Alaska Airlines offers three credit cards in partnership with Bank of America. In this article, we lay out all of the cards’ substantive benefits side-by-side so that you can find the best card for you.
Once you’ve found the best card for you, check out the best Alaska Airlines card welcome bonuses, which we keep continuously updated with the best bonus offers on the Alaska cards.
Alaska credit card overview
Here’s the high-level overview of the Alaska Airlines cards with a (very) high-level overview of each card.
| Annual Fee | Top-Level Overview of the Card | |
|---|---|---|
| Atmos™ Rewards Ascent Visa Signature® Credit Card | ||
 | $95 | An affordable way to get access to a free checked bag and earn a companion certificate each year with moderate spending on the card. |
| Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® Credit Card | ||
 | $395 | The best card to get if you engage with Alaska’s loyalty program. Offers global companion award certificates, waived fees, and coupons for lounge access and Wifi. Also includes a reasonable set of travel insurance benefits. |
| Atmos™ Rewards Visa Signature® Business Card | ||
 | $70 for the company and $25 per card | Substantively similar to the Ascent card, but it trades off the Ascent card’s 2x earnings on streaming for 2x earnings on shipping. |
Alaska Benefits: Benefits when flying on Alaska
The Atmos cards all offer a free checked bag benefit for you and your traveling companions when you book your flight with your card, plus the opportunity to earn various companion certificates and other perks. Here are the benefits that each card offers when flying on Alaska and Hawaiian.
| | |
| Atmos™ Rewards Ascent Visa Signature® Credit Card | Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® Credit Card | Atmos™ Rewards Visa Signature® Business Card |
| Free Checked Bag + Preferred Boarding. Applies to cardmember and up to 6 guests on the same reservation, traveling on Alaska or Hawaiian. Flight must be purchased with the card. | ||
| $99 Companion Fare. Earned when you spend at least $6,000 in purchases on your card in an account anniversary year. | ||
| – | ||
| + Earn Global Companion Awards | ||
| – | 25,000 point award on account anniversary. 100,000 point award after spending $60k/year. | – |
| Alaska Lounge Benefits | ||
| $100 discount on Alaska Lounge+ Membership. | 2 Alaska Lounge passes each calendar quarter. (Total 8 per year.) | $100 discount on Alaska Lounge+ Membership. |
| Waived Fees for Same-Day Confirmed Alaska Flight Changes | ||
| – | – | |
| Atmos Rewards Membership Status Boost. Receive 10,000 status points each account anniversary year. | ||
| – | – | |
| Earn Atmos Status Points | ||
| 1 point / $3 spent | 1 point/ $2 spent | 1 point / $3 spent |
| Complimentary Wifi Passes. Receive 2 Alaska Airlines single flight WiFi passes each quarter. | ||
| – | – | |
| Point Sharing. Share points between up to 10 additional Atmos Rewards accounts. | ||
| – | – | |
| Instant Travel Delay Credit. Receive a $50 voucher for a flight departure delay of 2 hours or more on Alaska Airlines flights. | ||
| – | – | |
| Get 20% Back on In-Flight Purchases | ||
Our takeaway: If you take a few trips a year and check bags, the Atmos cards will pay for themselves in waived checked bag fees. The real interesting feature of the Summit card is the global companion awards, which can be extremely valuable if used for face value. But watch out for the details on the lounge passes—rather than getting your 8 passes to use for the entire year, you’ll get 2 passes each quarter, which expire if you don’t use them in the quarter.
Rewards: Earn Atmos points for purchases
The Alaska Airlines credit cards earn Atmos points on purchases, with bonus rewards for Alaska and Hawaiian Flights and in a handful of bonus categories. Here is what the Alaska cards earn.
| | |
| Atmos™ Rewards Ascent Visa Signature® Credit Card | Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® Credit Card | Atmos™ Rewards Visa Signature® Business Card |
| Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines Flights | ||
| 3x | 3x | 3x |
| + Gas and EV Charging | ||
| 2x | – | 2x |
| Cable and Streaming Services | ||
| 2x | – | – |
| Dining | ||
| – | 3x | – |
| Foreign Transactions | ||
| – | 3x | – |
| Local Transit Purchases, Including Rideshare | ||
| 2x | – | 2x |
| Shipping | ||
| – | – | 2x |
| Relationship Bonus. Earn a 10% rewards bonus on all points earned from card purchases if you have an eligible Bank of America account. | ||
| Other Purchases | ||
| 1x | 1x | 1x |
Our takeaway: The Alaska cards are decent cards to use for spending on Alaska Airlines flights and in categories where you earn 3x points. Particularly notable is the Ascent card’s 3x on foreign transactions. There are very few (if any) cards that bonus this category. Outside of the 3x categories, however, you can pretty easily earn better rewards using other cards that bonus those categories.
Other Card Benefits
Bank of America’s credit cards are often pretty light on benefits, and the Alaska cards are no exception. The Summit card does offer a reasonable set of travel benefits, but the cheaper cards offer basically nothing.
| | |
| Atmos™ Rewards Ascent Visa Signature® Credit Card | Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® Credit Card | Atmos™ Rewards Visa Signature® Business Card |
| Airport Security Statement Credit. Receive up to $120 in credits for TSA PreCheck® or Global Entry every four years. | ||
| – | – | |
| Trip Cancellation/Interruption Insurance | ||
| – | – | |
| Trip Delay Insurance | ||
| – | – | |
| Baggage Delay Insurance | ||
| – | – | |
| Emergency Evaction and Transportation | ||
| – | ||
| Roadside Assistance | ||
| – | – | |
My take: It’s refreshing to see innovation in this space
Aaron Hurd
Executive Editor of Cards and Points
If you’re a casual Alaska flyer, you’ll probably get the most value out of one of the $95/year cards. And that value will be primarily in the bag fees that you don’t pay because you hold these cards. Think of these cards as a subscription to free checked bags on Alaska.
However, if you’re deep into the miles and points game and you collect and use a lot of Alaska miles, you can get massive value out of the Summit card. If you’re using the 25k global companion award and the 100k global companion awards every year, you’re getting value well in excess of the card’s annual fee.
Generally, I wouldn’t recommend putting spending on these cards—or any airline credit cards—beyond the $6,000/year that you need to spend to earn the companion certificate on the cheaper cards or the $60,000/year that you need to spend on the Summit card to earn the companion certificate. You earn decent awards for travel on Alaska, and in the cards’ other 3x categories, but you can do better with your other spending.
Particularly notable is the Summit card’s 3x rewards on foreign transactions. This isn’t a bonus category that I’ve seen on any other card. And that brings me to another point…
Honestly, it’s refreshing to see an airline card lineup that doesn’t simply copy what Delta is doing. The Summit card in particular has several unique and innovative features: global point-based companion certificates, same-day change fee waivers for cardmembers, point sharing, the instant travel delay credit, and the 3x on foreign transactions.
It’s great to see innovation in this space. And I’m also happy that Alaska has kept its signature $99 companion fare on the lower-tier cards, even if they added a spending requirement to earn it.
