February 4, 2015

Positive Updates on the Two Browser Trick for the Alaska Airlines Credit Card

Update Dec. 2015: The two browser trick is dead. 

About two weeks ago I wrote, what turned out to be one of my most popular posts so far in 2015, about how the Two Browser Trick was Back with the Bank of America Alaska Airlines Credit Card. In case you missed it, I tested whether you could apply for two Alaska Airline credit cards simultaneously in two different browsers and get the signup bonus of 25,000 miles + $100 statement credit on each. I applied for two personal cards for my wife and she was instantly approved for both with identical $20,000 credit lines on each card. Two days after approval, the miles posted to her Alaska account, since the miles are awarded upon approval and there is no minimum spending requirement (you do need to spend $1,000 for the $100 statement credit).

Confirmation of miles posting

Confirmation of miles posting

Well, I’m happy to report on two more positive updates I learned from doing this two browser trick.

1) The Two Credit Pulls Are Combined Into One – When I posted the initial blog on this trick, I speculated that there would be two credit pulls from Bank of America but I hoped they would automatically get combined into one. I pulled my wife’s Experian credit report last night for free using her Annual Free Credit Report and sure enough, there is now only one pull from Bank of America!

One only pull from Bank of America!

One only pull from Bank of America!

I did an App-O-Rama for her on January 10th and picked up a total of 5 cards including the Chase Hyatt Visa (two free nights at the Park Hyatt Maldives) and an American Express Hilton HHonors Surprass (80k HHonors points) which you see the credit pulls for in the screenshot above. I unfroutnately don’t have the credit report from right after the application but almost a month later now, her credit report clearly shows just one inquiry from Bank of America. Since there is only one credit inquiry after the fact, I would argue that almost everyone should be applying for two Alaska Airline cards at the same time to get double the miles for the same credit pull. While it does seem Alaska is blocking award redemptions on Emirates First Class after March 28th, you can still book business class in addition to all their other partners.

2) You Can Get the Alaska Airline Business Card on the Same Day As Well – While I didn’t try this personally for my wife, one of my consulting clients wanted to do the Two Browser Trick AND apply for the Alaska Airlines Business card as well on the same day. She didn’t try the Two Browser Trick on the Business card, instead opting to apply for just one after getting approved instantly for both personal cards. In fact, on the approval screen, there is a direct link to then apply for the 25k Alaska Airlines Business card.

She was not approved instantly for the business card and she didn’t have a chance to call the reconsideration department right away. However, a few days later she was notified automatically she was approved for the business card as well! So while not a same day approval, she was able to secure 3 Alaska Airline credit cards in total without the system rejecting her.

These are some great, positive developments and I fully plan on incorporating these cards in my next round of credit card applications since I did these for my wife. I’m curious to see if the Two Browser Trick will work for the Business card – I’ll report back my findings when I try next month.

12 thoughts on “Positive Updates on the Two Browser Trick for the Alaska Airlines Credit Card”

  1. February 15, 2015 at 6:00 pm
    Sach

    Thanks for this post- it’s very helpful! Did you put the same mileage plan numbers in for both apps? If I have a personal and business card already, should I cancel before trying the 2bm? Thanks!

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    • February 15, 2015 at 6:02 pm
      Ralph

      Same number for both. It seems to be hit or miss if you need to cancel at least personal before trying. I would personally since I’ve great success doing that for both this card and the U.S. Airways card. YMMV

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  2. February 18, 2015 at 11:30 am
    Sach

    Sounds good. I think I’ll cancel first before applying again. Thanks for the help Ralph1

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  3. April 10, 2015 at 2:05 pm
    Kyle

    Just an update for everyone, this still works as of April.

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  4. April 15, 2015 at 10:08 pm
    The Two Browser Trick is Back with the Bank of America Alaska Airlines Credit Card | PointsCentric

    […] Note: I posted an update here about the miles posting.  […]

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  5. April 20, 2015 at 8:21 am
    PSA: Don’t Apply for the Alaska Airlines Credit Card Unless It Has a $100 Statement Credit | PointsCentric

    […] best part about this card (and Bank of America cards in general) is that you can get several of them on the same day for just one credit pull. I was able to get 2 Alaska credit cards on my wife’s latest churn on the same day without […]

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  6. April 20, 2015 at 7:52 pm
    Boon

    Tried today, instant approval on 1, pending on the the other.

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  7. May 15, 2015 at 5:17 pm
    John

    what number to call?

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  8. June 10, 2015 at 5:12 pm
    SlawekC

    This nuber is non working number

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  9. July 28, 2015 at 8:02 am
    Is Bank of America Cracking Down on the $100 Alaska Airlines Statement Credit? | PointsCentric

    […] a long time, it was easy to get approved for multiple Alaska Airlines cards in a day until Bank of America recently started cracking down on that. Even better was that you could […]

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