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Alaska Airlines Signature Credit Card Review

We’re reviewing the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature Credit Card, giving our personal feedback about this card. We have it, we like it, and this is not sponsored at all.

This is the latest episode in our series of Travel Credit Card Reviews, so make sure to check out the other episodes for even more options.

Alaska Airlines  Visa Signature Credit Card

  • Annual fee is only $95/year, which is really affordable and offers a ton of perks so I definitely thing the fee is worth it 
  • Sign-up bonus: usually at around 60-80k, but reports say it’s been as high as 100k
  • Alaska and Hawaiian recently merged, so you can use it for both with the same perks.
  • It’s been said that Alaska airline points have a good bang for their buck due to their transfer partners and should not be overlooked, so if you are looking to go abroad, this pay also be a good option for point transfers. 

Top Perks and Benefits 

  • Alaska’s Famous Companion Fare:
    • How it works (e.g., buy one ticket, get a companion ticket for as low as $99 + taxes/fees). This will work for a roundtrip ticket- which will be the biggest savings 
    • Best strategies for maximizing this perk (e.g., long-haul flights or expensive routes). We plan to use our companion far for our RT tickets from San Diego to Anchorage when we visit Katmai National Park to see the grizzly bears catching salmon in the river. We applied for the lottery to stay at Brooks Lodge, which is right along this river. 
    • Usually included as part of the SUP but if you keep the card after the first year there is a minimum spend of 6k you have to hit each year to keep this perk active, but it was part of the sign up bonus for me 
  • Mileage Plan Benefits:
    • Earn 3x miles on Alaska Airlines purchases and 1x on all other purchases.
    • Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan’s -one-mile-for-every-mile-flown model.
    • Wide range of partner airlines (Japan Airlines, British Airways, AA, Cathay Pacific, Iceland Air, Singapore Air, LATAM).
  • Free Checked Bag:
    • Saves $60+ per round-trip flight for you and up to 6 companions on the same reservation.
  • Priority Boarding:
    • Board earlier to secure overhead bin space and settle in.
  • Travel Protections:
    • Trip delay insurance ($500), trip interruption/cancellation ($1500/ticket) , baggage delay coverage, and no foreign transaction fees.

How to Maximize the Card’s Value 

  • Use the companion fare efficiently- highest-priced RT tickets 
  • Use the sign up bonus to purchase flights (domestic or international airline partners)
  • Combining the card’s perks with Alaska Airlines’ sales and deals.

Who Should Get This Card? 

  • Ideal customer: Frequent Alaska Airlines travelers, residents of hub cities- Seattle, Portland, Anchorage, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Fran, and international travelers using partner airlines.
  • Who might want to skip: Travelers preferring other airlines, or those who don’t want to pay an annual fee.

Other Alaska Perks

Did you know that Alaska has a 20 minute baggage claim guarantee- if your bag is not off the carousel 20 mins after the plane has landed you you must claim that in person from a customer service agent at the airport and you will receive a voucher for 2500k points

Alaska Credit Card Review – Episode Transcript

0:35

And get ready to embark on a new adventure with us around the globe.

Hey squaddies Travel Squad podcast is back with Just the Tip, our Friday mini episode series where we give you quick travel stories, hacks and recommendations to set you off into the weekend.

Right today you have just me, Brittany, as your host for a solo episode and I’ll be sharing some details with you about the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature credit card.

1:00

I actually got this card in fall of 2024 because it’s a bucket list item for me to hit all of the national parks in the US.

There are 63, We’ve been to 52 out of the 63 and there are 8 in Alaska and we haven’t been to any of them.

1:18

I’ve been dying to go.

So I finally said, you know what, we need to start going over to Alaska, but it is pretty pricey.

And so I decided to go ahead and open the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature Card to help us save money on our Alaska trip.

Because we are going in 2025.

1:34

We will be heading off 2 out of the 8 national parks in Alaska in May 2025.

If you are interested in traveling to Alaska, that’s OK.

This credit card actually has a lot of perks and I think is a really under looked credit card.

1:50

So stay tuned to hear about some of those perks and how you can really benefit from this card even if you aren’t looking to go to Alaska.

I do want to say that this is a non sponsored episode and that any time that we at the Travel Squad podcast talk about credit cards, we’re just giving our personal feedback about the cards that we have and like and we think would be a great benefit for travelers.

2:10

I do have to mention a few disclaimers like we are not financial advisors nor are we providing any financial advice, but we always do promote financial responsibility with the card.

So let’s talk about the general card overview for the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature credit card.

2:26

What I love about this card is the annual fee is only $95 per year.

That’s actually super affordable and offers a ton of perks.

So I definitely think that the fee is worth it.

The sign up bonus that it has, I’ve seen it range anywhere from 60 to 80,000 points that you can accrue for the sign up bonus.

2:47

But I have read articles where it’s been as high as 100,000 and sometimes they add on additional perks like the companion fare and some other things.

So just keep an eye out on the offerings.

Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines recently merged.

3:03

So I am excited on the potential for using this to Hawaii in the future as well.

And then I mentioned earlier that even if you aren’t planning to travel domestically to Alaska, this is still a really great card.

And the reason why it is, is because is Alaska Airlines has a ton of transfer partners and that shouldn’t be overlooked.

3:26

So if you are looking to go abroad, this is a really good option for point transfers.

One of the biggest perks and benefits of the Alaska credit card is that they do offer a companion fare.

And what it is is you book a ticket and your companion can go with you for $99 plus the taxes and fees.

3:49

And I want to say the taxes and fees are about $21.00.

So you’re getting this for like 120 something bucks.

This does work for a round trip ticket or you can just use it for a single way, but that would be silly.

So use it for a round trip ticket.

This will be one of the biggest savings that you’ll have.

4:06

And to really maximize the companion fare, be sure to look at long haul flights or expensive routes.

So we haven’t used the companion fare yet even though it is ready and available for me to use any time.

But we plan to use our companion fare for our round trip tickets from San Diego to Anchorage because not in 2025, but in 2026, we are planning on visiting Cat My National Park to see the grizzly bears watching the salmon in the river.

4:33

I actually applied for the lottery to stay at Brooks Lodge, which is right along the river.

And those tickets round trip are about $450 each way from San Diego.

And so if I get mine for $450 and I can just add Jamal’s on for $99 plus the taxes and I think that’s a great savings right there.

4:54

Another thing about the companion fare, it’s usually included as part of the sign up bonus.

But if you keep the card after the first year, you are able to qualify for the companion fair again.

But there is a minimum spend of 6000 that you have to hit each year to keep this perk active.

5:11

But for me, it’s just part of the sign up bonus and it doesn’t expire for a while.

So like I mentioned, I got the card in fall of 2024.

The companion fair is valid for an entire year.

So I actually have to book flights by fall of 2025, but that flight can be in 2026.

5:29

With this card, you’re also going to earn three times the miles on Alaska airline purchases and then one times the points on all other purchases.

And when you fly Alaska, the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan is a one mile for every mile flown model, which is actually really great.

5:46

And they have a large range of partner airlines.

For example, some of their partner airlines are Japan Airlines, British Airways, American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Iceland Air, Singapore Air, and Tom.

So when we went to Iceland back in July of 2024, I actually had my miles from Iceland Air go to Alaska.

6:10

So I earned miles on that because the likelihood of me going back to Iceland is pretty slim versus us being on the West Coast and wanting to get to Alaska and flying Alaska Airlines is pretty high.

Another perk of the card is that you get a free checked bag for every flight, so this will save you $60.00 per round trip flight for you and up to six of your companions on the same reservation.

6:36

You also get priority boardings, so you get to board earlier to secure that precious overhead bin space and settle in.

The card also has some travel protections.

It does have trip delay insurance, trip interruption and cancellation insurance, baggage delay coverage, and no foreign transaction fees.

6:54

You do have to read the fine print to see what exactly it offers, but does have some benefits there.

So to get the best bang for your buck by signing it for this card, you want to make sure you’re taking advantage of the card’s value.

So making sure that you use the companion fare efficiently.

7:10

Don’t book a single flight, book a round trip flight.

Book it obviously on the highest price flight and then use your sign up bonus to purchase flights either domestic or through their international airline partners.

And then combine the cards perks with Alaska airline sales and deals and they actually offer quite a few sales and deals.

7:32

I get lots of emails.

So just be on the lookout to see what they have to offer because if you can just get a choofer, that’s the best thing you can ask for.

So who should get the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature credit card?

If you are already a frequent Alaska Airlines traveler, obviously this is a no brainer.

7:50

But if you’re a resident of a hub city, hub cities of the airlines are Seattle, Portland, Anchorage, LA, San Diego and San Francisco.

So if you live in or near one of those cities, there are usually lots of routes out at those airports and it could be really beneficial for you to get this credit card.

8:08

And if you’re looking to who do some international trips with some of their airline partners could also be great for you as well.

But this card may not be good for travellers who prefer other airlines or who don’t want to pay an annual fee because like I mentioned earlier, it does have an annual fee of $95 per year.

8:28

I did mention that we’re going to Alaska in May, so that’s May of 2025 and we’re going to be visiting 2 national parks.

We’re going to Kenai Fjords and Glacier Bay National Parks.

Super excited for this trip.

It’s going to be two out of the 8th that we get to knock off.

8:43

Both of these national parks are on the water, so you can’t actually traverse them by land, but there are airports that you can fly into and then get closer to and then you can take like a ferry out for the day.

So once, once I hit my sign up bonus, I got 70,000 points and I booked our flights from Anchorage to Gustavus and they were 12,500 miles each, which came to if we were to pay cash price, $250 each.

9:15

So that was a $500 savings there.

And then I also booked our flights from Gustavus to San Diego for 20,000 miles each, Jamal and I, of course, versus the $425 per person person it would have cost us.

So that was an $850 savings there.

9:34

So total from just using the sign up bonus and I still had points leftover was $1350 saved.

So I used 65,000 miles, still had a few miles leftover and I still have my companion pass left so I’ll be able to use that in 2026 for even more savings.

9:55

The companion pass I’ll probably be using it for our trip to cat my when we do get the approval for the Brooks Lodge lottery.

I can’t wait for them to e-mail me that we are likely going to use our companion fair to get from San Diego to Anchorage.

10:13

And then from Anchorage, we’ll be taking a flight to Cat my.

And like I mentioned earlier, that’s about $450 a person.

And so being able to get Jamal’s fare for $99 plus the taxes, such a great savings.

And then honestly, to get back to some of the other national parks in Alaska, I’ll probably have Jamal actually open this Alaska Airlines credit card so that he can get a sign up bonus in the next or two so we can continue to explore Alaska’s national parks.

10:45

I also wanted to mention another perk of Alaska Airlines.

This has nothing to do with the credit card, but I just thought I would share this anyway since we’re talking about Alaska Airlines in general.

Is Alaska Airlines has a 20 minute baggage claim guarantee.

So if your bag, your checked bag is not off in in the carousel 20 minutes after the plane has landed, you can get free points.

11:08

So what I always do is I set a timer once we land, make my way down to the baggage claim and then I see if my bag comes off in 20 minutes or not.

If it does not, I go over to a customer service agent at the airport.

11:23

You do have to do this in person.

It’s not something you can do online.

You go over to the customer service agent and you tell them that you would like to redeem the baggage guarantee and they will give you a voucher that you can put into your Alaska Miles account and you’ll get 2500 points because they’re supposed to guarantee that your bag’s there in 20 minutes.

11:42

So I just want to reiterate as I closeout this episode that I do think this card is worth the annual fee.

As you could see, we save $1350 just by using our points and the fee is only $95 per year.

11:57

So I feel like it’s definitely paid for itself.

I’m really excited to see how I can utilize the points in the future with Hawaiian and then the international travel partners.

I think there’s a real opportunity there that a lot of people overlook.

And I just also wanted to mention that if you did find this information useful and you do plan to open an Alaska Airlines credit card, I’d love for you to use my referral link and I’ll put it in the show notes.

12:24

Thank you so much for tuning in to just the tip.

Make sure to subscribe and leave a review and follow us on all the socials at Travel Squad Podcast and have fun traveling this weekend.

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