The Alaska Airlines credit card is almost dead in Canada
Update: Pointsnerd reports that MBNA is updating the spend requirements/minimum income requirements, and the card should be available online tomorrow. I will post when I have confirmation.
MBNA Canada has issued the Alaska Airlines Visa for years, offering a 25,000 point sign-up bonus without spend. A couple years ago, it was the most easily churned card in Canada. You were able to carry multiple Alaska cards, open new accounts by transferring a minimum $500 of credit, and could apply every couple weeks. It was easy to get hundreds of thousands of Alaska points, which was a phenomenal deal.
As a blogger, I have affiliate relationships with many credit cards. While I never posted my Alaska affiliate link on this blog (you were better off going through www.gcr.ca for cash-back), I received this communication yesterday:
The Alaska card is no longer on GCR, and there is no application available on the MBNA website. Further, if I visit old direct links to the application, they error out and say that the application is no longer available.
I called MBNA regarding the application. They told me that right now, you can only apply for the Alaska credit card over the phone. If you were looking at getting an Alaska card, I would call ASAP to apply. In the US, it is common for cards to “disappear” by first taking the application link offline, accepting telephone applications, and ultimately, killing that product.
Hi Avery,
Jayce confirmed that they are changing the minimum income requirement, it should be updated tomorrow. I guess I won’t be churning for this card from now on :(.
Ok cool thanks! I’ll update when that happens
does this mean that the application is still permanently going away, or does that first comment mean that theyre just updating something and the online application will be available soon?
Avery, the card application is back online, with the new spending requirement.
The U.S. version’s application has been changed as well, with a first year waiver of the $99 companion fare fee, on top of the free first checked bag, no foreign exchange fees, and 30k signup bonus. Wow!
I was reading this article and wanted to know if its still possible to apply for this card multiple times after every 2 weeks. How does that work?
No longer works sadly. Once every 6mo is reasonable, only one Alaska card at a time now.
You can get away with doing one every few months provided you cycle back and forth between the World Elite and Platinum Plus editions!