Alaska Airlines Shares Details on Premium Credit Card Benefits

Alaska Airlines plans to launch a premium credit card in 2025. While the card’s name and launch date have yet to be confirmed, we do know some of its key features.

And now we know how some of the card’s key benefits will work, as first reported by View From the Wing and confirmed by an Alaska Airlines spokesperson in an email to Upgraded Points. Let’s look at the details.

Quick Overview of New Alaska Airlines Premium Credit Card

Alaska Airlines plans to launch another credit card in the summer of 2025. While it has confirmed plans for a premium credit card with a $395 annual fee, specifics haven’t been released. However, here’s a general overview of the Alaska Airlines premium credit card so far:

• Earn 3x miles per $1 spent on all eligible foreign purchases and on all eligible dining purchases
• Global Companion Award certificates
• Waived award ticket fees
• Alaska Airlines Lounge passes
• Inflight Wi-Fi vouchers
• Accelerated paths to elite status
• Same-day confirmation fee waivers

Those benefits sound interesting, though it’s hard to decide how excited we are about this card without specifics on how these benefits work.

Further Details on the Companion Award and Waived Award Fees

Earning triple miles on dining won’t put this card at the top of the best credit cards for restaurant purchases, but earning 3x Alaska miles per $1 spent outside the U.S. is definitely interesting. And now, Alaska Airlines’ Vice President of Loyalty, Alliances, and Sales, Brett Catlin, has shared with View From the Wing how a few of the card’s key perks will function.

The Global Companion Awards will be usable on any redemption using Alaska miles, regardless of class of service or which partner airline you’re flying with. We weren’t sure if these awards would be restricted to economy class or only Alaska Airlines flights, so this is great news. The tradeoff, though, is that there will be maximum mileage redemptions (or caps) on these awards.

Catlin didn’t share what the exact limits will be, but he said that cardholders will receive a certificate automatically each year and will be able to earn another through an unspecified amount of spending on the card. Moreover, certificates earned from spending will have higher redemption caps than those received automatically.

According to Catlin, you’ll be able to top up these awards with additional miles to unlock more redemption options, similar to the ability to top up Marriott Bonvoy free nights with points.

Catlin also clarified the “waived award ticket fees” benefit. This benefit applies to the $12.50 partner award fee members must pay any time they redeem Alaska miles for flights on partner airlines. This charge will be waived for cardholders. However, any government taxes and fuel surcharges levied by the partner airline won’t be waived under this perk.

Final Thoughts

We now know a bit more about 2 key features of the upcoming premium credit card from Alaska Airlines. You’ll be able to earn a second Global Companion Award through spending, and it will have a higher mileage cap than the award received automatically each year. These awards will function in any cabin class with any of Alaska’s flight redemption options, subject to yet-unknown limits. And we also know which fees cardholders will be able to avoid when redeeming their miles.