Alaska Airways Visa Enterprise card assessment: Earn 70,000 miles and a Companion Fare

The Alaska Airlines Visa® Business card is an easily overlooked card that earns exceptionally valuable airline miles. It has a low annual fee and lucrative ongoing perks for travelers loyal to Alaska Airlines. Card rating*: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

* Card rating is based on the opinion of TPG’s editors and is not influenced by the card issuer.

Alaska Airlines has one of the best airline loyalty programs in the world, which makes the Alaska Airlines Visa Business card a surprisingly valuable credit card to carry.

Alaska Mileage Plan is one of the few frequent flyer programs left where you still earn miles based on the distance flown rather than on the price of your ticket, and where you can add free stopovers on award flights, even one-way tickets. So you don’t have to purchase expensive first- and business-class fares to rack up a lot of miles.

On top of that, some of the award prices to fly the airline’s partners are outstanding, like flights to Asia from 70,000 miles in Cathay Pacific or Japan Airlines first class.

These factors are why TPG values Alaska Airlines miles higher than the miles you can earn with any other major airline. Alaska Airlines is also a part of the Oneworld alliance and has an exclusive partnership with American Airlines, meaning Alaska miles might come in handy on more than just the airline itself.

If you don’t already have an Alaska Airlines cobranded credit card, you might want to think about picking one up.

And right now, you earn 70,000 bonus miles on this card, plus an Alaska Companion Fare from $122 ($99 fare plus taxes and fees from $23), after spending $4,000 or more on purchases within the first 90 days of opening your account. This is the card’s best-ever offer.

Here’s a closer look at this card and why you might want to consider applying for it.

However, if you’re looking to earn the most rewards for business expenses, there are better options available.

Another nice side benefit of the Alaska Airlines business card is that it won’t limit your ability to get approved for the top Chase credit cards. That’s because, as a business credit card, it won’t add to your Chase 5/24 count. You will need a business to qualify for this card, but you could qualify as a freelancer or independent contractor. That means that driving for Uber/Lyft, pet sitting or working for a food delivery service could make you eligible. And if you’re a sole proprietor, you can use your name as your business name and your Social Security number as your business tax ID.

Related: Join TPG’s community for small-business owners and leaders

Sign-up bonus

After spending $4,000 or more in the first 90 days from opening the account, you’ll earn 70,000 Alaska miles and an Alaska Airlines Companion Fare from $122 ($99 fare plus taxes and fees from $23).

This is the highest publicly available offer we’ve seen on this card. TPG pegs Alaska miles at 1.8 cents each, making these miles worth $1,260 in value.

You can save a few hundred dollars more if you maximize the Companion Fare part of the introductory offer. This companion certificate is valid on all Alaska Airlines flights; you pay just $99 plus the taxes and fees for a companion who is booked on the same round-trip economy reservation as you. When you add that this card has a very reasonable $95 annual fee ($70 for your company and $25 per card), the bonus and benefits start to look even better.

Related: How my unused Alaska Companion Fare saved a co-worker nearly $700 on summer travel

The Alaska Airlines Visa Business comes with all of the standard perks you’d expect from a cobranded airline card and a few extra benefits.

First, the cardholder and up to six guests on the same reservation will get a free checked bag on Alaska Airlines flights when you pay with a card. That’s savings of $60 per person for each round-trip flight. In addition, you’ll get 20% back on inflight purchases, including food, beverages and Wi-Fi.

The card earns 3 miles per dollar on Alaska Airlines purchases, 2 miles per dollar on gas, shipping and local transit (including rideshare) and 1 mile per dollar on all other eligible purchases.

You’ll also enjoy priority boarding when using this card to pay for your flight and $100 off one Alaska Lounge+ Membership annually.

Lastly, you’ll earn a 10% rewards bonus on all miles earned from purchases if your company has an eligible Bank of America small-business account.

Related: How to avoid checked baggage fees on major domestic airlines

What really makes this card shine, though, is the Companion Fare (yes, you get one every year you renew the card and pay its annual fee, not just as part of its sign-up bonus). You get one as part of the current sign-up bonus and another each year after spending $6,000 or more on purchases within your anniversary year.

With the Companion Fare, you can bring a guest along on any coach Alaska Airlines fare for only $99 plus the taxes and fees (from $23). The cardholder doesn’t need to be one of the travelers, but the flights must be paid for with your Alaska Airlines card. Both travelers will earn Alaska miles for the flight and are eligible for upgrades, which is great if you have Alaska Airlines elite status.

The fact that you’ll earn a companion certificate every year without having to meet huge minimum spending requirements, and that both flyers are still eligible for mileage earning and upgrades, make this one of the better airline card companion tickets. If you travel internationally, it’ll come in handy that this card charges no foreign transaction fees.

Because Alaska miles are so valuable, that’s like getting a return of 5.4% on Alaska purchases, 3.6% on those specified categories and 1.8% everywhere else, based on our valuations. That’s a decent rate, but you can do better on airfare purchases and everyday spending with other cards.

For most flights on Alaska Airlines itself, you’ll pay 5,000-12,500 miles each way in economy. This can be a good value, but you can really maximize your Mileage Plan miles by redeeming them for flights on Alaska’s partners.

Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles are a great option if you book an award to Asia or the South Pacific (including Australia and New Zealand).

You can fly from the U.S. to/from Asia from only 50,000 miles each way in business class with Cathay Pacific, and you can add in a free stopover (in a hub city) on that ticket. For example, I flew Cathay Pacific business class from Japan to the U.S. and added a free stopover in Hong Kong for a few days.

Related: Australia has reopened: How to book a trip to Sydney with points and miles

There are also plenty of ways to use Alaska miles to book some of the most difficult awards to find: premium-cabin flights to Australia or New Zealand. You can fly nonstop on American Airlines or Qantas (to Australia) or you can route through Asia on another partner. You could even book Fiji Airways business class from 55,000 miles one-way to New Zealand or Australia and add a free stopover in Fiji.

Finally, Singapore Airlines is among the airline’s non-Oneworld alliance partners to look out for. Premium-class award space is hard to come by, but economy awards are plentiful.

You can also earn Alaska miles with the personal Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® credit card. If you don’t qualify for a business card, the personal version might be a good alternative.

If you’re determined to earn Alaska miles, your options are limited outside of the two cobranded cards. The only flexible points that transfer to Alaska at a reasonable rate are Marriott Bonvoy points, and even then the transfer ratio is 3:1 with a 5,000-mile bonus when you transfer 60,000 Marriott points at a time. So Marriott credit cards can be a good backup option if you want to amass Alaska miles, but they might not be your main tools for doing so.

As for travel cards not specific to Alaska Airlines that help you maximize your business spending, there are better options. The American Express® Business Gold Card, for example, earns 4 Membership Rewards points per dollar (worth 2 cents each according to TPG valuations) on two of the following categories (whichever you spend the most on each month):

• Airfare that is purchased directly from airlines.
• U.S. purchases for advertising in select media (online, TV, radio).
• U.S. purchases made directly from select technology providers of computer hardware, software and cloud solutions.
• U.S. gas stations.
• U.S. restaurants.
• U.S. shipping.
• Terms and Limitations Apply

The 4-points-per-dollar earning bonus is limited to $150,000 in combined purchases from the two categories each calendar year (then 1 point per dollar).

If the majority of your business expenses fall outside of those specific spend categories, a card such as the Ink Business Unlimited Credit Card (1.5% back on all purchases) or The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express (2 Membership Rewards points per dollar on the first $50,000 in purchases each calendar year, then 1 point per dollar) are popular options.

Official application link: The Alaska Airlines Visa Business card with 70,000 bonus miles, plus an Alaska Companion Fare from $122 ($99 fare plus taxes and fees from $23) after spending $4,000 or more on purchases within the first 90 days of opening your account.

Additional reporting by Ryan Wilcox, Chris Dong and Christina Ly.