Is the Atmos Ascent Card Worth Its Annual Fee?

The Atmos™ Rewards Ascent Visa Signature® credit card — with its $95 annual fee — offers outstanding value in the first year. The current welcome bonus: Earn 80,000 bonus points and a $99 Companion Fare (plus taxes and fees from $23) with this offer. To qualify, spend $4,000 or more on purchases within the first 120 days of opening your account.

Whether it’ll be worth keeping for the long term depends in part on how often you fly Alaska Airlines — and whether you can earn and use the card's popular Companion Fare benefit. Here’s how to figure out whether the card makes sense for you.

Calculate how much you would save in checked bag fees

Alaska Airlines charges $35 for a passenger's first checked bag and $45 for a second. The fee on the first checked bag is waived for the cardholder and up to six people traveling on a reservation, so the savings here can really add up fast.

If you took just one round-trip flight on Alaska Airlines and checked a bag, you’d save $70.

» Learn more: Guide to Alaska Airlines baggage and other fees

Take advantage of the Companion Fare

In addition to the welcome bonus, new holders of the Atmos™ Rewards Ascent Visa Signature® credit card who complete the $6,000 annual spending requirement earn a $99 Companion Fare. This means if you book yourself a ticket, you can bring along a travel companion from $122 ($99 fare plus taxes and fees from $23).

The Companion Fare is issued annually for qualifying members.

To get at least the value equal to the annual fee out of the card, you would have to book a ticket for a companion that costs more than $217 ($95 + $99 + $23 for taxes and fees). So, plan on using it for more than just a short, cheap flight to get the most bang for your buck.

Look at where Alaska Airlines flies and then think about where you will likely fly this year. It’s easy to think about a trip to Hawaii, but it’s a different story to price out hotels, research activities and look at menus online from regional restaurants.

You don’t want to pick a card because of wishful trip planning. Plan out the trip you want to take. Alaska flies all over the U.S., and its partners fly all over the world.

» Learn more: Alaska Airlines credit card review

Plan what you'll do with the welcome bonus

Though the welcome bonus on this card is lower than that of some other airline cards, you can also book cheaper awards with Alaska in some cases. For example, the cheapest flight with American Airlines miles costs 7,500 points each way for distances of 500 miles or less.

But with Atmos Rewards, Alaska and Hawaiian Airlines' joint loyalty program, you can take short hops of less than 700 miles for just 5,000 points each way. If you fly quite a bit on short flights among West Coast cities, you can make good use of the welcome bonus for this card.

NerdWallet values Atmos points at 1.2 cents each.

Consider your current flying and spending habits

If you fly frequently on Alaska Airlines, that doesn’t necessarily mean the Atmos™ Rewards Ascent Visa Signature® credit card is the best card for you — or at least not as your primary travel card. After the first year, receiving the annual Companion Fare doesn’t require a minimum purchase.

Thus, you could decide to solely use this card for your Alaska Airlines purchases, on which you will earn 3 points per $1 spent. You can also use it to earn 2 points for every $1 spent on eligible gas, EV charging station, cable, streaming services and local transit including ride share purchases.

The bottom line

The primary feature of the Atmos™ Rewards Ascent Visa Signature® credit card that makes the annual fee worth it beyond the first year is the Companion Fare offer, if you can meet the minimum $6,000 annual spend as a new cardholder. It can also be worth it if you'd otherwise be paying a lot of baggage fees on Alaska.