Combining Alaska Mileage Plan Accounts: My Experience

Recently I found myself in a situation where I had to combine two Alaska Mileage Plan accounts (both in my name), so I figured I’d report back with my experience, because I’m sure I’m not the only person who has ever had to deal with this.

Alaska credit card bonus posting to wrong account

Ford and I both recently picked up the Alaska Airlines Visa® Business card (review) for our respective businesses. We activated the cards and completed the spending requirement within the required timeframe. However, we had different experiences from there with the miles posting.

Miles posted correctly to one account

Ford’s first billing cycle closing date on the Alaska Airlines Visa Business Card was October 6, 2022. Sure enough, that’s exactly the date on which the Mileage Plan miles posted to his account — score!

While it can sometimes take longer for miles to post, this matches my past experience with Bank of America, which is that miles generally post on your statement close date when you complete spending.

Miles didn’t post correctly to the other account

I had actually completed the spending requirement on the Alaska Airlines Visa Business Card a billing cycle before Ford did, but I didn’t think much of the miles not posting at the time. After all, sometimes, it takes an extra billing cycle or two. However, when Ford’s miles had posted, but mine hadn’t, I assumed something was going on.

I logged into my Bank of America account and confirmed that I had indeed completed the minimum spending requirement. I then decided to pull up my Bank of America statement for the card, and noticed something strange.

The statement listed my “Alaska Miles #,” and the number listed there wasn’t the Alaska Mileage Plan number I had provided at the time of my application.

It’s standard that you’ll just be assigned a new frequent flyer number if you don’t list one during the credit card application process. However, I found this odd, because I specifically remember putting the correct number down during the application process.

So at this point it was pretty clear to me that the miles had just been credited to a different Mileage Plan account (presumably in my name), but I didn’t have the log-in credentials for it.

How I merged my Alaska Mileage Plan accounts

Obviously, I was hoping to merge my two Alaska Mileage Plan accounts, since you have a lot more flexibility when all your miles are in one account. I noticed this whole issue around 8:30AM Eastern on Sunday morning (5:30AM Pacific), so I decided to contact @AlaskaAir on Twitter.

Amazingly enough, within minutes I was helped by the lovely Alexis, who offered to help with merging my Mileage Plan accounts.

Alexis said it could take a few business days for the accounts to be merged. However, I just checked my account this afternoon (about 30 hours after making the request), and now I see all my miles and the companion fare in my “primary” Mileage Plan account.

For all the frustrating airline customer service interactions out there, this was one surprisingly painless.

Bottom line

For whatever reason, the miles from my new Alaska Airlines Visa Business Card posted to a new Mileage Plan account, even though I remember including my Mileage Plan number with the application. The good news is that this was super easy to resolve — Alaska Airlines was able to help on Twitter, and my accounts were merged within a day.

Hopefully this is useful to anyone else who ends up in the same situation, and/or wonders why their Alaska Airlines credit card welcome bonus hasn’t posted.

Has anyone else had to merge Alaska Mileage Plan accounts? If so, what was your experience like?