (or even months) in Iceland, all you’d have to do is search for flights to any of the destinations Icelandair serves to Europe. On that reservation, you will be able to add a stopover so you can spend some time trying to catch the Northern Lights before continuing to another city in Europe. This redemption will cost 27,500 miles in economy before Feb. 1, 2020, and 35,000 miles after.

» Learn more: The cheapest ways to fly to Europe using points and miles

United States to Morocco with a stopover in Frankfurt with Condor

If you’re feeling adventurous, you could use as few as 35,000 Alaska miles each way to redeem an economy ticket to Morocco flying on Alaska’s partner Condor. You could stop in Frankfurt for a few days to load up on schnitzel before you head to the sunny North African country.

United States to New Zealand with a stopover in Nadi with Fiji Airways

If you want to use up your entire Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® credit card welcome bonus and go across the world, you could redeem an award on Fiji Airways. Stop for a few days in Nadi, Fiji, and then continue onward to New Zealand to do some more exploring — all for the same price as a one-way award.

United States to Mauritius with Condor

If you wanted to sunbathe on a somewhat deserted beach in an exotic African country, then you can do so starting at 35,000 miles on Alaska’s German partner, Condor. As usual, you can enjoy your free stopover in Frankfurt.

Easter Island

Alaska’s partner LATAM will get you to Easter Island — the remote Chilean territory smack in the middle of Polynesia — for 22,500 miles each way in economy when your departure point is South America. LATAM is the only commercial airline with scheduled service to Hanga Roa, the capital of the island, where you can enjoy the sights of the famous Easter Island Moai.

The bottom line

While all of these prices are one-way ticket redemptions, they do give one a good idea of all the possibilities Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles offer. Now that you understand the potential value of the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® credit card welcome bonus, it should be a good motivator to get out there to start earning more miles to make some of these trips a reality.