Alaska Airlines gave free checked bags to everyone with a Mileage Plan number in their reservation in January.

Now they’re running a limited-time offer of a free checked bag for their co-brand credit card holders from February 1 through April 30.

Checked bag fees are one of the pain points of flying that irritate passengers most.

And Alaska is even good with checked bags, having offered a baggage delivery guarantee since 2009. They currently offer 2500 miles or a $25 discount on a future flight if they don’t deliver checked bags within 20 minutes. (Pro-tip: the miles are worth more.)

Alaska Mileage Plan miles are some of the most valuable of any airline.

Alaska believes that continuing to award miles based on distance flown rather than revenue will be a competitive advantage for them.

I continue to be vexed that the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® Card, which I have had several times, does not offer free checked bags as a standard feature of the product.

While the best card that Bank of America has for earning miles, it lacks in benefits other than the annual companion ticket. American, Delta, and United all have co-brand cards waiving checked bag fees, it’s strange that Bank of America hasn’t managed to add this feature.

---

You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free. You can also follow me on Twitter for the latest deals. Don’t miss out!