Review: Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® card

The Alaska Airlines Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® card is the flagship Atmos credit card offered by Bank of America following the merger of the Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines loyalty programs.

The card is designed to sit at the top of the Atmos Rewards ecosystem and aims to appeal to frequent flyers who are looking for a path to elite status and rewards for international spending.

The card comes with an annual fee of $395 which is not waived for the first year and which may seem a little high, but while $395 is a significant amount of money for a co-branded airline card, it’s worth noting that this is noticeably lower than the fees currently charged for the flagship cards from American Airlines, Delta, and United.

The welcome offer

New cardholders will be given a 50% flight discount code upon approval and can earn 100,000 Atmos Rewards points as well as a 25,000 point Global Companion Award. when they spend at least $6,500 on eligible purchases within the first 90 days of account opening.

A spending requirement of $6,500 in three months is quite high for an airline card and for quite a few people, this will probably require moving all daily spending to the card to ensure the target is met.

If that’s you, keep this in mind as it will mean that you may have to move spending from a more lucrative card to meet this card’s welcome offer target. That means that there’s an opportunity cost associated with you earning the bonus.

Earning rates

The earning structure of the Summit Visa Infinite card is one of its more interesting features, particularly for those who spend a lot of time outside the United States.

The card earns points at the following rates:

• 3 points per $1 spent on Alaska Airlines purchases.
• 3 points per $1 spent on dining.
• 3 points per $1 spent on all foreign transactions.
• 1 point per $1 spent on all other purchases.

The decision to offer 3 points per $1 on all foreign transactions is a significant departure from the industry standard. Most airline cards only offer elevated multipliers on their own flights or specific domestic categories like gas or groceries.

For travelers who spend heavily in foreign currencies, this 3x multiplier could make the card a very productive tool for daily spend when abroad.

It’s also worth noting that cardholders who have an eligible Bank of America account can receive a 10% rewards bonus on all points earned from card purchases. This effectively moves the 3x categories to 3.3 points per $1, and that’s impressive.

Key benefits

Elite status fast-track

For many Alaska Airlines loyalists, the main reason to pay a $395 annual fee will be the assistance it provides in reaching elite status.

This card provides 10,000 status points every year on your account anniversary, and beyond that, cardholders earn 1 status point for every $2 spent on the card.

There is no limit to the number of status points you can earn through spending, so this is a powerful benefit for those who may struggle to reach the flight mile requirements for Atmos Platinum or Atmos Titanium status but who have high annual credit card expenses.

Lounge and Wi-Fi benefits

While the card is a Visa Infinite product, it does not offer a full Alaska Lounge+ membership. Instead, it provides eight Alaska Lounge day passes annually. These passes are distributed at a rate of two passes per calendar quarter.

This quarterly distribution is a notable downside as it means you cannot save all eight passes for a single family trip or a heavy travel month. Worse yet, if you do not use your two passes within a specific three month window, you lose them.

The card also provides eight Wi-Fi passes for use on Alaska Airlines flights. Like the lounge passes, these are distributed at a rate of two per quarter.

The Global Companion Award

The Global Companion Award is a core feature of the Atmos Rewards program. On each account anniversary, Summit cardholders receive a 25,000 point Global Companion Award which, when applied to an award booking for two people, covers up to 25,000 points of the companion’s ticket.

For very high spenders, there is an additional incentive.

If you spend $60,000 or more on the card in a single anniversary year, you will receive a 100,000 point Global Companion Award and this should be valuable for anyone who books long haul international business class awards where the point costs are significant.

Upgrade priority on Alaska & Hawaiian flights

The Atmos Rewards Summit Visa Infinite card can offer a boost for those seeking a complimentary upgrade to a seat at the front of the aircraft.

Cardholders receive upgrade priority on flights operated by both Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines and this could turn out to be be a deciding factor on competitive routes.

This is how Alaska Airlines prioritizes its upgrade waitlists:

• Elite status level
• Lifetime million miler elite status level
• Atmos Rewards Summit Visa Infinite cardholders
• Travelers on corporate contracts
• Number of status points earned in both the current and the previous year
• The time of booking

What this shows is that if you’re competing for an upgrade with someone who holds the same elite status as you, holding the Atmos Rewards Summit card could be what gets you the upgrade instead of them (assuming they don’t hold Lifetime elite status or hold the Summit card as well).

Alaska same day flight change fee waiver

For travelers whose plans shift at the last minute, the same day flight change fee waiver allows them to switch to a different flight on their day of travel without the standard confirmed change fee.

This is one of the more a practical benefits the card offers and it can save a cardholder a significant amount of money over a year … assuming there is a seat available on the new flights they want to take.

20% inflight savings on Alaska & Hawaiian flights

This is one of those perks where it’s easy to see the card returning some monetary value and repaying some of the annual fee that it charges.

When a cardholder uses their card to pay for onboard purchases (food, beverages, or Wi-Fi) they’ll receive a 20% rebate on their spending as a statement credit every time.

There’s no limit on the number of times this benefit can be used, so the savings can quickly add up.

Rental car coverage & useful travel protection

As a Visa Infinite product, the card comes bundled with a suite of rental car coverage and travel protections that are often superior to those found on standard credit cards.

This includes primary rental car coverage (which allows the cardholder to decline the rental agency’s expensive insurance and to keep their personal car insurance out of things should there be an incident) as well as various travel protections (trip delay, baggage cover, etc…) which can help mitigate the costs and headaches associated with delayed flights, cancellations, and airline incompetence.

Additional benefits

As well as all of the above, the card includes several other benefits that can help offset the annual fee and make travel a little easier or more comfortable:

Global Entry/TSA PreCheck credit: Up to a $120 statement credit every four years.

Free checked bag: The first checked bag is free for the cardholder and up to six guests on the same reservation when flying with Alaska Airlines.

Preferred boarding: Available on Alaska Airlines operated flights for the cardholder and up to six guests on the same reservation.

No award booking fees: The card waives the airline’s standard $12.50 partner award booking fee.

Flight delay credit: Cardholders will have a $50 voucher issued to them for Alaska Airlines flight cancellations or delays of two hours or more.

Bottom Line

The Alaska Airlines Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® card is a niche product (it’s an airline card), but one that we really like.

It’s a card primarily aimed at people who travel frequently with Alaska Airlines, who want to be able to boost their progress to elite status via spending, and who value a high earning rate on international purchases.

The $395 annual fee may seem high, but it looks reasonable when compared to other premium airline cards … and that’s especially true when you factor in the 10,000 annual status points and the Global Companion Award.

Having said that, the fact that the card restricts lounge and Wi-Fi passes to a quarterly schedule is an annoying complication that reduces the overall flexibility of the card and cannot be overlooked.

If you are a frequent Alaska Airlines flyer who can utilize the status points and the companion award, this card represents very good value. If, however, you don’t care about elite status and/or only fly once or twice a year, the $395 fee is unlikely to be worth it and other cards will almost certainly suit you better.