Alaska Airlines Credit Card Review: Well Worth $75 a Year
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Our Take
5.0
If you fly Alaska Airlines with another person at least once a year, this card is a must-have. Be aware, however, that Alaska doesn't fly everywhere.
on Bank of America's website
Quick Facts
Pros & Cons
Pros
Companion benefit
Free checked bag
Cons
Requires good/excellent credit
Has annual fee
Rewards have limited flexibility
Compare to Other Cards
Annual fee$75 | Annual fee$0 | Annual fee$95 |
Regular APR18.24%-26.24% Variable APR | Regular APR17.49%-24.49% Variable APR | |
Intro APRN/A | Intro APR0% intro APR for 15 months on purchases and balance transfers | Intro APRN/A |
Recommended Credit Score |
Recommended Credit Score |
Recommended Credit Score |
Full Review
The Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® credit card, issued by Bank of America®, stands out from much of the airline-card competition for one major reason: It offers an annual Companion Fare, which allows you to get a ticket for a traveling partner for just $121 ($99 plus taxes and fees from $22) once a year.
Alaska Airlines' routes are mostly concentrated on the West Coast — it doesn't fly to every state, or every major airport — so this card won't be a match for some travelers. But for anyone who flies on Alaska Airlines with another person at least once a year, this $75-annual-fee card is a fabulously valuable choice.
If you apply for the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® credit card and are approved for a credit limit under $5,000, you’ll get the Alaska Airlines Platinum Plus® credit card instead, which offers more basic benefits.
Key features of the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® credit card
Card type: Airline.
Sign-up bonus: Buy one ticket, get one for just the taxes and fees ($0 fare plus taxes and fees from $22) and receive 40,000 bonus miles with this offer. To qualify, make $3,000 or more in purchases within the first 90 days of opening your account.
Annual fee: $75.
Companion Fare: Get a Companion Fare from $121 ($99 plus taxes and fees from $22) every year on your account anniversary. Terms apply.
Ongoing rewards:
3 miles per dollar spent directly on Alaska Airlines purchases.
1 mile per dollar spent on all other purchases.
NerdWallet values Alaska miles at 1.1 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 1.1 cents or more in value from your Alaska miles.
Foreign transaction fees: None.
Benefits:
Free checked bags: First checked bag free on Alaska Airlines flights for you and up to six other passengers on the same reservation.
In-flight savings: 20% back on in-flight purchases, such as food, beverages and Wi-Fi, made on flights owned and operated by Alaska Airlines.
Credit score requirement: According to the issuer, you'll need good credit (generally defined as a score of 690 or higher) to qualify for the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® credit card. Keep in mind that credit scores alone do not guarantee approval for any credit card.
Alaska Airlines is best for people who live on the West Coast, folks who travel among West Coast destinations or those who travel to the West from other parts of the country. It doesn't fly to certain states, so if you need to go to, say, Mississippi or North Dakota, you're out of luck. In many of the states it does serve, it offers service only to the western United States. If you live in, say, Minneapolis and regularly fly to Seattle, Alaska can meet your needs. If you need to go to New York or Richmond, Virginia, every month, it won't.
In addition to earning miles with the card, you can earn miles by flying on Alaska Airlines and qualifying airline partners. Flyers can earn 1 mile per actual mile flown, according to Alaska Airlines' terms. Bonuses are also available, depending on the fare class and flyer loyalty status. For example, if you paid $400 using your card for a 500-mile flight on Alaska Airlines in coach without elite status, you would earn 1,200 miles from using your card, and 500 miles from Alaska Airlines, for a total of 1,700 miles, worth $20.40 based on NerdWallet valuations.
Where the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® credit card shines
Companion Fare
The most valuable feature on this card, by far, is the Companion Fare. This annual benefit allows you to cover a companion's airline ticket for as low as $121 ($99 plus taxes and fees, starting at $22) on any coach flight on Alaska Airlines booked through alaskaair.com. Plus, this benefit renews automatically each year on your account anniversary, regardless of how much you spend on the account.
Considering how expensive it is to fly to certain destinations — even in coach — this benefit makes the card incredibly valuable. Say a round trip to Hawaii costs $1,000 per ticket. Assuming a Companion Fare of $121, you’d save $879 when purchasing your fellow traveler's ticket. You can maximize this benefit by purchasing a ticket to one of Alaska's more expensive destinations, such as Hawaii, Mexico or Costa Rica.
Solid sign-up bonus
This card comes with a valuable sign-up bonus: Buy one ticket, get one for just the taxes and fees ($0 fare plus taxes and fees from $22) and receive 40,000 bonus miles with this offer. To qualify, make $3,000 or more in purchases within the first 90 days of opening your account. To see how far this bonus might take you, check out Alaska’s mileage tool.
Free checked bags
Most airline cards offer this benefit, and Alaska is no exception. Alaska charges $30 for the first checked bag. If you and a companion each checked a bag on a round trip, this benefit would more than make up for the annual fee of $75.
In-flight savings
With this card, you can get 20% back on all Alaska Airlines in-flight purchases, such as food, beverages or Wi-Fi, paid in the form of a statement credit. If you tend to buy snacks and other goodies during flights, this benefit could put some money back in your wallet.
Where the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® credit card falls short
Weak ongoing rewards
The Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® credit card offers bonus rewards on purchases made with Alaska Airlines, but not on other categories, such as dining or gas. Among airline cards, such a set-up used to be common, but that's starting to change. Consider the United℠ Explorer Card, for example, which offers bonus rewards on purchases from United Airlines, restaurants, and hotels.
Want to earn high flat-rate rewards on everything? The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card might be a good choice. It earns 2 miles per dollar spent on purchases, worth 1 cent each when redeemed as credit toward travel purchases. With this card, you can apply for TSA Precheck or Global Entry and get reimbursed for the application fee when you pay with your card. (Normally, the application fees for these are $85 for TSA Precheck and $100 for Global Entry.) The card also comes with a big sign-up bonus: Enjoy a one-time bonus of 75,000 miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within 3 months from account opening, equal to $750 in travel. The annual fee is $95.
Side Benefits aren't flexible
The Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® credit card offers generous perks for traveling with companions and checking bags, but maybe those benefits aren't a good fit for you. A card with flexible travel credits instead might be a better match. Try the Bank of America® Premium Rewards® credit card instead, which carries an annual fee of $95.
With this card, you also get up to $100 in statement credit each calendar year for airline incidentals, which can be used to cover purchases made on domestic-originated flights on certain U.S.-domestic airline carriers, including seat upgrades, checked baggage fees and airport lounge fees with eligible airline carriers. And like the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, it offers a statement credit for TSA Precheck or Global Entry application fees. It also offers 2 points per dollar spent on travel and dining purchases, and 1.5 points per dollar spent on all other purchases. The sign-up bonus is generous, too: Receive 50,000 online bonus points - a $500 value - after you make at least $3,000 in purchases in the first 90 days of account opening.
If the Bank of America® Premium Rewards® credit card doesn't make sense for you to carry, you can always try Nerdwallet's other best-rated credit cards.
Should I get the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® credit card?
The Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® credit card isn’t a good deal if the airline doesn’t cover the routes you travel most. But if Alaska is your go-to airline, this is one of the most valuable mass-market airline cards available, and well worth the annual fee.
on Bank of America's website
