Anybody else concerned about this, specifically from the lessened value to Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan members?

I don't want to open up a whole "evil banksters" topic or a "move your money" thread; that's for OMNI and the many other places on the web it's being discussed.

For me, $5/month if I use the debit card even once as a debit card (whether "debit" via the ATM clearing networks or "credit" via the Visa network) rather than as an ATM card, is a no-brainer: Drop the card, which means drop the BofA account, because that's the only reason I opened the el-cheapo free-if-never-see-teller-8.95/mo-else BofA checking account. At $30/year, sure to go up, and only 1/2 mile per dollar, I no longer see any value when another $60/year is tacked on top. I don't personally have enough cash flow going through actual cash-money purchases these days to make it worth it.

Nor do I want to support banks charging a debit fee (but enough on that).

Do you think AS will lose BofA debit card members from this fee?

Should we be encouraging AS to look for a better debit card banking partner? I'd love to see them make a rewards debit card deal with BECU. The full name being Boeing Employees Credit Union, now open to anybody who lives, works, breathes the air from, or has heard of Washington State, and probably easily could be expanded to anybody in the FF program of a WA-based airline. Or some other low-cost promised-no-debit-fee bank or credit union.

There are precedents to having different banks for an airline credit card vs debit card. Continental for years had Key Bank Continental Debit cards while their credit cards were and are through Chase.

In addition, I'm concerned that BofA's policies may rub off negatively on Alaska's generally good brand image. I hope the folks at corporate are looking at this issue.