Is the Alaska Airlines Visa Credit Card Right for Me?

If you’ve never considered an Alaska Airlines-branded credit card because you don’t travel to Alaska often (or ever), you could be missing out. The Alaska Airlines Visa® credit card isn’t just for travelers to the Last Frontier. A range of perks and extensive travel partnerships give this card broad appeal worth considering.

Here’s how to know if the Alaska Airlines Visa® credit card is for you.

» Learn more: Alaska Airlines Credit Card review: Well worth its annual fee

You don’t want to spend $4,000+ to earn a welcome bonus

This Alaska Airlines Visa® credit card offers a solid welcome bonus: 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.

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

These days, $4,000 to $5,000 minimums are not uncommon. But if your goal is to earn travel rewards without racking up interest fees or going hog wild at the mall, the lower spending requirement makes this an attractive offer.

You have a travel partner already picked out

Among the sweetest perks of the Alaska Airlines Visa® credit card is the $99 Companion Fare, which lets you bring a companion on any Alaska flight from $121 ($99 fare plus taxes and fees from $22). That includes Alaska-operated flights to Hawaii and Costa Rica. Just buy your own ticket with cash and book your companion on the same reservation using your Companion Fare code to enjoy the discounted rate.

» Learn more: How to get the most from the Alaska Airlines Companion Fare

A $95 annual fee sounds good to you

When it comes to rewards credit cards, of course the best annual fee is no annual fee. And those no-fee cards are out there if that’s what you’re looking for. But sometimes annual fees are worth it — and the lower they are, the better. At $95 a year, the Alaska Airlines Visa® credit card is among the lowest-priced cards in a market where $95-and-up annual fees are far more common.

You’d like flexible miles

Your Mileage Plan miles can be redeemed for flights on Alaska, which can get you to tons of cities across the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Costa Rica. But you can also redeem miles for flights to Europe, South America, Australia, Asia or the Middle East. Qantas Airlines, Korean Air, Iceland Air and Aer Lingus are a few of the partner airlines on which you can book seats with Alaska Mileage Plan miles.

How much are those miles worth?

NerdWallet values Alaska miles at 1.4 cents each. This is a baseline value, drawn from real-world data on hundreds of economy routes, not a maximized value. In other words, you should aim for award redemptions that offer 1.4 cents or more in value from your Alaska miles.

You travel with a lot of people and a lot of stuff

Normally, a checked bag on an Alaska flight will cost you $60 round-trip, but with this card you'll get it free for up to seven people on the same reservation. If you and six others fly together, that’s $420 in savings on every trip — a perk that offsets your annual fee more than five times over.

The bottom line

Of course, the Alaska Airlines Visa® credit card comes with many of the perks common to other travel rewards cards: 1 mile per $1 spent on all purchases, 3 miles per $1 spent on Alaska Airlines purchases, no foreign transaction fees — and your miles don’t expire as long as your account is open and in good standing. So even if you never plan to go to Alaska itself, this card is worth a look.