Last week we provided details about MBNA converting their grandfathered Alaska Airlines Mastercards to their proprietary Rewards cards products. Alaska cardholders began receiving letters about the switch or unfortunately for some, closure of their accounts instead of conversion.
The notice alerted cardholders that their Alaska Airlines World Elite Mastercard will be converted to a MBNA Rewards World Elite Mastercard as of September 1, 2023. A separate notice alerts Alaska Airlines Platinum Plus Mastercards will be converted to MBNA Rewards Platinum Plus Mastercards.
More importantly, also contained in the World Elite landing page and the Platinum Plus landing page of the conversion from Alaska to MBNA Rewards is the following:
Within the next year, you’ll also be able to redeem MBNA Rewards Points for Alaska Airlines Miles on a one-to-one basis (1 MBNA Rewards Point = 1 Alaska Airlines Mile), with the ability to earn up to 5 MBNA Rewards Points per dollar spent on eligible purchases‡. That could add up to a lot of Alaska Airlines Miles with this new redemption option!
What everyone including ourselves were unsure about is whether this transfer option would only be available to those who had Alaska cards and were converted over or, would it be open to all MBNA Rewards members? As mentioned I reached out to MBNA and my contact has come back to me with the details…..
All MBNA Rewards Members will receive the option to convert points to Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles once their agreement is finalized
We now have semi-official confirmation that all MBNA Rewards credit cardholders will receive this option to convert their MBNA Rewards points to Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan Miles, not just those who had the Alaska cards. Here is what they told me:
The conversion from MBNA Rewards to Alaska Miles will be available for ALL MBNA Rewards cardholders.
However, MBNA did want me to stress this is not finalized as of yet:
We are finalizing arrangements that will, within the next year, also allow you to redeem MBNA Rewards Points for Alaska Airlines Miles on a one-to-one basis
Ultimately, we do have to wait for a final agreement to be put in place but at the moment things are looking pretty good! As soon as we hear from MBNA that it is finalized we’ll be sure to pass along the news!
Earning Points (and Mileage Plan Miles)
The MBNA Rewards World Elite Mastercard earns points as follows:
- 5 points‡ for every $1 spent on eligible restaurant, grocery, digital media, membership, and household utility purchases until $50,000 is spent annually in the applicable category.
- 1 point‡ for every $1 on all other eligible purchases.
- Each year, you will receive Birthday Bonus Points‡ equal to 10% of the total number of Points the Account earned in the 12 months before the month of your birthday, to a maximum Birthday Bonus each year of 15,000 Points.
And the MBNA Rewards Platinum Plus Mastercard earns:
- Earn 4 points†† for every $1 spent on eligible restaurant, grocery, digital media, membership and household utility
- Earn 2 points‡ for every $1 spent on eligible purchases in those categories thereafter – in both cases, these earn rates apply until $10,000 is spent annually in the applicable category.
- 1 point‡ for every $1 spent on all other eligible purchases.
- Each year, you will receive Birthday Bonus Points‡ equal to 10% of the total number of Points earned in the 12 months before the month of your birthday, to a maximum Birthday Bonus each year of 10,000 Points.
That means with the World Elite card’s earn rates of up to 5.5 points per dollar (5 points + 10% birthday bonus) and the published 1:1 conversion ratio to Mileage Plan, you have a card here that will earn up 5.5 Mileage Plan miles per dollar! That’s absolutely amazing! Likewise the Platinum Plus Card will provide up to 2.2 points per dollar outside of the 4 points per dollar in the first 90 days for new cardholders.
Despite recent changes to many award flight options, Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan still remains as one of the best frequent flyer programs out there thanks to being a oneworld airline and having really decent redemption rates for airlines like JAL, Cathay Pacific, Korean Air and others.
Recommended reading: Guide to picking a Points Earning Machine
Wrapping it up
We are one step closer to seeing the MBNA Rewards Mastercards receive an additional benefit that will make them even better than they currently are!
Here at Rewards Canada we currently rank the MBNA Rewards World Elite Mastercard as the 2nd best Travel Points Card with an Annual Fee and 8th best card overall in Canada. This news, once it is 100% confirmed, should see it move up the overall ranks by a spot or two and it will be moved over to the Hybrid card category! Remember, we even recently posted how it is one of the best cards to use at Loblaw grocery stores and we have long thought this card doesn’t get the attention it should and you can bet it is going to garner a lot more attention now!
The MBNA Rewards Platinum Plus Mastercard will also be one to watch out for as it will be able to earn the equivalent of up 2 Mileage Plan Miles per dollar plus the birthday bonus – all with no fee! Currently we rank it as the third best no annual fee travel rewards card in Canada.