For a little while now, Alaska Airlines’ premium card has been open for applications: the Alaska Atmos Summit card. There has been an awesome elevated welcome bonus for this card since late April, and in early May I applied for this card and got approved.

In this post I wanted to share the biggest benefits of this card, the welcome bonus that was available, and my strategy for the use of this card. I don’t know for how long I will ultimately hold onto it, but in the near term, the value is hard to beat!

Note: it’s anybody’s guess how long the current elevated welcome bonus hangs around, so if what you read here sounds good to you, don’t delay your application!

Brief Intro: Alaska Airlines’ credit card portfolio

Alaska Airlines has three credit cards in its portfolio:

• The Alaska Atmos Rewards Ascent Visa card is the regular personal credit card of Alaska Airlines. Overall, it’s a good card for those flying Alaska Airlines once in a while, but without need for anything more than that.
  • Annual fee: $95
  • In-flight perks: 1 free checked bag and preferred boarding
  • Bonus categories: 3x miles on Alaska purchases, 2x on gas, rideshare and local transit, 1x on everything else
  • Status with spending: get 1 status points for every $3 spent on the card.
  • Earn a $99 companion fare if you spend $6000 0n the card in a year.
• The Alaska Atmos Rewards Summit Visa card is the premium credit card of Alaska Airlines with a $395 annual fee. This card is good for those that truly aim to be loyal to Alaska Airlines and fly with them routinely. However, that said, there’s also value for those not flying Alaska, and more about that in a bit.
  • Annual fee: $395
  • In-flight perks: 1 free checked bag, preferred boarding, 2x WiFi passes every quarter
  • Bonus categories: 3x on Alaska purchases, 3x on foreign currency purchases, 1x on everything else
  • Alaska Lounge access: 2x passes every quarter.
  • Status with spending: get 1 status points for every $2 spent on the card.
  • Get a global companion pass worth 25.000 points, upon every card anniversary.
  • Get 10.000 status points upon every card anniversary
  • Fee waivers: same-day change fee waiver and Atmos Rewards partner award booking fee waiver.
  • $120 credit to TSA PreCheck/Global Entry once every 4 years.
  • Point sharing: send and receive points from up to 10 contacts.
• The Alaska Atmos Rewards Business Visa card is almost identical to the regular $95 Ascent card, except it’s for business purposes. It has pretty much the same perks, except that it has a $70 annual fee, and then $25 per card issued (for a minimum of $95).

Overall, Alaska’s credit card lineup is not nearly as full-featured and scaled to demand as the cards of e.g. Delta, United or American, but there is certainly value to be had. Let’s now look into the Summit card specifically: what’s the value I think you can get from it, and what’s my strategy here?

The core value proposition is practicality: Alaska Atmos redemptions for cheap American Airlines flight

I have written about Alaska Airlines in the past, and specifically how I used Alaska’s (then) MileagePlan mils to book award tickets with Japan Airlines to Tokyo and more recently for our flight back from Mexico City on American Airlines. The first of these is an aspirational redemption people are generally on the lookout for, while the latter is perhaps a little boring. But that’s the point: sometimes, a redemption is not sexy or aspirational, but simply practical by providing easy access to low-cost flights that save you money.

In that regard, Atmos can offer great value with redemptions on American Airlines flights, especially for short or medium-haul flights (1 – 4 hours or so in length). That gets you from New York to Boston for under 5000 points in economy or as far as Barbados for 12500 points in economy. Those are some nice, practical redemptions in markets that can be quite expensive if paying cash, especially around holidays.

For example, here is a quick search for flights from New York City to Washington, and I found a one way flight with American Airlines for 4500 points + $19 in economy or 9000 points + $19 in first class. Meanwhile, the economy cash ticket (main cabin, not basic) starts at $114 as of the time of writing. That makes the points redemption an extraordinary value, even in economy!

Or let’s have a look at the Caribbean. One of the nonstop destinations American serves from new York is Barbados. For the Friday of the labor day weekend, you can get an economy ticket for 12500 points + $20 in taxes and fees or a business class ticket for 25000 points. + $20, while you’d otherwise pay $173 in cash for economy or $600 (!) in business. The business class redemption is great, while the economy one is also decent.

Depending where you’re hoping to fly, this math can work quite differently of course, but I’d say for anybody with access to an American Airlines hub, this could be a great resource to save cash.

The strategy: my rationale behind getting the Alaska Summit Card

So how does the Atmos Summit card fit into this? The most obvious reason is the elevated welcome bonus, which provides a stack of points to use when competing the minimum spend requirement. However, there’s other reasons that may make it worthwhile to keep the card in the longer term. Let’s go over the key reasons to get this card and hold onto it.

Elevated welcome bonus: 100.000 Atmos points, 25.000 point global companion pass and 50% off Alaska flights

This is probably the best offer we have seen on this card so far. You’d have to spend $6500 in 3 months, which is fairly substtnail, but then you’d get:

• 100.000 Atmos Rewards points;
• A 25.000 global companion pass (normally only received at account anniversary, so you’re getting one ‘extra’);
• Deposited within 10 days after account opening, a voucher for 50% off a flight marketed as Alaska, Hawaiian, Skywest or Horizon Air flight, between any cities serviced by Alaska Airlines in North America except select destinations, to be booked by September 30th and flown between September 8th and November 18th. Do make sure you read all the fine print on this one. Unfortunately the restrictions are such that you may not be able to get any benefit out of this if your schedule doesn’t line up with these dates…

Annual 25.000 point annual global companion pass, waived partner booking fees

While you’d get one as part of completing the required spend for the welcome offer, you’d otherwise get a 25.000 global companion pass every account anniversary. This is to be used when booking an Atmos Rewards flight redemption for two people on the same reservation, and can apply to any flight redemption that is possible through Atmos. As such, it is a very flexible reward that can basically be seen as 25.000 ‘free’ points you’d get every year. If you can use this for a business class flight for your companion, this is probably worth $400-500 alone, and can thus make up the annual fee.

In relation to this, but not depending on the companion pass, the card also waives the $12.50 partner booking fee that Alaska imposes on points redemptions made on partner airlines. Think of it this way: for every return trip for you and your companion, you’d save $50. Not only that, but the partner booking fee is non-refundable, so by having this waived, your Atmos redemptions on Alaska partners become 100% refundable.

The crux of this is, what are the realistic redemptions possible through Atmos? Unfortunately the possibilities are not as good as they were evn 2-3 years ago, but I’d say there’s still good value to be had. More about that later. At any rate, this companion pass could make it worth holding onto the card for long term.

A throw for status: 10.000 loyalty points upon card anniversary and 1 loyalty point for every $2 spent on the Summit card

Another thing this card offers is a faster path to status. Every card anniversary the card provides 10.000 status points with Atmos Rewards, which gets you halfway to Silver status:

Beside the 10.000 status points you get, the card also allows you gain status points through spending at an accelerated rate over the Atmos Ascent card: 1 point for every 2 dollars spend (as opposed to every 3 dollars spent).

Finally, while not specific to the Summit card, Alaska provides you with status points for the miles flown on award bookings, with Alaska or partners as well: this is a unique feature of this program that can make it easy to get the Silver status. For example, a roundtrip from the east coast to the west coast is about 5000 miles, so two of those can fill the gap to Silver.

If you pay rent through a portal: pay rent through Bilt and get 3x Atmos point per dollar spent on rent!

I’ve written about Bilt before: the credit card that allows you to earn point son rent. With the launch of Bilt 2.0, that become a lot less lucrative. What hasn’t changed is that you can still earn 3x Atmos points if you pay your rent with your Alaska credit card (Ascent or Summit) through Bilt. There are a few reasons I think this is worthwhile:

• You can quickly earn a load of Atmos points at essentially the cost of 1 cent per point (there is a 3% transaction fee), which is a good value if you can redeem for more than that – I think that should absolutely be possible.
• The rent spending will help you earn status points as well, so will accelerate your ascent in status to even reach gold if your rent is high enough and you can mix in some flying, with award redemptions or cash payments.

Note: you can only use this if you pay rent through a portal, not with check payments. That limitation can mean a world of difference in the utility of the card: if you can use it for rent payments, the Summit card is a point and status-generating machine that flies on autopilot. And if not, it’s just another credit card with some excellent perks if they can be properly utilized.

All together, Alaska’s Summit card is a practical way to redeem for low-cost American flights

Rent payments or not, it’s ultimately this that makes me believe that the Alaska Summit card holds value for those that can’t really be loyal to Alaska in the traditional sense: meaning they can’t fly Alaska Airlines. I’m actually one of those: Alaska’s nonstop route network out of New York is essentially useless as it only covers flights to the west coast and Alaska. As such, for me the value in the Alaska Summit card is in the 25.000 global companion pass, the ability to book low-cost American Airlines Atmos points redemptions, and get Silver status while flying those to enhance that flying a little bit.

Of course, if you are on the west coast, especially in the state of Alaska, or cities including Seattle, Portland or San Francisco, you’ll find a robust route network at your disposal with lounges that will allow you to fully utilize the card’s perks.

What else can you redeem Alaska Atmos points for?

I’ve mention American Airlines a lot, and admitted it’s a practical redemption that’s otherwise no aspirational or sexy in anyway. So, what else can you realistically use Atmos points for? Here’s a some redemptions I consider most useful, beyond American Airlines flights in North America. Note these are all from the US East Coast.

• Condor business class to Europe, all with a one-stop routing through Frankfurt. These can come in as low as 45.000 points per person, so can be an excellent deal! We have booked a flight from Vienna to New York-JFK via Frankfurt for November, so I’m excited to give this a go and report back.
• Aer Lingus business class to Europe, especially to cities in Ireland, starting at 45.000 points per person, another great value. You may also find one-stop routings for cities in Europe, though these can be a bit more costly.

• Various oneworld partners, with different price points and destinations:
  • Qatar Airways starting st 70.000 points from the US east coast to Doha, but usually only last-minute in the next few days, or as far out as Alaska’s schedule open. With the situation in the middle east right now, there’ actually pretty good availability.
  • Iberia to Madrid, usually around 80.000 points. I’d recommend to book through through Iberia directly, however, as it will be significantly cheaper.
  • Finnair to Helsinki, starting at 55.000 points.

• Starlux sometimes has last-minute flights to Taipei bookable through Atmos starting at 75.000 points. Based on reviews, this is an excellent business class product!
• Japan Airlines and Cathay Pacific barely have any business class availability anymore on Atmos, but they do have economy and premium economy. These can be good redemptions that could be worth considering, but make sure you check cash prices to ensure you’re getting adequate value (1-1.5ct per point at least). Japan Airlines premium economy to Tokyo, for example, can come in at 55.000 points, and economy between 37.500 and 42.500, depending on route.

Conversely, there are some redemptions I’d suggest to stay away from at all cost: British Airways redemptions. While these may only cost 45.000 points in business class and therefor seem cheap, they come with hefty taxes and fees of $1000+, making these generally a terrible redemption.

I’d suggest using tools like Seats.Aero to explore the possibilities to ensure you cna find what interests you, especially by using the Explore tool, and picking Atmos Rewards from the list (this link should point there directly).

Summary

I applied for an was approved for the Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards Summit card, which is the premium credit card by Alaska Airlines. Even if you don’t fly Alaska regularly, you should still be able to maximize the key perks and get ahead of the $395 annual fee. Principally, the current elevated welcome bonus is hard to argue with: 100k points and 25k global companion pass should provide excellent first-year value, but I’d argue the 25k global companion passes provided upon card anniversary thereafter could be enough to hold onto this card longterm. As somebody who lives on the east coast, away from the core network of Alaska Airlines, I’ll primarily use the Atmos points and global companion passes for redemptions on American Airlines, and mix flying with the 10.000 status point anniversary bonus to maintain Alaska Silver status.

Note: it’s anybody’s guess how long the current elevated welcome bonus hangs around, so if what you read here sounds good to you, don’t delay your application!