Alaska Airlines Visa 50,000 Mile Signup Offer

The Alaska Airlines Visa is currently available with a signup bonus of up to 50,000 miles.

  • 25,000 Bonus Miles upon approval
  • 25,000 Bonus Miles after $1,000 in purchases within the first 90 days of the account open date

The offer says that it is ‘by invitation only’ although there are reports of approvals by folks who did not receive a targeted e-mail.

The email that did go out apparently was specifically aimed at Washington state residents. It’s hard to imagine awarding a different bonus to anyone who applies under this link and is approved for the card product (as that would seem to raise potential issues with federal card marketing regulators), nonetheless I will be interested in reports from anyone who didn’t receive the email and who resides outside of Washington state.

As far as receiving a bonus a second time, language also specifically excludes anyone that has “applied for this product in the last 12 months.”

There’s currently a 40,000 mile signup bonus offer that requires $24,000 in spending. The best offer I had ever seen before was 40,000 points with lower spending requirements. I have never seen this card offered with 50,000 points before.

Of course, Alaska is battling it out with Delta and Delta has an offer for Seattle-area residents of up to 100,000 miles (which requires real spend on tickets with Delta). So the focus on marketing to Washington state residents is not surprising.

(HT: Canadian Kilometers)


About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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  1. Just Applied got approved for 1000 credit line, so i called and they confirmed i got the card with $50 annual fee so i think i am screwed,oh well it was worth the shot

  2. @mogon, you are blind 😉

    $75 for Visa Signature accounts,
    $50 for Platinum Plus accounts, or
    $35 for Preferred accounts.

  3. I live in WA State and have an AS account, but no 50K offer.. However, my family member who lives with me got targeted for it.

  4. Presumably the annual fee is prorated so you could keep it for 3-4 months, get the miles and then cancel and only have to pay $20-$30 off that $75 annual fee. That’s a pretty good deal for $1,000 in spending and 50,000 miles. I just got approved for a 16k credit limit. Fingers crossed about getting my 50,000 miles because I’m based in BOS not SEA.

  5. This used to be gods every 90 days or so when it as 25k. No longer churn able within 12 months?

  6. I haven’t been following offers from Virgin Atlantic, so don’t know if this is significantly better than what’s out there, but I just got a targeted offer via email to apply:

    > 20,000 Flying Club bonus miles after your first retail purchase
    > 25,000 additional Flying Club bonus miles after you spend at least $2,500 in qualifying purchases
    > Earn up to 15,000 additional bonus miles upon anniversary
    > Earn up to 5,000 Flying Club bonus miles when you add additional authorized users to your card
    > Earn 3 miles per $1 spent directly on Virgin Atlantic purchases and 1.5 miles per $1 spent on all other purchases

    It is also a Bank of America card.

  7. I don’t live in WA. Just applied through this offer and was approved. Of course I can’t confirm getting the bonus points yet.

  8. I find it funny that only 2 of the blogs on BA aren’t whoring this info out there without since there is no commission.

    Thanks for posting info for the good of the community!

  9. Approved. However, the decision of approval window quickly redirected to the Alaska Airlines website, I didn’t even got time to take a screen shot.No email confirmation.

    Wish I could get it.

  10. I just got a visa signature with the old 25K bonus in November. Does anyone know if it is possible to apply for a second card to get the 50K bonus?

  11. I just applied last week. I called bofa twice and neither knew they could help. Any ideas in who to call would be fantastic

  12. @ Kelii – My situation is just like you. I would suggest to send a secure message and mention priority code VAB3E8 and see what happens

  13. Don’t live in WA, had a card from a few years ago, applied thru the link and just got approved for a new one with a nice credit limit too. Hope I get the miles promised. Thanks, Gary

  14. Hi Gary,

    I’d appreciate a lot if you could help me with this question:

    I’m trying to use a bunch of Alaska miles to travel from SIN-MCO-SIN early next year, any suggestions which would be my best available airline/s option?

    Based on my research, British Airways seems to have the most direct route, SIN-LONDON-MCO, but I read that it is next to impossible to book a first class seat on BA, much less 2. And they charge a pretty penny on taxes, etc.

    Do you think flying Cathay Pacific would be my best option, I read it is not that hard to snag 1 seat in their first class cabin from SIN-LAX but that would still leave me “stuck” from LAX to MCO. 🙁

    P.S. I’d rather not fly AS metal if I could help it. I read from several sources even their first class seats suck – old and very uncomfortable.

    Thanks!

  15. Applied, got the pending page. I already have this card also. 12 hours later the card showed up on my B of A page with the other cards. Go For It Everybody

  16. “I find it funny that only 2 of the blogs on BA aren’t whoring this info out there without since there is no commission.

    Thanks for posting info for the good of the community!”

    well said. I was thinking the same. This is a fantastic offer.

  17. I see that it says “limited time” offer, but don’t see a time frame. Does anyone see an “apply by” date?

    I’m 15 days short of the 12 month window for applying. If this offer just came out, I’m probably ok. But if it has been out there for some time, and just didn’t get posted right away, then maybe not.

  18. Thanks a bunch Gary. Perfect timing for me. I almost applied for the regular 25K deal the day before. Glad I was behind on schedule!

    Applied last night, didn’t get instant approval but called in and got approved. Agent only saw 25K offer. This also happened on the VS card with BOA. Seems their agents don’t see the actual offer associated with the account. Even via SM, they only see the 25K and need more research to confirm the additional bonus (on the VS card). Anyone else have this issues with BOA?

  19. Applied, but got a pending — no instant decision, will be notified in the mail within 30 days (that sure doesn’t bode well!) 🙂

    Ha, if I get it, great (if it comes with the bonus too!), and if not, oh well, all is not lost. Waiting is the hardest part!

  20. Well, I just checked the BOA application status and it looks like my first ever alaska card has been approved. I hope I get the full bonus – I’m quite excited about this one!

  21. The card is issued by Bank of America, whose reconsideration number is 866-458-8805. If that doesn’t work, try 800-718-6072. For application status, call 877-721-9405 and press 3. Reconsideration can give you a quick response to your application, and can tell you the terms of the offer you were given, and can probably cancel your application if you don’t like the terms.

    Of course, we are all interested in whether or not the 50K offer was what you got. Please let us know here.

  22. 25,000 miles upon “approval.” Hmm, I wonder if you could apply, get approved, but never activate the card, thus forfeiting the other 25k, but also not having to pay the annual fee. Possible? Pros/cons?

  23. Approved! The phone rep confirmed the 50,000 mile bonus. Now, here’s hoping it actually posts to my account! At least with Alaska cards, you don’t usually have to wait very long for the miles to post, so the suspense should be over quickly.

  24. I don’t fly Alaska often, but am I reading their chart correctly — 50,000 miles for one way ticket from North America to Asia on Cathay?
    I also don’t see any designation of the various parts of Asia, so, presumably, could I use these 50k miles on a one way business class ticket on Cathay from LAX to BKK?
    Isn’t that 5,000 miles less than what AA will charge me for the same ticket?

  25. @Craig, I believe you’re right. AS also allows a stopover on one way, so you could stopover in HK .

  26. @Gene – you say you got the 50k promo offer confirmed with an agent? and do you live in WA or outside WA?

  27. When churning the various versions of this card, should you leave your Mileage Plan number blank after the first app, and then merge accounts later? I’m wondering if it matters when churning if you keep adding the same MIleage Plan account number to your app. Thx for your input, those who have successfully churned this card!

  28. The first 2 phone #s in comment 39 above were no longer functioning. But the third one worked just fine.

    “call 877-721-9405 and press 3”

    The online response to my app had been “we’ll let you know within 30 days”. But when the rep looked up my app, it had already been approved.

    Thank you AGAIN, Gary….

  29. Applied for the Alaska Airlines credit card on Friday, 12/13/13, application was pending. Called back today (Monday) was able to get it approved and verified that is for 25K bonus for approval and additional 25K after $ 1000 purchases. I live in Arizona.

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