Alaska Airlines Credit Card Retention Phone Call Results
Last week after calling American Express about my Delta Platinum Skymiles cancellation, and receiving a retention offer, I decided to give Bank of America a call.
I have had the Alaska Airlines credit card for almost 2 years, my anniversary is in September. I kept it past the first year thinking I would be able to use the companion certificate. The problem is their coverage out of Detroit is pretty poor so I have not found a use for it. I have also depleted most of my Alaska miles and I don’t see myself being able to accrue them anytime soon. Because of that, and since I want to simplify life, I decided to just cancel the card. I wasn’t planning on much of an offer but I decided to give it a try just to see.
Retention Call Results
I have put under $100 in spend on the card since reaching the initial welcome bonus. That is over almost 2 years. What I have spent on it was from BankAmeriDeal offers.
When I called in all I said was I wanted to close the account. I was transferred to the retention department and the phone agent offered me 2,500 Alaska Airlines miles to keep the card open. The offer did not have a spend requirement and she said the miles should post in 6-8 weeks.
If my annual fee had already posted I still would have gone ahead and closed the account. Since I am still a few months away from my anniversary date I took the offer. I will most likely still close the card after the annual fee posts. Who knows maybe they will give me an even better offer to keep the card.
Conclusion
Lesson learned: it is always worth calling to see what is available. Sometimes it makes sense to even do it before the annual fee posts, especially with Citi cards.
Let me know if you have received any offers from Bank of America recently in the comments section.
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We have about $50K in annual spend and have had this card for a decade, and were not given a retention offer.
I was offered nothing. About 10k in spend on the card this year
Wow I am surprised by that.
I was offered 2500 miles, my husband, nothing.
Thanks for the DP.
I don’t have any of B of A cc but have an Alaska Airline account with a few thousand miles in it. I plan to transfer my SPG points to Alaska miles. How does the companion certificate work? Does the account holder has to travel to use it or any two travelers can use it anywhere Alaska Airlines fly?
This may have some info for you
https://www.travelcodex.com/13-tips-and-tricks-alaska-airlines-companion-fare/
I’ve been in the simplify life mood. Closed a Barclay Hawaiian card last month, Also closed two Alaska credit cards. After the closings the Credit Karma scores (reflecting closing) went up one points each
I have been slowly dwindling down my cards. Goal is to simplify things and make future application approvals more likely.
Fair answer Mark. I have had this card a long time with no qualms it was fantastic when the free ticket was for first class never the less with my status if I book out far enough I generally get bumped to first for both of us.
I wish however that AS would do some enhancements it’s getting bland compared to others. Maybe they need to change to Chase.
Most airline cards are kind of meh. At least it comes with a decent companion cert. With the SPG card dying in a month this is really the only decent way left to earn Alaska miles.
I cancelled this card 6 mos. ago. I reapplied the other day and got turned down for too many credit cards. Guess the days of churning this card are over. It use to be pretty easy.
BOA went from the easiest approval to probably the toughest.
https://milestomemories.boardingarea.com/does-bank-of-america-have-new-anti-churning-rules/
I was under the assumption that if you take a retention offer from any bank, you had to keep your card open for another year.
Coincidentally, I just called to close my BoA Alaska Air card yesterday too. Had zero spend after meeting the sign up bonus. Was only offered to transfer the line of credit to another card.
Nope there are no rules of how long you need to keep the card open for. That is why most tie it to spend. If the offer is good enough and the card is good enough most people just end up keeping it another year.
So what would you have done if they called your bluff ?
Just curious they do keep records so you know
Travel safe
I was 100% planning on canceling anyway so that wouldn’t have mattered. Others have said they want to think about it a little bit longer when they called their bluff though.