MBNA is set to shut down four of their co-brand credit cards for new applications at the end of the day on November 7. Those cards are the Alaska Airlines World Elite® Mastercard®, Alaska Airlines Platinum Plus® Mastercard® , mbna Best Western Mastercard® and the Harley-Davidson Mastercard. These cards are now officially closed. My guess is that you have until 11:59pm ET on November 7 to complete your application if you have been considering one of these cards.
Those who already have the cards will be able to continue to use them as they are only closing them off to new applications.
It is truly sad news to see these co-brand cards being discontinued. Time and time again it really proves that non-Canadian loyalty programs have a real tough go at it with credit cards in Canada. I know MBNA is looking to focus more on their own proprietary products so this does seem like more of a move from their side rather than their co-brand partners. However you would think if these cards were money makers for MBNA they would be more than happy to keep them going. Perhaps that’s a bit of MBNA’s own fault though as these cards were some of the easiest to churn and the points and miles community was fully aware of that.
I do hope that Alaska Airlines and Best Western have chosen to send out RFPs to other issuers in Canada to take over their portfolios and issue new cards. For now though we have to add Alaska Airlines and Best Western to the likes of American AAdvantage, Choice Privileges, Delta SkyMiles & IHG One Rewards to the list of those that have tried and left our market. In fact with the departure of Best Western, Canadians only have one hotel chain left to choose cards from and that is Marriott.