MBNA Alaska Airlines Sign Up Bonus Increased to 30,000 Miles
UPDATE- Please refer to the updated links.
Looks like MBNA has increased its sign up bonus to its highly valuable MBNA Alaska Airlines World Elite MasterCard Credit Card, going from 25,000 to 30,000. There does not appear to be any expiry date on the offer either. Note that MBNA is owned by TD Canada Trust.
I am extremely impressed with this move, especially at a time when I had a feeling that they might shut this credit card down instead.
Highlights
Below are the highlights of this credit card.
- $75 annual fee
- Earn 30,000 bonus miles after spending $1,000 in the first 90 days
- Earn 3 miles for every $1 spent on Alaska Airlines tickets, vacation packages, cargo and inflight purchases
- Earn 1 mile for every $1 spent on all other purchases
- Receive 1 complimentary checked bag per passenger on the same qualifying reservation (up to a maximum of 6 passengers)
- Receive an annual companion fare (costing $99 USD plus taxes and fees)
- Income Requirement: $80,000 (personal) or $150,000 (household)
- Due to Quebec laws, this card is not available to Quebec residents
GreatCanadianRebates
Note that if you apply through GreatCanadianRebates (please private message me for a referral), it still shows 25,000 sign up bonus miles on the description, but once you click through to the actual application, it will show the 30,000 sign up bonus miles. The benefit of applying through GreatCanadianRebates is that they give you $60 for signing. Since the first year annual fee is not waived, this is a great way to offset some of the annual fee.
Free Checked Bag
Another benefit that was added recently, is a free checked bag for up to 6 people on the same reservation.
Airline Partners
Even though Alaska Airlines is not a member of any airline alliance, it has many valuable codeshare partners:
- Aer Lingus
- American Airlines
- British Airways
- Cathay Pacific
- Condor
- Emirates
- Fiji Airways
- Finnair
- Hainan Airlines
- Icelandair
- Japan Airlines
- Korean Air
- LATAM Airlines
- PenAir
- Qantas
- Ravn Alaska
- Singapore Airlines
Conclusion
This change puts them in line with the U.S. counterpart: Bank of America Alaska Airlines Visa Signature Credit Card. Which has the same $75 annual fee and 30,000 sign up bonus. Considering the weaker Canadian Dollar, dare I saw we have the better offer. So if you have not signed up for this credit card yet, this is probably the best time to do so!
Good time to sign up for this card before the rumored annual fee increase to $99 starting Sep 1, 2018.
That would be unfortunate, probably inevitable.
Its not a rumour. They r going to bump up the fees for sure.
Probably inevitable.
Hi Matt! If you got approved for the card at the end of May, do you know if there’s any way of receiving the increased bonus by calling in … or once you get approved, only the signup offer at the time applies? Thanks!
Doesn’t hurt to call and try. But it may be tough.
Giving me a message that the card is not available through GCR…. any ideas or tips ? It shows on the search bar but then gives me the ominous message once I click.
Do you happen to live in Quebec? The IP address seems to be blocked in Quebec.
Thanks for the concern, Matt. I am not from QUE. Tried again on a different device and it got me what I wanted. Bizarre, but whatever…
Sometimes it takes a lot of work for free-ish travel !
Awesome. Glad it worked!
“Your personal annual income must be greater than $80,000, or your household annual income must be $150,000 or greater.” The chat agent just keeps telling me to click continue and I will be applying for the lesser “Platinum Plus” card, but the system won’t let me proceed. I don’t know how to apply.
Do you happen to be from Quebec? It seems to be blocked for them.
Otherwise, be sure to not have Ad Block on. Alternatively, try a different browser.
Applied today and it appears this is already over. After clicking through to the application page from GCR it shows as 25,000 bonus miles again
I think you may be right, that was short lived…
Not sure if there is a technical glitch going on or something else, but just tried to apply for my wife now and GCR doesn’t even link to the Alaska card anymore. Other MBNA cards are available but if you try to follow any link tot he Alaska card through GCR it comes up with this:
“The merchant you were looking for no longer appears to be a part of our program.”
That seems to be the common report. I saw the same issue when logging in myself. Thanks for sharing your experience Garry!
Quick question… I have the MBNA credit card with best Western rewards. If I apply for this card, am I considered a new customer and eligible for the bonus?
Yes you would be a new customer and should qualify for this card.
I’m assuming that something is up with MBNA since you can’t even find the card on their site. Probably just a temporary issue.
That seems to be an ongoing issue.
Uh oh…is it a bad sign that the AS card is not visible on MBNA’s and GCR’s website anymore?
Please tell me you know something I don’t.
I did some digging. Let’s continue the discussion here: https://pointshogger.boardingarea.com/whats-going-on-with-mbna-alaska-airlines-mastercard