Middle Age Miles

Introduction

I’m in an interesting situation with respect to credit card applications right now. A couple of months ago, after long and thoughtful deliberation, I decided to execute on a 15-month plan to get under 5/24 by 11/1/2020. The driving force behind this plan is that getting under 5/24 should open massive opportunities for me with Chase, primarily because I would become eligible for the great sign-up bonuses on Chase business cards. Of the current Chase business card lineup, I only have one card where I’m the primary cardholder – an Ink Cash card for one of my businesses.

For those who are interested, we posted an article with a detailed analysis of my “under 5/24” strategy and the reasons for it:

• Middle Age Miles: Case Study – Should I Execute on a 15-Month Plan to Get Under 5/24? (July 22, 2019)

Executing on the “under 5/24” strategy leaves me with several options over the next now-13 months:

• Get business cards that don’t count against 5/24
• Utilize upgrade offers with Amex at every opportunity
  • We’ve written at length about my Amex Hilton Surpass-to-Aspire upgrade – see these articles:
    • Middle Age Miles: Successful Upgrade – Amex Hilton Ascend to Aspire with 150k Point Bonus! Breaking Down the Offer and What to Expect (June 9, 2019)
    • Middle Age Miles: Our Amex Hilton 2-card Aspire-Surpass Upgrade-Downgrade Strategy – How Has It Worked? (August 21, 2019)
  • I also upgraded a legacy Amex Business Rewards Gold card to a Business Platinum card recently and collected a 50k Membership Rewards (MR) point bonus
• Focus spend on big-spend bonuses to earn credit toward qualifying for AA and hotel elite statuses and earn hotel free nights
• And in addition, I can actually get up to 2 personal cards between now and next November, and it won’t impact my ability to drop below 5/24 as of 11/1/19

As you can see, I’m on the lookout for valuable opportunities that fit within this strategy. A new offer for the Bank of America (B of A) Alaska Airlines Business Visa card fit the bill perfectly.

Additional Background & Strategy

The B of A Alaska Business card’s “normal” sign-up bonus over at least the past couple of years has been 30,000 Alaska miles. More recently, we’ve seen periodic opportunities to get a 40,000-mile sign-up bonus for this card. (Some people have even reported receiving targeted mailers to get 40,000 miles plus a $100 statement credit.)

Earlier this month, though, Doctor of Credit posted an article that really caught our eye. DoC said that it may be possible to get even a slightly larger sign-up bonus of 42,000 Alaska miles. We believe that this is an all-time high for the B of A Alaska business card. Here’s the article from DoC:

• Doctor of Credit: Bank of America Alaska Airlines Business Card Now 42,000 Mile Bonus (& Possible $100) (September 4, 2019)

At our baseline value of 1.5 cents per Alaska mile, a 42,000-mile sign-up bonus would be worth about $630. The sign-up bonus also includes one companion fare – Alaska’s “Famous Companion Fare” where a companion can fly for $99 fare + taxes (normally an all-in total of $121 for US domestic round-trip flights) when the cardholder purchases a normal paid fare. If you can use it, the Companion Fare can provide even more value for the sign-up bonus.

I’ve had the B of A Alaska business card previously. I got the card in January 2018 and canceled it on 2/28/19, after the $75 annual fee posted. One key reason that we wanted to cancel this card was that it appeared that the B of A Alaska business card was still churnable, despite limitations put into effect by B of A on personal cards. We discussed our “Keep or Cancel” strategy for this card here:

• Middle Age Miles: Keep or Cancel – Bank of America Alaska Business Card (February 28, 2019)

Strategically, based on (a) some data points I’d read; (b) cooling off my credit report for a bit before I applied; and (c) trying to generate the best possible chance of success on the application – I decided to wait a little over 6 months after closing the previous B of A Alaska business card before applying for a new one.

Key Card Benefits

To me, the most important feature of the B of A Alaska business card is the generous sign-up bonus. But let’s run through some key details of the card:

• Annual fee: $75 (if you have only a primary cardholder and no authorized users – technically, it’s $50 for the company plus $25 per card)
• Sign-Up Bonus & Spend Requirement:
  • 40,000 Alaska miles
  • An additional 2,000 bonus miles when you apply with an employee (more on this later when we discuss the application process)
  • One Alaska Famous Companion Fare – If primary cardholder purchases a paid fare, a companion can fly for $99 + taxes and fees (typically $121 all-in on US domestic round-trip flights)
    • Only good on economy/coach tickets
    • No blackout dates
  • Spend Requirement – $2,000 within 90 days
• Earning Categories:
  • 3x miles per dollar at Alaska Airlines
  • 1x mile per dollar on everything else
• Free checked bag on Alaska flights for cardholder and up to 6 other guests on the same reservation
• Anniversary Companion Fare each year
• 50% off Alaska Lounge day pass purchases
• 20% back on Alaska in-flight food, beverage and Wi-Fi purchases
• No foreign transaction fees

Relevant Link

To apply for the B of A Alaska business card with the current sign-up offer, use this link (not a referral link):

• Apply for the Bank of America Alaska Airlines Business Visa card: https://www.bankofamerica.com/42AKbiz

Application Process & Relevant Data

At the time of the application on 9/18/19, my stats & relevant data were as follows:

• Credit Score: 799 (on TransUnion, which B of A pulled)
• “5/24” stats: 12/24; 6/12; 1/6
• Inquiries (on TU): 4/24; 1/12; 1/6
• Relationship with B of A:
  • One personal checking account – modest balance; open for many years
  • One personal credit card – Alaska personal card; opened 10/2018
  • No current business deposit accounts or credit cards
  • One previous/closed Alaska business card; opened 1/2018 & closed 2/2019
• Application was made for a legitimate business (the same one that had previously opened & closed the earlier Alaska business card), which is an LLC and has been in existence for several years

The application process itself was straightforward, although there are a couple of interesting points of note:

• The application offered me the option of pre-filling certain data, as I was an existing B of A customer. I accepted that option. Based on prior research and data points, it seems important to B of A for the applicant to have an existing relationship with B of A. I was able to do this even though my only existing B of A accounts are personal, whereas the application was for a business card.
• Near the bottom of the application, there was a field called “Event employee ID” that I wasn’t sure how to fill out. It appears to be asking for an Alaska employee number. I did some modest Google searching to see if I could find an Alaska employee number that I could use in this field, without success. Ultimately, I put “None” in this box and submitted the application.

Even though I put “None” in the “Event employee ID” box, I’m hopeful that I’ll get the full 42,000-mile bonus. If not, though, I won’t be unhappy with the “standard” 40,000-mile bonus.

Once I completed the application, I was sent to another screen where I had to certify the information I had provided in the application regarding beneficial ownership of the company. I did this and clicked “Submit Application.”

At that point, my application went pending. The notification said that B of A was “carefully reviewing” my application, that they usually make a decision within a week, and that they’d call me if they had any questions. I also received near-immediate notifications from Credit Karma and LifeLock that TransUnion reported a hard inquiry.

Only 2 days later, today (Fri 9/20/19), I received an email from B of A letting me know that I’d been approved. Yay!

I’ll look forward to receiving the card within the next couple of weeks, learning what credit limit I was given, perhaps learning if my sign-up bonus will be 40k or 42k Alaska miles, and going to work on the minimum spend requirement.

And ultimately, Philly and I look forward to using this nice chunk of Alaska miles from the sign-up bonus on yet another fun Middle Age Miles travel adventure! In addition, it’s nice to re-confirm for ourselves and others that the B of A Alaska Airlines business card remains churnable if you’ve closed your previous card and waited some period of time.

Do you have relevant experience or data points with respect to the B of A Alaska business card? If so, please help out other Middle Age Miles readers by sharing in the Comments. Thank you!

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