Alaska Airlines Visa Signature Credit Card — Full Review [2023]

Great Card If

• You prefer to fly Alaska Airlines over other carriers
• You want to earn a companion fare
• You don’t mind redeeming miles with restrictions

Don’t Get If

• You want a variety of redemption options
• You don’t have an Alaska Airlines hub nearby

Welcome Offer, Earning Categories, and Points

The current welcome offer for the Alaska Signature card can be seen above in the card snapshot.

Earn 3x miles for every dollar spent on Alaska Airlines tickets, vacation packages, cargo, and inflight purchases. You’ll get 1x mile for every dollar spent on all of your other purchases.

Plus you can redeem those miles for flights and upgrades on Alaska Airlines or any of its Oneworld and non-alliance airline partners, including American Airlines, British Airways, and Singapore Airlines!

Alaska Signature Card Benefits

The Alaska Signature card also comes with a couple of great perks.

Not only is your first checked bag free on Alaska Airlines-operated flights, but the benefit extends to 6 other passengers as long as they are on your reservation.

Based on the typical $25 per bag fee, that’s a huge savings of up to $175!

This saving easily offsets the card’s $95 annual fee!

International Travel Benefits

If you like to fly abroad, you’ll love that the card has recently eliminated foreign transaction fees for purchases, saving you 3% automatically.

In addition, the card is chip-enabled for enhanced security. The chip also makes it easier to make purchases out of the country since many places only accept cards that have them.

Even More Benefits

Your miles never expire with the card as long as it stays active. You can also earn as many as you want because there’s no cap.

Plus, because it’s a Visa Signature card, you get a variety of shopping and travel perks.

Best Way To Redeem Alaska Miles

If you fly Alaska Airlines and its partner airlines on a frequent basis, you can earn a decent amount of miles with the Alaska Signature card. Those miles can be redeemed for flights, upgrades, and magazine subscriptions, and more!

Tip #1: Redeem miles for flights on Alaska Airlines or over a dozen global airline partners. You can book flights with most partner airlines on alaskaair.com.

However, you’ll need to call Alaska Airlines at 800-252-7522 to book award flights on Cathay Pacific and LATAM.

Here is a sample of the miles you will need to book an award:

Award Type	Coach	Business	First
Continental U.S. and Canada	12,500	20,000	25,000
Intra-State	7,500	12,500	15,000
Hawaii	20,000	30,000	40,000
Central and South America	17,500	25,000	30,000
Mexico	17,500	25,000	30,000

The Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan program allows you to book one-way tickets with a free stopover, which is a unique benefit. After all, stopovers provide time to visit an extra location on the way to your final destination!

Tip #2: Redeem miles for an upgrade; you only need 15,000 for a first class upgrade award! You can also purchase upgrades for as little as $50. The total amount depends on how far you are traveling.

Tip #3: Don’t forget about that annual companion fare.

Tip #4: For as few as 500 miles, you can order a magazine subscription. Choose from top magazines such as “Glamour,” “Gold Digest,” “Sports Illustrated Kids,” and many more.

Tip #5: Share miles with a friend or loved one, or donate them to charity. You have both of these options when it comes to the miles you earn with the Alaska Signature card.

The Charity Miles program includes Make-A-Wish, The Nature Conservancy, Hero Miles, and various disaster relief organizations.

Best Way To Maximize Alaska Miles

Obviously, the most effective ways to rack up Alaska miles with the Alaska Signature card is to use it for Alaska Airlines purchases where you’ll earn 3x miles.

Here are some other ways to earn more miles with the Alaska Signature card:

Tip #1: Qualify for elite status with the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan program and earn tons of bonus miles. There are 4 levels: MVP, MVP Gold, MVP Gold 75K, and MVP Gold 100K.

Tip #2: With Mileage Plan Shopping, you earn miles by shopping online with over 800 participating retailers, including Groupon, Sears, and REI. Pay with your Alaska Signature card and earn additional miles.

Tip #3: Rent a car with Alaska’s rental car agency partners to earn triple miles and other deals. Check the offers for each car rental agency, because they can vary widely during promotional periods.

For example, at one point Hertz offered 4x miles plus savings of up to 35% for using your Alaska Airlines membership number!

Tip #4: Mileage Plan has an extensive list of Everyday Mileage partners, such as GCI, Teleflora, and Carrs Safeway. Each business offers miles and discounts for its products and services.

Tip #5: Fly Alaska Airlines partner airlines to earn flight miles and premium cabin bonuses. Click on an airline at the Mileage Plan website to find out how many miles you can earn.

The miles you earn with some carriers, such as American Airlines, can even count toward Alaska Airlines elite status.

Tip #6: Stay at partner hotels to earn Alaska Airlines miles.

Tip #7: Earn 1,500 bonus miles for vacation packages purchased at alaskaair.com. Flights must be marketed and operated by Alaska Airlines with the 2-letter airline code AS preceding the flight number on your receipt or boarding pass.

If flights are shorter than 500 miles, you will earn a minimum of 500 miles. Also, these bonus miles are per booking (not per passenger) and do not count toward elite status qualification.

Alternative Card to the Alaska Signature Card

Unfortunately, the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan loyalty program doesn’t have a wide variety of redemption options like some airline credit cards. In addition, it can be difficult to redeem miles because of the restrictions put on awards.

If you’re looking for more flexibility, you may want to consider another card like the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card.

The welcome offer for the Marriott Boundless card is typically very good. In addition, you earn 6 points per $1 for all stays at participating Marriott hotels and 2 points per $1 for everything else.

The Marriott Boundless card allows you to transfer points to over 40 airlines (including Alaska Airlines) with no blackout dates. For every 60,000 points you transfer, you get an additional 5,000 bonus miles!

The card gives you other redemption options, too. Not only could you still fly Alaska Airlines (as well as a ton of other airlines) but you can redeem points for hotel stays, gift cards, and more.

Bottom Line: Travelers who want more flexible redemption options might consider the Marriott Boundless card that allows you to transfer points to Alaska Airlines and has lots of benefits.

We’ve also compared the Alaska Airlines Signature card to other popular cards:

• Alaska Airlines Signature card vs. Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card

The information regarding the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® credit card was independently collected by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.
The information regarding the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card was independently collected by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.