Without anything more concrete to go on, this may just be a rumor, but rambro posted the information he got from a Bank of America call center employee who said that the bank will stop allowing new sign-ups for the Alaska Airlines debit card on November 10. That’s Sunday, with less than a week to go!
Why does this matter? Well, you have two main options to earn miles with a debit card: SunTrust offers 1 Delta SkyMile per dollar, and Bank of America offers 1 Alaska MileagePlan mile per TWO dollars. Yes, you get half as many miles with Alaska, but some would argue they’re worth more, and a lot of us don’t have a SunTrust branch anywhere nearby. I may be tech-savvy, but I still don’t trust a bank I can’t visit in person.
Bank of America does not actively promote their Alaska Airlines debit card. In fact, you need to have a checking account first, and only then can you sign-up. There is an annual fee involved, but there are several interesting things you can try to rack up enough miles to make it worth your while. Amol and I each recently discussed opportunities like the new Square Cash service that allows fee-free transfers from one checking account to another, ostensibly charged via your debit card, and the new fee-free option to load up to $1,000 a month to your Bluebird card over and above the $5,000 cap for Vanilla Reloads.
If you want to get in on this opportunity, this may be your last chance. So far as I can tell, Bank of America has already pulled any mention of the Alaska Airlines debit card from its website, and even searching for the card or airline pulls up a message that the page is not available (note the difference between “not available” and “no results found”).
