Alaska Mileage Plan has just launched an intriguing new promotion, whereby credit card spending can help you earn elite status. While I imagine this has the potential to evolve over time, don’t get too excited about the current version of this…
In this post:
Alaska Visa Cards offering elite qualifying miles
Alaska Airlines and Bank of America have two co-branded credit cards, including the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® credit card (review) and Alaska Airlines Visa® Business card (review). While both cards have valuable perks, historically spending on the cards doesn’t count toward elite status. That will be changing for a limited time.
Thanks to a new promotion, cardmembers can earn 2,000 bonus elite qualifying miles for every $10,000 spent on a co-branded Alaska credit card:
- Registration is required by June 30, 2023
- Spending that posts to an eligible card between May 1 and November 30, 2023, will count toward the spending requirement
- If you have multiple consumer and business Alaska cards, purchases can be combined between cards to reach the $10,000 spending requirement
- All qualifying spending during the month of registration will count toward the promotion, but not spending in months prior to registering
- There’s no limit to how many bonus elite qualifying miles you can earn with this promotion
- Bonus elite qualifying miles will post within 8-12 weeks
This is better than nothing, but not particularly lucrative
If you spend any amount of money on co-branded Alaska credit cards, it’s definitely worth registering for this offer. However, I don’t think this is enough of an incentive to spend money on Alaska credit cards in large quantities, assuming you wouldn’t otherwise do so.
For example, Alaska’s top tier status requires 100,000 elite qualifying miles in a year, so earning those elite miles through credit cards would require $500,000 of spending. Not only that, but you’d still need to complete the segment requirement to earn the status, as 24 segments are required.
By comparison, you can earn American AAdvantage Executive Platinum status with $200,000 in spending on co-branded credit cards and no segment requirement.
It would be nice to see Alaska create more opportunities to have credit card spending qualify toward elite status. Then again, that’s a slippery slope, I know many (myself included) appreciate that Alaska takes a more “traditional” approach to its loyalty program, awards miles based on distance flown, etc.
I imagine that this promotion is in part being offered to see how consumer spending shifts when elite status comes into the equation.
Bottom line
For a limited time, those with an Alaska co-branded credit card can register to earn 2,000 elite qualifying miles for every $10,000 spent on the card. It’s nice to see credit card spending count toward Alaska elite status in some way, though I can’t say that this is particularly lucrative.
If you’d spend money on an Alaska credit card anyway, or if you’re close to qualifying for an elite tier, I’d say this could be worth it, But aside from that, there are more lucrative opportunities for credit card spending out there.
To those with an Alaska credit card, does the ability to earn elite status impact your plans to spend money on the card?
Actually, what I like best about this is maintaining the segment requirement. Then again, I earn status on Alaska mainly through miles, but have twice ended a year just shy of the miles I needed to jump up a tier. This offer makes me seriously consider adding an Alaska credit card to my wallet, and I am not a card churner.
Since the promo goes until November, I think I'll keep it in a back pocket in case planned flying falls a bit short.
I hope this doesn’t become a thing. Marriott gives status to practically anyone with a credit card, and when everyone is an elite, then nobody is an elite.
Alaska upgrade lists already become 20-30 people deep for most flights. Please don’t water down your loyal members for sake of your credit card sales.
The upgrade ship has sailed when AA flyers getting upgrades became a thing, at least from SFO into the heavily AA DC market.
I was also excited when I saw the email. I signed up because I have some regular spend but after looking at the requirements I’m not going to be chasing this one. Not worth it.
And the segment requirement? Go fish.
It's sort of like saying that a person who spends $100k at Marriott for 20 nights in super premium suites doesn't even qualify for Bonvoy Gold because the person doesn't have 25 nights. It's wrong-headed pure and simple.
The headline got me excited at first but once I saw the details, the excitement wore off quick! They need to improve that ratio a bit before this makes sense.