Below you will find the complete review of the card as seen on the main Rewards Canada site.
A
little known card to the general public in Canada but well known in
frequent flyer circles, the MBNA Alaska Airlines World Elite
MasterCard is a strong
card due to Alaska’s Mileage Plan program being one of the better
frequent flyer programs in North America. You may say however that this
card is only for those in Alberta and British Columbia as those are the
only provinces Alaska Airlines serves but with the great depth of
airline partners in the Mileage Plan program this card can actually work
for most Canadians.
Overview
The MBNA Alaska Airlines World Elite MasterCard
has been on the Canadian market for quite some time but for the past
couple of years it really declined in popularity since MBNA (or their
parent company TD) took it off their general public website and you had
to phone in to apply for the card or apply via Alaska Airlines. Now the
card is back and being promoted once again by MBNA. The card falls into
the middle of the pack in terms of benefits, cost and rewards but don’t
let that fool you as it can make a strong presence in anyone’s credit
card portfolio whether it is your primary, secondary or tertiary card.
Sign up Features
The MBNA Alaska Airlines World Elite MasterCard comes with a 25,000
Mileage Plan Miles sign up bonus that is awarded upon approval. An
annual coach companion fare every year from only US$121 ($99 base fare
plus taxes and fees from $22) is included with the card and $50 off a
new Board Room initiation fee. Board Room is Alaska Airlines’ Business
Class lounge program which provides access to Board Rooms in Anchorage,
Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles and San Francisco as well as 50
affiliated lounges worldwide. The cost of membership before the $50
credit ranges from US$295 to US$450 depending on your elite status
within the Mileage Plan program.
Costs
The MBNA Alaska Airlines World Elite MasterCard
comes with a $75 Annual fee . $75 is lower than many of the cards it
competes against in the Canadian market but is average for mid-level
cards that don’t offer many insurance or non-reward specific benefits.
Supplementary cards are free which is becoming the norm for many cards
in the Canadian market. The 18.99% interest rate is slightly lower than
the majority of airline and other major travel credit cards. You can get $60 of that annual fee back if you apply for the card via Great Canadian Rebates
Earning
The MBNA Alaska Airlines World Elite MasterCard earns points directly into the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan program as follows:
3 Miles per dollar spent on Alaska Airlines tickets, cargo purchases, in-flight purchases and vacation packages
1 Mile per dollar spent on all other eligible purchases
Redeeming
This is the portion of the MBNA Alaska Airlines World Elite MasterCard
that is the star! MBNA Alaska Airlines MasterCard earns offers numerous
redemption options via the Mileage Plan program. Of course, being a
frequent flyer program, the primary redemption option which most people
look at are reward flights on Alaska Airlines and their Mileage Plan
partner airlines. Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan is situated very smartly,
they are not part of any of the three major worldwide airline alliances
but rather they are partnered with key airlines from each the Star
Alliance, oneworld and even SkyTeam. The airlines you can redeem Mileage
Plan miles for are as follows:
Alaska Airlines
American Airlines
Delta Airlines
Air France/KLM
British Airways
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
PenAir
ERA Alaska
AeroMexico
Emirates
Korean Air
Fiji Airways
Qantas
LAN
As you can see they have quite the varied partner list that pretty much
covers the globe in terms of possible award ticket redemptions.
For redemptions on Alaska Airlines there are numerous options depending
on availability. Much like many other frequent flyer programs, award
seats are limited at the lower redemption level but you can use more
miles to get an ‘any seat any time’ award ticket as long as the flight
still has seats available. Mileage Plan also has a Miles+Money option
where you can use miles to provide a discount of up to 50% off the price
of a flight (capped at $200). See the award chart links below for more
details on how many miles are needed for flights on Alaska Airlines.
Finally you can also you Mileage Plan miles to upgrade a
qualifying purchased economy fare (Y,S,B,M,H fare classes) to Alaska
Airlines first class. Those upgrades cost 15,000 miles one way
regardless of the distance or cost of flight.
Alaska Airlines has a great online award ticketing engine
that provides a relatively easy booking process not only for Alaska
Airlines award tickets but also for many of their airline partners.
The program can be very lucrative because it offers First
Class redemptions on some big time dream flight airlines like Emirates
and Qantas. In fact, the Alaska Airlines program is better than
Emirate’s own Skyward program for EK First Class redemptions between
North America and the Middle East as you only 180,000 miles with Mileage
Plan versus 217,500 with Skywards. And Mileage Plan allows one way
redemptions for EK flights (ie 90,000 for that First Class ticket to the
Middle East) whereas Skywards does not! Mileage Plan also allows for a
free stopover on their one way awards which means if you book two
separate one way awards you can actually get two free stopovers.
Here are links to all of Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan flight award charts:
Central and South America
Outside of flights, Mileage Plan miles can also be donated or
used to purchase magazines. This is one program that has not expanded on
their rewards catalog like many other programs.
Features and Benefits
The standard
MBNA Alaska Airlines World Elite MasterCard
comes with MBNA’s Platinum level of benefits which is provides a
benefit package that fits that card in the middle of the pack in terms
of what is offered. These benefits include travel accident insurance,
trip interruption insurance, car rental CDW coverage, purchase
protection and extended warranty.
When you apply for and receive the MBNA Alaska Airlines
MasterCard you may actually get the World Elite version of the card
which provides even more benefits like Price Protection, Concierge
service and more. Whether you get World Elite version depends on your
income level.
Other features of the card are the annual companion fare
benefit (see the next section for more details) and the $50 discount on
Alaska Airlines Board Room memberships (covered in the Sign Up Features
section above)
What is good about this card
One of the best features of this card is the annual
US$99 coach companion fare. A regular feature of the card since it
launched, the companion fare benefit is similar to the one found on the
RBC WestJet World Elite MasterCard. Essentially you can book an Alaska
Airlines flight in coach (economy class) and bring along a companion for
only $99 (plus taxes and fees of at least $19)
Also what is good about this card is the Mileage Plan
program itself! The variety of airlines you can redeem on and the
ability to redeem for one way awards, especially on airlines that don’t
offer that feature in their own frequent flyer programs show the
strength of this small but mighty program.
The sign up bonus alone is worth a flight to pretty much
anywhere in North America making it another good feature of the card.
What is not so good about this
card
As with any credit card tied into a frequent flyer program
comes the dreaded availability issues on award tickets and any extra
taxes and fees. While Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan is pretty good on the
latter the issue of availability is always a consideration that needs
to taken into account when choosing a card like this. If you can be
flexible in your dates, airlines and routing (ie making connections vs.
direct) then this is less of an issue.
The inability to redeem for flights within Canada.
Unfortunately Alaska Airlines does not partner with any Canadian
airlines which means you cannot redeem for flights within Canada.
Conclusion
When someone outside of Alberta or British Columbia sees the
MBNA Alaska Airlines World Elite MasterCard
they may not even give a second glance because they may have never
heard of the airline to start with or if they have they may pass since
they think it is only a good card for Albertans or British Columbians.
As you can see from the review that is not the case due to the great
variety of airline partners that Alaska Airlines. Live in Toronto? You
can redeem for flights on American, Delta, Air France KLM, British
Airways, Emirates, Korean and more. If you are a frequent traveled with
Alaska Airlines, this card is a must, even if you may travel
semi-frequently with their airline partner and funnel those flights into
Mileage Plan then this card is must. As long as you can forego award
flights within Canada and be flexible in your award dates then this card
should rank relatively high in your choices for an airline card.
Looking for award travel within Canada or don’t spend enough to meet
many of the award chart amounts then this card is not for you. You’re
better off with a travel points card or one that ties into Aeroplan or
WestJet.
Overall I don’t think the card has made huge inroads against
many of the cards in Canada but since its recent re-introduction into
the online market so that it is easily available to the general public I
do believe some will jump on this card as it does have its place in the
market and it can be very rewarding.
Care to comment? Do you agree or disagree with us? Tell us what think
about the
mbna Alaska Airlines World Elite MasterCard below!
Related Links:
mbna Alaska Airlines World Elite MasterCard
on
mbna.ca
Rewards Canada's Canadian All Travel
Rewards Credit Card Comparison including the mbna Alaska Airlines MasterCard
Rewards Canada's Canadian Airline Only
Credit Card Comparison including the mbna Alaska Airlines MasterCard
Other cards to consider would come from the Airline Card category or the Hybrid Card category:
WestJet RBC World Elite MasterCard
CIBC Aerogold Visa Infinite
RBC Visa Infinite Avion
Marriott Rewards Premier Visa
Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express
American
Express Gold Rewards Card
Diners Club Club Rewards
MasterCard
