In Fall 2023, legacy cardholders of the now-defunct MBNA Alaska Airlines co-branded credit cards were transitioned to cards in the MBNA Rewards family. At the time, MBNA signalled that MBNA Rewards would become transferable to Alaska miles at a 1:1 rate “within the next year”, and there haven’t been any updates since then.

We now know more details about being able to convert MBNA Rewards Points into Alaska miles, as legacy cardholders have started to receive letters in the mail outlining the opportunity.

Transfer MBNA Rewards Points to Alaska Miles (One-Time Only)

If you’re a legacy cardholder of an MBNA Alaska Airlines co-branded credit card, you were transitioned to a card in the MBNA Rewards family last fall. In addition to the welcome bonus offered for the transition, you’d have accumulated MBNA Rewards Points on your card with any spending since activating the card.

Between August 1, 2024 and October 31, 2024, you’ll have a one-time opportunity to convert your MBNA Rewards Points into Alaska miles at a 1:1 rate.

Importantly, it appears that this one-time chance is limited to cardholders who were transitioned from a legacy Alaska Airlines co-branded credit card. In other words, if you’ve accumulated MBNA Rewards Points and never had an MBNA Alaska Airlines co-branded credit card, it appears that you won’t be able to convert your points into miles.

(We’ve reached out to MBNA to confirm if this is the case, and will update this article when we hear back).

In order to be eligible for the 1:1 transfer, you’ll need to meet the following conditions:

• You’re the primary cardholder of an MBNA Rewards Mastercard which replaced your MBNA Alaska Airlines co-branded Mastercard
• Your MBNA Rewards Mastercard is open and in good standing
• You have an open Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan account that’s also in good standing

If you meet these criteria, you must call MBNA during the redemption window at 1 888 876 6262, with your Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan account number and the amount of MBNA Rewards Points you’d like to redeem.

From there, your MBNA Rewards points will be deducted from your account and appear in your Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan account in 4–10 weeks.

Should You Convert MBNA Rewards Points to Alaska Miles?

If you’re eligible for the one-time 1:1 conversion, you’ll want to take stock of what’s possible with your MBNA Rewards Points and what’s possible with Alaska miles.

MBNA Rewards points can be optimally redeemed at a maximum of 1 cent per point for travel booked through the MBNA Rewards travel portal. You can also redeem them for gift cards or cash back, which results in a value lower than or equal to 1 cent per point, depending on the redemption.

As for Alaska miles, you have the ability to book flights with airlines in the oneworld alliance, as well as some non-alliance partners.

For example, Condor Airlines operates non-stop flights between Frankfurt and many Canadian cities, including Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Toronto, and Halifax at the following costs:

• Economy: 25,000 miles
• Premium economy: 45,000 miles
• Business class: 55,000 miles

Fortunately, award availability is great, and Condor’s new Airbus A330neo business class is a great option to fly non-stop to Europe.

Alaska miles are also a great option for booking transpacific flights with Japan Airlines and Starlux Airlines. For example, you could fly from Vancouver to Tokyo in Japan Airlines business class for just 60,000 miles, assuming you can find award availability.

Across the world, short-haul flights with Alaska miles are a great deal, which means that you can potentially squeeze some great value from your miles for flights within Europe, the Middle East, Asia, or Australia with your Alaska miles.

Another option could be to fly from Canada to South America via a hub in the US. For example, you could fly from Montreal to Sao Paulo via Miami for 32,500 miles in economy, or 50,000 miles in business class.

If you stand to benefit from this one-time transfer, be sure to look through the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan website to plan out your trip, and then convert your MBNA Rewards Points as necessary.

Since this is a one-time opportunity, your best bet is to continue earning on your MBNA Rewards Mastercard for a few months, and then make your one-time conversion in late October 2024.

Disappointing for Some, Great News for Others

For legacy cardholders of MBNA Rewards Alaska Airlines co-branded credit cards, this is a great opportunity to extract more value from your transitioned MBNA Rewards Mastercard.

Since MBNA Rewards Points are worth a maximum of 1 cent per point when redeemed the traditional ways, this is a chance to get outsized value from your points that you otherwise wouldn’t be able to get.

We value Alaska miles at 2.2 cents per mile (CAD). Using this metric, you’d be getting more than double the standard value for your MBNA Rewards Points, and you can get even more by strategically redeeming them for high-value flights in premium cabins.

However, it’s very disappointing that this is limited to a one-time opportunity, and that MBNA Rewards won’t become Canada’s newest transferable points currency.

Furthermore, it’s very unfortunate that this 1:1 transfer is limited to legacy MBNA Alaska Airlines co-branded cardholders only, and not to any other cardholders of eligible MBNA Rewards Mastercards.

With such an exciting opportunity at hand, many people likely applied for a new MBNA Rewards Mastercard and shifted spending to it with the prospect of being able to access the lucrative Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan program at some point in the future.

Now, those people will be limited to redeeming MBNA Rewards Points for a maximum value of 1 cent per point, and they won’t have access to Alaska miles. While MBNA Rewards Points are useful for booking travel that’s otherwise difficult to book on points, without the option to convert them to Alaska miles, the program is going to be much less intriguing than what we thought and hoped it would become.

Conclusion

Legacy cardholders of MBNA’s Alaska Airlines co-branded Mastercards have a one-time opportunity to convert their MBNA Rewards Points into Alaska miles at a 1:1 ratio. The eligibility window runs from August 1–October 31, 2024, and the one-time transfer must be requested by phone.

This is an outstanding opportunity for those who are eligible to get outsized value from their MBNA Rewards Points, since Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan has some excellent redemption opportunities.

If you find yourself in this situation, be sure to accumulate as many MBNA Rewards Points as possible, and then make your conversion towards the end of October 31, 2024.