Some cardholders of the Bank of America Alaska Airlines co-branded Visa are receiving a survey about possible new benefits and bonuses.
About one-third of Alaska’s 3 million frequent flyer program members have the card. They expect to make an additional $50 million off the card product in 2014.
And yet — while Alaska miles are great — the card itself hasn’t really kept pace with advances in the industry.
There aren’t category bonuses (other than spending on Alaska itself), there aren’t travel benefits like free checked bags or priority boarding. And the once great $50 companion ticket is now $99 and doesn’t apply to purchasing first class.
The survey covers targeted spending bonuses, free checked bags, earning more than just one companion ticket in a year, reducing the price of the companion ticket to $50, earning 1.5 points per dollar on the card, and also increasing the fee to $95.
These surveys regularly cover many ideas, including some that have little chance of being adopted, but it’s good to see a Bank of America product thinking creatively since there hasn’t been a ton of positive innovation coming out of their co-brand products for the past few years.
(THanks to SJCRussell for sharing survey details.)
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Here’s an idea — allow the BOGO to be used for F fares again, but for a higher fee and on full F only. This would allow them to roll out their new discounted F buckets, while generating extra revenue on F-class BOGO bookings.
Interesting. As a solo traveler and Alaska MVP, I’d sure love to see them offer an either/or alternative to the companion ticket, such as a credit towards a flight or a board room admission–something that is useful to a solo traveler. I’ve had the card for years and have only been able to use the companion ticket once, so it’s really a non-benefit to me. And I get free bags and priority boarding from my MVP status, so those wouldn’t appeal either.
Other things asked about in the survey included:
10,000 bonus miles for achieving minimum of $25,000 purchases in a year,
10,000 miles counting towards elite status after minimum purchase dollars in a year,
Targeted spending amounts (ex $500) in a quarter to get a discount (ex 25%) on items purchased on board flights,
Use miles to purchase special events (concerts, sporting events, etc.),
3x miles on selected category spending (gas, groceries, etc.),
Basically, I didn’t see any possible improvement in being able to secure an award seat on a flight, and no rollback on the 1st class companion devalue. So nothing to make me want to give up using my Chase Sapphire or Ink cards for everyday spending.
5x bonus at CVS would be nice 🙂
Every month I seem to get an application for this card, and every month I rip it up. Perhaps if the benefits were up dated I’d change my mind.
There are many pros to this card: even though the miles you get when opening aren’t as much as Delta, American, etc these miles are given when you are approved, I didn’t have to spend thousands to get them. They still have a companion cert, other airline cards have removed it completely. I also get various category spend offers every 90-120 days contrary to the article stating there aren’t any category offers. And, the annual fee is much less than competitive cards.
Biggest negative to me is lack of expanded redemption opportunities beyond airfare(some hotels, merchandise, etc)
I would love to see the companion pass dropped back to $50. If they have to increase the annual fee to $95 to do that, I’m okay with it! I would also love to see quarterly rotating bonus categories. It seems as if every credit card that has rotating bonuses I try to max out!
@Gene I agree. I wrote to Alaska suggesting this and they did send me a reply that basically stated that it is too costly for them. I’m a little surprised as $1700 for the first F class ticket to Hawaii and $300-$400 more for the second one is $2k in revenue – not shabby in my book.
Also, I took the survey and after 20 minutes of feedback I was hoping that there would be a chance to leave comments/suggestions but nope (I would let them know that being able to use the companion fare in F would be a great motivator to retain/use the card more). Short sighted on the part of the survey firm.
Free baggage allowance should defly be a perk if you are paying $75 annual fee
Reinstate the companion benefit in First AND the 1,000 mile bonus for booking their flights with the card.