Bank of America doesn’t have the best credit card rewards, but the ability to churn Alaska Airlines credit cards made it a staple of many churners’ wallets. Back in the day, you could open multiple of the same card in a very short timespan. Slowly, Bank of America has added rules to prevent this. Last fall, they implemented the 2/3/4 rule such that you will only be approved for a maximum of two cards every 2 months, three cards every 12 months, and four cards every 24 months.
Now, Bank of America has added a 24-month rule.
- For Alaska Airlines and Premium Rewards cards: The card will not be available to you if you currently have or have had the card in the preceding 24 month period.
- For Travel Rewards and Cash Rewards cards: The card will not be available to you if you currently have the card unless you have had that card for at least 24 months.
These rules are restricted to the specific card so if you had an Alaska Airlines card in the past 24 months, you would still be eligible for Premium Rewards and vice versa.
Like with the 2/3/4/ rule, this does not yet impact business cards.
Final Thoughts
This is obviously a huge bummer if you were churning Alaska credit cards every 6 months (the timeframe needed to comply with the 2/3/4 rule). My advice? Close your current Alaska personal card now to reset the clock. I’d also apply for an Alaska business card ASAP in case the rule expands. I find Alaska Airlines miles to be very valuable thanks to the free stopover so I will probably keep opening and closing the business card as long as possible.
Will this new rule impact your churning plans?
Hello there! Thank you for this post! I realized I haven’t been maximizing/churning Alaska cards not until this week. I just re-applied for the Alaska Visa yesterday and got the 40k bonus and thinking of opening the business card version soon. I applied for the Alaska Business card last January of 2018 and closed it last Dec. of 2018. If I apply for the card now, will I get approved?
I read your article and said that you apply every 6 months. So in my case, I closed the card this Dec. 2018 so I should wait June to apply again?
Thank you so much for all the help!
Thanks for your question! The 6 months was in reference to the personal card only and it’s no longer possible to churn that card that quickly. There is no hard and fast rule for how quickly you can churn the business card but I typically close the first card after about year, wait a month or two, and then open a new business card. In your example, I would probably try opening it again soon since it has been over a year since you opened your last business card and you won’t be immediately reapplying after closing the card. I can’t guarantee it’ll work but I hope that helps!
Thank you so much for the info! I will go ahead and apply for the business card this week! Last question, how do you churn the Alaska Business card? Let’s say I apply and earn the bonus, when do I close the card (do I wait for about a year) and when do I apply again?
I saw a promo on their site that if you purchase 60k miles, you get an extra 30k. It’s about $1750 and I just got 4 credit card spends to meet and I wanted to try Japan Airlines First class haha.
Thank you so much again and more power to your blog! 🙂
I personally wait about a while when churning the business card since I’m somewhat risk averse. I keep it upon for 9 months to 1 year, close the card, and reopen a few months later. I’m sure it’s possible to do it faster than this though. It may be more important to space out the time between closing and re-opening the card than keeping the card open longer. Japan Airlines first class is awesome btw!