Why I just decided to get the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature card

I’ve written a few articles recently about my current stash of 11 credit cards and tonight decided to add a new card into the fold — the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® card.

I wasn’t really looking to get a new credit card, but decided to get the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® card for a few reasons:

I received an 80,000 bonus mile targeted offer

I got a letter in the mail offering me 80,000 Alaska miles if I’m able to spend $4,000 in 90 days on the card, which I consider to be a very decent offer.

I checked on Reddit to see if this was, indeed, a good offer, and it seems to be one of the highest offers on the card, so I figured that if I ever was going to get the card (again — I had it a few years back), this was the best time to do it.

I place a lot of value on having a diversified portfolio of airline miles

Alaska miles used to be my favorite airline currency, back when it was fairly easy to book business class to Asia on Cathay for 50,000 miles or on Qantas to Australia for 55,000 miles.

But I’ve had a stash of around 85,000 miles for about two years that I haven’t been able to use because, for the flights I’ve been looking for, Alaska just hasn’t had great deals. Because I’ve that, I started placing a much lower value on Alaska miles than I had before.

That said, I recently redeemed 40,000 Alaska miles for Premium Economy on Air Tahiti Nui from LAX to Tahiti, and this left me with only ~25,000 Alaska miles. Since I like to have more miles than that on hand in case a great deal pops up (like the recent 75,000 Alaska miles wide-open availability on Starlux business class to Taipei), I decided it was worth getting the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® card to top off my balance.

Why I was hesitating and almost didn’t get the card

There are a few reasons why I was hesitating about signing up for the card:

• I really wanted to learn more about Alaska’s new premium card, scheduled to come out this summer, as it’s possible I would have preferred that card.
• I just closed my Bank of America checking account and wasn’t looking to get a new BofA card.
• All things being equal, I prefer transferrable points like Chase Ultimate Rewards and American Express Membership Rewards since there’s more flexibility in how I can redeem those points.
• I don’t fly Alaska often, if ever, these days. Years ago, I used to fly Alaska a lot (mostly to Hawaii and Puerto Vallarta) and even had MVP status, but it’s been years since I’ve taken an Alaska flight.
• The card doesn’t have great earning rates, with 3 miles for every $1 spent on Alaska purchases (which will likely be $0 worth in 2025), 2 miles for every $1 spent on gas, EV Charging, cable, streaming services, and local transit, including rideshare (I don’t drive and can earn more points/miles with other cards), and 1 mile for every $1 spent on everything else (I earn double that with my American Express Business Plus and my Capital One Venture X).

But all of the negatives were outweighed by the 80,000 miles sign-up bonus, which I hope to redeem on an international business class ticket.

Do you have the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® card? Let me know if you like it in the comments.