On April 4th, Virgin America agreed to be acquired by Alaska Airlines. There are a lot of interesting questions surrounding this merger, but since we are predominantly a credit focused website most people will be interested in what will happen to the Virgin America credit cards (we can assume that the Alaska offerings will largely stay the same, apart from any previous changes they had planned).
Virgin America currently offers two credit cards and both are issued by Comenity Bank (view a full list of Comenity cards here).
- Virgin America Visa Signature® Card (Black)
- Virgin America Premium Visa Signature® Card (White)
Contents
Virgin America Visa Signature® Card (Black) – 10,000 Points
- Annual fee of $49 is not waived
- Receive a sign up bonus of 10,000 Virgin America points after $1,000 in spending
- Card earns at the following rates:
- 3x on all Virgin America purchases
- 1x on all other purchases
- $150 off a companion ticket every year
- First checked bag free
- 20% off in flight RED purchases (RED is their in flight entertainment system which you can also use to order snacks, meals, drinks and more. WiFi is excluded)
Virgin America Premium Visa Signature® Card (White) – 15,000 Points
- Annual fee of $149 is not waived
- Receive a sign up bonus of 15,000 Virgin America points after $1,000 in spending
- Card earns at the following rates:
- 3x on all Virgin America purchases
- 1x on all other purchases
- Earn 5,000 status points for every $10,000 in spend (limit of 15,000 points)
- No change or cancel fees
- $150 off a companion ticket every year
- First checked bag free
- 20% off in flight RED purchases (RED is their in flight entertainment system which you can also use to order snacks, meals, drinks and more. WiFi is excluded)
Our Verdict
Both the sign up bonuses are relatively low and come with annual fees. There is still some time (likely one to two years) until the Alaska & Virgin America programs merge entirely and I suspect when they do that one Virgin America point will equal one Alaska Airline mile. I don’t think either offer is worth considering currently.
Comenity may decide to offer an increased sign up bonus on these cards (they have doubled them in the past), but that will depend on the inner workings of the Alaska deal. For example, if Bank of America (current issuer of the Alaska cards) decides to purchase the backbook (e.g all existing cardholders) of Comenity Virgin America cardholders and they get a good deal they might want to pump up the number of cardholders they have.
For now, this is a wait and see situation. No point in applying now as the cards aren’t likely to disappear in the short term and there is a possibility of bigger bonuses to come. Let me know your thoughts about this situation in the comments below.
