According to this SEC filing, Alaska Airlines plans to increase the sign up bonus on their co-branded credit card in May of 2016. The best current bonus is 25,000 miles upon approval and $100 statement credit after $1,000 in spend (the public bonus is 25,000 miles upon approval).
In May the sign up bonus will be 30,000 miles after $1,000 in spend, it’s unclear if the $100 statement credit will reappear or not.
What Alaska Airlines doesn’t point out in the above table is that all of the other cards frequently offer a sign up bonus of 50,000 miles or more and often come with the annual fee waived in the first year. Will be interesting to see if Alaska Airlines decides to compete at that level or stick to lesser 30,000 mile offerings. Bank of America & Alaska Airlines extended their contract last year and also added a first bag free benefit and no foreign transaction fees for cardholders.
Other Facts
- Alaska Airlines also expects their credit card partnership with Bank of America to add $60 million in incremental revenue in 2016. This prediction indicates Alaska Airlines expects massive growth in this area, considering all Mileage Plan revenue generated $34 million in 2015 (an increase of 12%). I assume what they meant to say was that they expected ‘Other’ Revenue to generate $60 million in 2016.
- They increase affiliate commissions on this card in 2016
- As of December 31, 2015, they had approximately 161 billion miles outstanding
Hat tip to reader George K
