Why an East Coast Traveler Loves His Alaska Airlines Credit Card

As a frequent traveler who lives on the East Coast, it would come as a shock that my favourite airline bank card is from a West Coast service.

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Lower than a 12 months in, the worth I’ve obtained has effectively exceeded the cardboard’s $395 annual charge. And that’s with out stepping foot on an Alaska Airways flight.

Right here’s why the Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® bank card deserves a spot in your pockets.

A bank card sign-up bonus is the simplest option to shortly earn a pile of factors. And the pile you’ll earn with the Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® bank card is huge. The cardboard presently comes with a limited-time provide: Earn 100,000 bonus factors and a 25,000-point World Companion Award with this provide. To qualify, spend $6,500 or extra on purchases throughout the first 90 days of opening your account. Moreover, obtain a 50% flight low cost code for a qualifying future flight after opening your new account.

The 25,000-point World Companion Award you’ll obtain every year you pay the cardboard’s $395 annual charge might be extraordinarily profitable for vacationers who jetset with a pal or member of the family. This award is utilized as a reduction on the factors value of a flight, permitting you to “top-off” the award with further factors, and could also be redeemed for any service class on any flight in Alaska’s full community, together with eligible worldwide companions. Phrases apply.

Final 12 months, I used 10,000 Atmos factors plus the 25,000-point World Companion Award for my associate’s round-trip top notch ticket from the U.S. to Turks and Caicos to have fun my birthday. My ticket was one other 35,000 factors. These two tickets, which had been on Alaska’s associate American Airways, would have in any other case value nearly $3,000. The financial savings from that journey alone covers the cardboard’s annual charge for greater than seven years!

And for giant spenders, it will get even higher. Every cardmember 12 months that you just spend $60,000 or extra on the cardboard, you’ll earn a further 100,000-point World Companion Award. That’s sufficient to cowl a world enterprise class flight in your companion on world-class companions like Starlux, Finnair, Japan Airways and Qatar Airways. Spending $60,000 on the cardboard may also qualify you for Atmos Gold and reciprocal Oneworld Sapphire elite standing (extra on that beneath).

A singular function of the Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® bank card is the power to earn 3 factors per greenback on all overseas transactions. No different card we’ve coated gives bonus rewards on worldwide purchases, making the cardboard a terrific choice while you journey overseas. You’ll additionally earn 3 factors per greenback on eating purchases and 1 level per greenback on every little thing else.

But it surely will get even higher. You probably have a qualifying Financial institution of America® account, you’ll earn a ten% rewards bonus on all factors earned from card purchases. Since I’ve a Financial institution of America® checking account, that relationship bonus ends in 3.3 factors per greenback on overseas transactions and eating purchases. At NerdWallet’s valuation of 1.2 cents per Atmos level, that’s equal to about 4% again on these purchases.

On a latest journey to Mexico, I used my Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® bank card for each buy I made. Within the screenshot beneath, you may see the “overseas buy bonus” netted an additional 1,537 Atmos factors for the bonus class spending, and an additional 260 Atmos factors for the Financial institution of America® relationship bonus.

Entry to associate airways is my favourite a part of incomes Atmos factors. This system gives redemptions for flights operated by many Oneworld alliance airways, in addition to different companions, equivalent to Condor and Starlux. As an additional benefit, cardholders obtain a waiver of the $25-per-person award ticket reserving charge while you redeem factors on a associate airline.

From the East Coast, I redeem Atmos factors on American Airways’ in depth community of home flights. Some American flights are literally cheaper while you redeem Atmos Rewards than if you happen to had been to make use of AAdvantage miles.

I additionally make the most of Oneworld associate redemptions for worldwide flights. In 2025, I redeemed 70,000 Atmos Rewards for a enterprise class flight on Oneworld associate Finnair from Chicago to Amsterdam. Because of the beneficiant stopover guidelines while you redeem Atmos factors (together with on associate airways), I used to be capable of e book a free stopover in Helsinki (Finnair’s most important hub). That allowed me to expertise an incredible 4 days of sauna tradition in Finland. I additionally took the ferry over to Estonia for a day, permitting me to go to two further nations with out spending extra factors.

I’m already half option to spending the $60,000 required to earn a 100,000-point World Companion Award. As soon as I spend the complete $60,000, I’ll earn a complete of 40,000 standing factors for the 12 months, together with 30,000 standing factors from spending and 10,000 standing factors from the anniversary bonus. That may also let me qualify for mid-tier Atmos Gold and reciprocal Oneworld Sapphire elite standing, which incorporates enterprise class lounge entry once I journey outdoors of North America, most well-liked boarding and free seat choice.

The Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® bank card successfully bridges the hole between a regular airline card and a luxurious journey device, making it a compelling selection even for East Coast vacationers like myself. The mixture of distinctive perks and suppleness via associate airline redemptions makes it some of the rewarding bank cards in my pockets. Whereas the $395 annual charge could appear steep, the huge welcome provide, annual World Companion Award and ancillary perks like flight delay compensation be certain that the cardboard greater than pays for itself.