Alaska Airlines Business Credit Card review: Earn 40,000 miles (enough for a round-trip flight to Hawaii)

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The Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan frequent flyer program has 18 partners across the three major airline alliances, and is well known for its reasonable partner redemption rates. If you’re looking to boost your Alaska Airlines miles balance, the Alaska Airlines Visa® Business credit card should not be overlooked.

The Alaska Airlines Business card is currently offering a welcome bonus of 40,000 Alaska Airlines miles after spending $2,000 on purchases in the first 90 days of opening the account. This 40,000-bonus is more than enough for a round-trip coach flight to Hawaii on Alaska Airlines, or a one-way coach ticket to Asia on partners like Cathay Pacific and Japan Airlines.

This is a good card to open if you’re stockpiling miles and points for post-coronavirus travel like us. Alaska Airlines miles are astoundingly versatile, and can take you just about anywhere for fewer miles than the vast majority of other programs. Alaska Airlines miles expire after a lengthy two years of inactivity (meaning you don’t earn or redeem any miles).

The card also comes with valuable perks, like a free checked bag on Alaska Airlines flights and an annual Companion Fare for as little as $121 ($99 fare plus taxes and fees from just $22). Below is our full Alaska Airlines Business credit card review.

Alaska Airlines Business credit card review

Current bonus

With the Alaska Airlines Visa® Business credit card, you’ll earn 40,000 Alaska Airlines miles after spending $2,000 on purchases in the first 90 days of opening the account. We estimate that Alaska Airlines miles are worth at least 1.5 cents apiece on average, so you can expect to get at least $600 worth of flights from the bonus. However, I’ve managed to squeeze much more value from my Alaska Airlines miles in the past.

Benefits and perks

The Alaska Airlines Visa Business credit card isn’t just great for earning and redeeming miles. You’ll also get valuable benefits that can save you money and protect you when you shop and travel.

Earning rate

When you use the Alaska Airlines Visa Business credit card for purchases made with Alaska Airlines, you earn 3 miles for every dollar spent on eligible purchases. For example, a round-trip ticket between San Francisco and Seattle starts around $180 on Alaska Airlines, which means if you use your card you’ll earn upward of 540 miles on those two flights.

Every other purchase earns 1 mile per dollar. There’s no cap on the number of miles you can earn.

Alaska Airlines Companion Fare

This is probably my favorite perk of any Alaska Airlines credit card. After you complete the minimum spending requirements on the Alaska Airlines Visa Business credit card, and each year on your account anniversary, you’ll receive a coach Companion Fare.

This means on a paid coach flight you can bring along a companion for as little as  $121 ($99 base fare plus taxes and fees, plus $22 depending on your Alaska Airlines flight itinerary). The Alaska Airlines Companion Fare doesn’t have any blackout dates and works for one-way, round-trip and even multi-city itineraries. This can be a tremendous savings if you use your Companion Fare on an expensive route.

Free checked bags

The Alaska Airlines Visa Business credit card allows you and up to six companions on the same reservation to check one bag free of charge. The first checked bag at Alaska Airlines usually costs $30, which means this benefit is worth up to $360 per round-trip if you bring along six friends.

Travel insurance and protection

The Alaska Airlines Visa Business Card comes with travel and shopping protections, including:

• Rental car insurance — When you decline the rental company’s collision damage waiver (CDW/LDW) and pay with your card, you’re covered for damage from theft or collision. Coverage is primary when renting for business purposes or outside the U.S., otherwise it’s secondary insurance (you’ll be reimbursed only for what your personal insurance doesn’t cover).
• Lost luggage reimbursement — You and your immediate family can be reimbursed up to $3,000 per covered trip ($2,000 for New York residents) when your carrier loses your luggage or its contents are lost or stolen.
• Trip delay reimbursement — If your flight is delayed for more than 12 hours, you could be covered up to a maximum of $500 for expenses like meals and accommodation.
• Trip cancellation/interruption — Coverage up to $2,500 if your trip is interrupted or cancelled for an eligible reason.
• Purchase security/Extended protection — If an eligible item you purchased with your card is stolen or damage within 90 days of purchase, you can be covered up to $10,000 per claim and $50,000 per cardholder.
• Extended warranty — On eligible items purchased with your card, your warranty coverage can be doubled up to one additional year on eligible warranties of three years or less. You’re covered up to the original price of the item, up to a maximum of $10,000 per claim and $50,000 per cardholder.
• Travel Accident Insurance — You and your family could be covered for up to $1,000,000 in the event of an accident on a covered trip.
• Travel and emergency assistance services — Call the benefits administrator at 800-992-6029 for assistance and referrals to provide help in an emergency when you’re away from home. This could include emergency message services, medical and legal referrals, emergency transportation assistance, emergency ticket replacement, translation services, prescription assistance and lost luggage locator service. You are responsible for the cost of any services or goods provided.

How to redeem Alaska Airlines miles

Even if you don’t live in a city served by Alaska Airlines, it’s still worthwhile to collect Alaska Airlines miles. They have 18 global airline partners, which makes using miles earned with the Alaska Airlines Visa Business credit card quite easy. Alaska Airlines partners include:

• Aer Lingus
• American Airlines
• British Airways
• Cathay Pacific
• Condor
• El Al
• Emirates
• Fiji Airways
• Finnair
• Hainan Airlines
• Icelandair
• Japan Airlines
• Korean Air
• LATAM Airlines
• PenAir
• Qantas
• Ravn Alaska
• Singapore Airlines

You can check out the Alaska Airlines award charts for pricing, which varies based on region and partner airline. There are plenty of good deals for award flights, like domestic flights from 5,000 miles one-way, coast-to-coast flights like Los Angeles to New York-JFK from 12,500 miles one-way, and even business-class flights from the U.S. to Europe for just 60,000 miles one-way.

Check out our post on the best ways to use Alaska Airlines miles for more details.

Is the annual fee worth it?

There’s a $50 annual fee for the business and $25 per card, so you’ll pay $75 a year in annual fees if you’re the only cardholder.

The welcome bonus alone (worth at least $600) makes the Alaska Airlines Visa Business credit card worth the annual fee. If you travel frequently with Alaska Airlines, keeping this card for the long term is a no-brainer. One of the card’s benefits is a free checked bag for you and up to six other travelers on the same reservation, and considering a checked bag at Alaska Airlines costs $30 one-way, you’ll offset your annual fee in just two trips.

Plus, if you can use other perks like auto rental insurance, trip delay insurance, purchase protection and extended warranty, you could get a value much more than the annual fee.

Who is the Alaska Airlines Business Card for?

You’ll need a small business to be eligible for the Alaska Airlines Visa Business credit card — but the term “small business” maybe broader than you think. It includes anyone who owns and operates a full-time business as well as individuals with smaller side gigs. For example, I work a standard office job but also freelance on the weekends, so I qualify for small-business credit cards.

You can even use your own name as your business name on your application.

We also recommend nobody apply for travel credit cards until their credit score breaches 700. It’ll give you the best shot at being approved for these cards, plus you shouldn’t open credit cards unless you’ve got healthy credit anyway.

Insider secret

Alaska Airlines Visa Business credit card won’t show up on your personal credit report because it’s a business card. This is important if you’ll be applying for Chase cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card in the future because of the Chase 5/24 rule. That is, if you’ve opened five or more credit cards (from any bank, excluding certain small-business cards) in the past 24 months, you will not be approved for a Chase credit card. 

Similar cards to the Alaska Airlines Business credit card

If you don’t qualify for small business credit cards, consider the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® credit card instead. For a limited time, the Alaska Airlines Visa is offering a $100 statement credit, 40,000 bonus miles and Alaska’s Famous Companion Fare™ from $121 ($99 fare plus taxes and fees from $22) after you make $2,000 or more in purchases within the first 90 days of opening your account.

Bottom line

The Alaska Airlines Visa Business credit card comes with a hefty welcome bonus of 40,000 Alaska Airlines miles after meeting minimum spending requirements, and you’ll earn miles with one of the most versatile loyalty programs in the world. Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan partners include top airlines like Cathay Pacific, Emirates and Qantas. I find the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan to be one of the best programs around for partner redemptions.

You’ll also get valuable benefits including a free checked bag for you and up to six companions on the same reservation, an annual Companion Fare, and travel and shopping protections like car rental insurance, trip delay protection and extended warranty.

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