Alaska Airlines Visa® credit card review: Niche rewards for travelers

Like any branded airline card, the Alaska Airlines Visa card is excellent for frequent flyers of its respective airline, Alaska Airlines. It can be an ideal choice for customers of the airline who take annual or semi-annual trips because it includes generously boosted rewards rates and has some key perks that help you save.

Companion flights: Pay just taxes and fees for a friend or family member

You can earn a companion fare code when you spend $6,000 in one year with the Alaska Airlines Visa card, letting you pay just the taxes and fees for a friend or family member on the same itinerary. You’ll still need to pay your fare (minimum $99, plus taxes and fees) to qualify for the discount, but this can be a great way to recoup your annual fee.

While spending $6,000 on your travel card is no easy task, it might help to look at this offer as an opportunity to save hundreds of dollars on a trip you’re sure to take each year. For instance, the average one-way Alaska Airlines fare hovers around $250 (before taxes). If you spend $6,000 in one year to earn this promotion and use the promotional code to cover companion airfare worth $250, then you’re looking at a return of roughly 4 percent, which rivals the cash back rate on some of the best cash back credit cards. 

Rewards: Boosted rewards for flights and some recurring purchases

Cardholders can earn 3X miles on flights and 2X miles on eligible gas, EV charging stations, cable, streaming services and transit. In the right hands, these modestly boosted rewards categories can bring a healthy sum of miles. Regarding co-branded airline cards, 3X miles seems to be the standard among cards with comparable annual fees. You can also receive a 10 percent boost to your earned miles if you have an eligible Bank of America account.

Alaska Airlines also has a decent rewards program, with miles coming in at an estimated value of 1.1 cents, according to Bankrate’s latest valuations. This valuation isn’t exceptional, but it is more than you might expect on other cards and is far from the least valuable among airline miles. Plus, you’ll earn them at generously boosted rates, so your miles will stack quickly.

Welcome offer: Great value with a little effort

While it may require some precise planning, the recent update to the Alaska Airlines Visa's limited-time online bonus has added significant value to the card. You can earn 60,000 bonus miles for spending $3,000 in your first 90 days with the card, higher than the card's previous offer of 40,000 miles for the same spending requirement. Additionally, Alaska Airlines still includes its Famous Companion Fare, which gives you one complimentary airfare code to add to your itinerary when you purchase a flight starting at $122 (including taxes and fees). 

Depending on how you use this flight can determine how valuable this welcome offer is. The welcome offer can be worth $660, based on the valuation of 1.1 cents, which is a bit lower than the value of many competing cards.

Perks: Free checked bags with priority boarding

Several credit cards include free checked bags, but not all have free checked bags for up to six people on the same reservation, something the Alaska Airlines Visa can boast. The only card that comes out ahead for this perk is the Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express card, which offers a free checked bag for up to eight people on the same reservation. But if you’re a loyal Alaska Airlines customer, there is no replacement for the value that this card carries for multi-person reservations.

Plus, this card has priority boarding for as long as you’re a cardholder. Although this perk isn’t a huge value play, it can help ease tension in the airport and get you onto your plane and into your seat before most of the overhead bag space is cluttered.

If you don’t use Alaska Airlines you won’t be able to make the most of this card. However, even if you are a frequent flyer of the airline and live near Alaska Airlines hubs, this card might not provide you with the best value for your specific circumstances.

Limited network: Lacks wide-spread coverage

Alaska Airlines connects cities along the western coast of the United States with international routes to Belize, Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala, the Bahamas and Canada. As a oneworld Alliance member, the airline has several partners, opening its flight network to more destinations. However, if you’re hoping to stick with Alaska Airlines, you’ll be disappointed to learn that the airline does not fly to many destinations. 

However, the airline has several partners as a oneworld Alliance member, opening its flight network to more destinations. Unfortunately, there are added fees and guidelines associated with transfers that can lower the value of your Alaska miles and make using them less convenient. The most viable way to redeem your airline miles is directly with Alaska Airlines on routes they serve. However, because the airline has fewer routes than most airlines, this might make the card a poor choice for travelers with plenty of variety in their travels — particularly regarding international travel via transatlantic routes. 

Rates and fees: Increased annual fee eats into rewards

This card once carried a $75 annual fee but was increased to $95 not too long ago, making it more difficult to recoup the cost of the card with rewards earnings. Other general travel rewards cards might have the same annual fee as the Alaska Airlines Visa card fee, but they may have rewards programs that are far easier to maximize. If you don’t foresee yourself spending enough on the card to earn enough miles to offset it, then the card is most likely not a good choice for you. For reference, you’ll need to spend roughly $2,900 on Alaska Airlines flights in one year to earn the cost of your annual fee back with the value of your miles at 1.1 cents upon redemption. 

You can also leverage rewards from other purchases to maximize your card’s value, but it will require substantial spending. If you spend $2,000 on purchases outside your boosted categories, $1,500 at eligible gas stations and $1,220 on Alaska Airlines flights, you’ll earn enough miles to offset the cost of your card’s annual fee at a redemption value of 1.1 cents per mile. Combined spending among these three categories is $4,700 at an average rewards rate of 1.8X miles just to earn back the cost of your card. If you opt for a general travel rewards card like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® card or the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, you could offset the same $95 annual fee (See Rates and Fees) at faster rates with the same spending amount. 

Despite living in Florida, Nick Ewen, a credit card expert at The Points Guy, has kept the Alaska Visa in his wallet for a number of years.

I love the Alaska Visa card, mainly because of the annual companion fare benefit it offers. I’ve used it to fly to Hawaii (with a stopover in San Diego), Portland and Seattle in years past — saving well over $1,000 in the process. And Alaska Airlines MileagePlan remains an incredibly valuable loyalty program thanks to its Oneworld and non-alliance airline partners.

— Nick Ewan, Director of Content, The Points Guy

If you’re considering the Alaska Airlines Visa Card, you should compare it to other travel credit cards and airline cards before applying. Here’s how the Alaska Airlines Visa Card stacks up against cards that offer similar perks and rewards.

Finding the right card to pair with the Alaska Airlines Visa can be difficult. It’s a branded airline credit card, so you won’t have many options if you’re hoping to combine points and bonus categories. However, it would pair excellently with a flat-rate travel rewards card or one that includes generous rewards with the option of transferring points to partnering airlines — particularly those in the oneworld Alliance.

The Alaska Airlines Visa Card can be worth the $95 annual fee, but only if you can use Alaska miles and the card’s companion fare. If you live in an area not serviced by Alaska Airlines or frequently fly to destinations outside the airline’s service area, you may want to look at other card options.

Fortunately, there are many rewards and travel credit cards to choose from. No matter whether the Alaska Airlines Visa Card makes sense for your travel needs, you should consider all your options before you decide.

We rate credit cards using a proprietary card scoring system that ranks each card’s estimated average rewards rate, estimated annual earnings, welcome bonus value, APR, fees, perks and more against those of other cards in its primary category.

Each card feature is assigned a weighting based on how important it is to people looking for a card in a given category. These features are then scored based on how they rank relative to the features on other cards in the category. Based on these calculations, each card receives an overall rating of 1-5 stars (with 5 being the highest possible score and 1 being the lowest). 

We analyzed over 150 of the most popular rewards and cash back cards to determine where each stacked up based on their value, cost, benefits and more. Here are some of the key factors that influenced this card’s overall score and how the score influenced our review: