Alaska Airlines has really made a splash the past 2 weeks with the rollout of the new Atmos Rewards program as well as 3 new Bank of America credit card offers. The Summit Visa Infinite card is the headliner as both a new product and one that is offering a very attractive sign-up bonus. It has many expected features (free checked bag, preferred boarding and the ability to spend towards elite status) and some innovative features (instant travel delay credit, lounge passes with premium bar experience), but there are 6 features which for my personal travel patterns stand out the most and make this card a likely long-term keeper in my wallet.
Six figure sign-up bonus
Since I signed up to be on the waitlist for this card back in December of last year, I was eligible for an extra 5k points on top of the very strong 100k public offer. For those who didn’t sign up for the waitlist, Doctor of Credit posted recently about another avenue to try to get the elevated bonus of 105k points by calling in and applying over the phone with a specific offer code. Depending on the distance traveled, this sign-up bonus alone could cover a round trip from the US to Europe partner award in business class. My family will be using that approach to return home from Europe on a trip next spring where we will fly from Rome through Chicago back to St. Louis for 55k miles per person, traveling in American Airlines business class.
Free points sharing
One of the great features of the Hawaiian Airlines program is the ability to transfer points to other members for free (up to 10 times per year) if you have the Hawaiian credit card. That’s definitely something I’ve leveraged this year and something you can still do if you have and of the Barclays Hawaiian cards – here is how to do it.
Since we don’t know how much longer that will be available, it was great to see a similar, and perhaps better, capability come with the Summit card. Essentially, you will be able to create a network with up to 10 additional members and share points freely across the network, with no limitations on the number of transfers.
One way I see myself leveraging this would be on paid family travel on American or other partner airlines. Instead of earning a small amount of points that would tend to be orphaned, especially for my kids’ accounts, I can now credit all of our flights to Alaska and then pool the points to my Atmos Rewards account, since we tend to book award travel from my account. This will make paid partner travel more rewarding and very easy to pool.
Awesome Global Companion Awards
Since I don’t fly Alaska flights often, having something like a $99 companion ticket benefit would not be very useful for me, so I really love what they did with these Global Companion Awards (GCA). Just by having the card you will earn a 25k GCA, and an additional 100k award can be earned with $60k of spend on the card. I don’t anticipate trying to spend my way to the 100k GCA, but I find the 25k GCA highly valuable.
Earlier this year when we had last minute travel to Miami, I could have used the 25k award to cover a 22.5k ticket on American that was a $1000 cash rate (though I would have forfeited the remaining 2.5k value). I certainly don’t value this benefit at $1000 face value, but it won’t be hard to consistently cover the annual fee with a value of $395 or more per 25k award.
Alternatively, on a 55k business class award to Europe, you could get a second ticket for only 30k points (55k – 25k GCA). These awards can also be used to book travel for 2 different people – the card holder does not need to be one of the travelers in order to use it. Even better, you have a full year to book the award but the travel can extend even further into the future, giving it even more flexibility.
Waived partner award booking fees
As much as I loved Alaska’s award chart and cancellation policy, the $12.50 per ticket each way could add up on a family award ticket. These fees were also forfeited if you did cancel an award ticket so while you could get your miles redeposited instantly, you were out these fees. Waiver partner award booking fees brings two benefits; saving you money when you book and not costing you anything if you need to cancel. So far this year I would have saved $150 with this feature so for me, it is one of the most valuable offered by the Summit card.
I test drove this feature last night with my new Summit card. It may be because I just activated my card that day, but I did need to call in and book over the phone to get the fees waived. I spoke with a wonderful Alaska agent, Katie, who was helpful in researching the issue and helping me make the booking without the fees. It sounds like this is still new for Alaska as well, so hopefully over time this becomes automated.
3X on all foreign purchases
For someone who travels a lot internationally, this is a great card for everyday spend while out of the country. Many of us have cards that get 3X or higher already for dining or hotel spend, which is a large portion of our international spend, but it will be nice to get 3X on things like public transport, museum tickets and other miscellaneous spend.
10% bonus points if you have a Bank of America account
Per the press release from Alaska and Bank of America, “Eligible Bank of America account holders earn a 10% rewards bonus on all card purchases, amplifying their rewards earning – that’s 3.3 points per dollar spent on purchases across these categories, more than any other airline card on the market.” This is a nice perk and could help tilt the scales in favor of using this card for dining purchases if you have a Bank of America account. I do not currently but do plan to open a checking account to take advantage of this opportunity. Then I’ll have to decide if I want to earn 4X Amex points with my Gold card or 3.3X Atmos points with the Summit card; a good problem to have.
What are your favorite features of the new Atmos Rewards Summit card?
TL;DR: The new Atmos Rewards Summit card is packed with innovative features that for my personal situation more than make up for the annual fee, even if I very rarely fly on Alaska or Hawaiian flights. I love the ability to share points, leverage Global Companion Awards on partner premium cabin flights, and have those partner booking fees waived on award tickets!
The waived partner award fee is amazing. I have over 2 million Alaska miles from AMEX -> Hawaii -> Alaska.
Now I can speculative book trips with no cost.
That’s awesome! Definitely a plus to have a cost effective way to book backup flights, positioning flights, or grab award space when it becomes available even if the rest of the trip isn’t finalized. I am surprised it is not happening automatically. Definitely something I will keep my eye on and write about soon. It wasn’t difficult, but did take a 20+ minute phone call to get my flight booked last night.