Some unfortunate news out of MBNA today as letters are arriving for MBNA Rewards Mastercard holders who had previously held the MBNA Alaska Airlines cards. As posted to the Churning Canada Subreddit by Black_XStar, the transfer option from MBNA to Alaska that has been discussed for over a year will be limited to a one time transfer between August 1 and October 31 for those who were converted from an Alaska Card to an MBNA Rewards card.
Unfortunately this does not follow what we posted last June after our conversations with MBNA (Italicized comments are from MBNA to Rewards Canada):
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!
It appears that a long term agreement could not be reached between MBNA and Alaska Airlines to provide a full fledged transfer option. Whether it was costs (I mean being able to earn 5 Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles per dollar would not come cheap to MBNA) or perhaps it is the rumour that Alaska Airlines is shopping around for a new card issuer in Canada, whatever it is remains unknown at this time.
The one time conversion option
If you did have an Alaska Airlines card issued by MBNA and had it transition over to an MBNA Rewards Mastercard you at least get a little bit of good news. Those cardholders that did transition over are receiving the option to do a one time transfer to Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan at the previously announced 1:1 ratio. The option will be available from August 1 to October 31 and you will able to convert 1 MBNA Rewards Points to 1 Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan mile.
Ideally, you won’t want to transfer until late October so that you can build up more points at the 5 points per dollar earn rate. Keep in mind you can only transfer once – it is not open to multiple transfers during this time period.
Wrapping it up
We all had high hopes that one of Canada’s best credit cards would be getting even better but unfortunately that will not be happening. The details provided to us from MBNA last year were promising although never guaranteed and who knows what happened to the full fledged transfer option not materializing. I had tried for the better part of the past six months to get more details out of MBNA but they were steadfast in just stating the agreement was being negotiated and it looks like the final outcome of the negotiations is this one time transfer option.