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Why an East Coast Traveler Loves His Alaska Airlines Credit Card
I live on the East Coast and my favorite airline credit card is the Atmos Rewards Summit Card. Here's why.
Craig Joseph is a NerdWallet credit cards and travel rewards expert. He has degrees in geology from West Virginia University and oceanography from Oregon State University and has published in academic journals, newspapers and blogs. Craig is passionate about personal finance and wants to enhance the financial literacy of everyone he meets. He'll probably also try to convince you why rocks are cool.
Claire Tsosie is a managing editor for the Travel Rewards team at NerdWallet. She started her career on the credit cards team as a writer, then worked as an editor on New Markets. Her work has been featured by Forbes, USA Today and The Associated Press.
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As a frequent traveler who lives on the East Coast, it might come as a surprise that my favorite airline credit card is from a West Coast carrier.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula takes into account the type of card being reviewed (such as cash back, travel or balance transfer) and the card's rates, fees, rewards and other features.
Since then, it’s become not just my favorite airline card but one of my favorite credit cards overall. I can redeem rewards on Alaska’s extensive network of partners, including American Airlines, and the card’s Global Companion Awards (which can also be used on partner airlines) have already saved me thousands of dollars. I also earn bonus rewards on international spending and dining, get a fast track to elite status with Alaska Airlines and the broader Oneworld alliance, and receive a 10% rewards boost as a Bank of America® checking customer.
Less than a year in, the value I’ve received has well exceeded the card’s $395 annual fee. And that’s without stepping foot on an Alaska Airlines flight.
Here’s why the Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® credit card deserves a spot in your wallet.
A credit card sign-up bonus is the easiest way to quickly earn a pile of points. And the pile you’ll earn with the Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® credit card is massive. The card currently comes with a limited-time offer: Earn 100,000 bonus points and a 25,000-point Global Companion Award with this offer. To qualify, spend $6,500 or more on purchases within the first 90 days of opening your account. Additionally, receive a 50% flight discount code for a qualifying future flight after opening your new account.
NerdWallet values Atmos Rewards at 1.2 cents each, making the welcome offer worth around $1,200. That’s before accounting for the value of the Global Companion Award and other perks like free checked bags for the cardholder and up to six guests on the same reservation on any Alaska and Hawaiian flight, waived award ticket fees and eight Alaska lounge passes per year (two per quarter).
The 25,000-point Global Companion Award you’ll receive each year you pay the card’s $395 annual fee can be extremely lucrative for travelers who jetset with a friend or family member. This award is applied as a discount on the points price of a flight, allowing you to "top-off" the award with additional points, and may be redeemed for any service class on any flight in Alaska's full network, including eligible international partners. Terms apply.
Last year, I used 10,000 Atmos points plus the 25,000-point Global Companion Award for my partner's round-trip first class ticket from the U.S. to Turks and Caicos to celebrate my birthday. My ticket was another 35,000 points. Those two tickets, which were on Alaska’s partner American Airlines, would have otherwise cost almost $3,000. The savings from that trip alone covers the card’s annual fee for more than seven years!
An island offshore Providenciales, Turks and Caicos. (Photo by Craig Joseph/NerdWallet)
And for big spenders, it gets even better. Each cardmember year that you spend $60,000 or more on the card, you’ll earn an additional 100,000-point Global Companion Award. That’s enough to cover an international business class flight for your companion on world-class partners like Starlux, Finnair, Japan Airlines and Qatar Airways. Spending $60,000 on the card will also qualify you for Atmos Gold and reciprocal Oneworld Sapphire elite status (more on that below).
Starlux business class cabin. (Photo by Erin Herd/NerdWallet)
Unique bonus rewards categories
A unique feature of the Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® credit card is the ability to earn 3 points per dollar on all foreign transactions. No other card we’ve covered offers bonus rewards on international purchases, making the card a great option when you travel abroad. You’ll also earn 3 points per dollar on dining purchases and 1 point per dollar on everything else.
But it gets even better. If you have a qualifying Bank of America® account, you’ll earn a 10% rewards bonus on all points earned from card purchases. Since I have a Bank of America® checking account, that relationship bonus results in 3.3 points per dollar on foreign transactions and dining purchases. At NerdWallet’s valuation of 1.2 cents per Atmos point, that’s equivalent to about 4% back on those purchases.
On a recent trip to Mexico, I used my Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® credit card for every purchase I made. In the screenshot below, you can see the “foreign purchase bonus” netted an extra 1,537 Atmos points for the bonus category spending, and an extra 260 Atmos points for the Bank of America® relationship bonus.
🤓Nerdy Tip
Bilt Rewards members can also earn 3 Atmos points per dollar by using the Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® credit card or the Atmos™ Rewards Ascent Visa Signature® credit card to make their monthly rent or mortgage payment through Bilt (capped at $60,000 in housing payments per year). There's a 3% fee for using an Atmos card through Bilt, so you're effectively buying Atmos points at 1 cent each.
Save on best-in-class partner award bookings
Access to partner airlines is my favorite part of earning Atmos points. The program offers redemptions for flights operated by many Oneworld alliance airlines, as well as other partners, such as Condor and Starlux. As an added benefit, cardholders receive a waiver of the $25-per-person award ticket booking fee when you redeem points on a partner airline.
Oneworld member airlines Oneworld member airlines
Alaska Airlines.
American Airlines.
British Airways.
Cathay Pacific.
Fiji Airways.
Finnair.
Iberia.
Japan Airlines.
Malaysia Airlines.
Oman Air.
Qantas.
Qatar Airways.
Royal Air Maroc.
Royal Jordanian.
Sri Lankan Airlines.
From the East Coast, I redeem Atmos points on American Airlines’ extensive network of domestic flights. Some American flights are actually cheaper when you redeem Atmos Rewards than if you were to use AAdvantage miles.
I also take advantage of Oneworld partner redemptions for international flights. In 2025, I redeemed 70,000 Atmos Rewards for a business class flight on Oneworld partner Finnair from Chicago to Amsterdam. Thanks to the generous stopover rules when you redeem Atmos points (including on partner airlines), I was able to book a free stopover in Helsinki (Finnair’s main hub). That allowed me to experience an amazing four days of sauna culture in Finland. I also took the ferry over to Estonia for a day, allowing me to visit two extra countries without spending more points.
Sauna overlooking the Baltic Sea in Helsinki. (Photo by Craig Joseph/NerdWallet)
A fast track to elite status
The Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® credit card gives you a fast track to elite status by offering 1 status point per $2 spent on all transactions, plus 10,000 status points every account anniversary. The anniversary bonus alone gets you halfway to the 20,000 status points required for Atmos Rewards Silver status, which includes potential first and premium class upgrades, preferred boarding and reciprocal Oneworld Ruby elite status.
I’m already half way to spending the $60,000 required to earn a 100,000-point Global Companion Award. Once I spend the full $60,000, I’ll earn a total of 40,000 status points for the year, including 30,000 status points from spending and 10,000 status points from the anniversary bonus. That will also let me qualify for mid-tier Atmos Gold and reciprocal Oneworld Sapphire elite status, which includes business class lounge access when I travel outside of North America, preferred boarding and free seat selection.
A standout benefit of the Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® credit card is the $50 credit provided for delays exceeding two hours and flight cancellations within 24 hours of takeoff when you fly with Alaska. This protection applies regardless of the cause — including weather or mechanical issues — and serves as a supplement to any standard compensation you’ll receive for controllable disruptions. I haven't used this benefit yet, but it could be a nice-to-have feature when I fly with Alaska Airlines this summer.
Why you should get the Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® credit card
The Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® credit card effectively bridges the gap between a standard airline card and a luxury travel tool, making it a compelling choice even for East Coast travelers like myself. The combination of unique perks and flexibility through partner airline redemptions makes it one of the most rewarding credit cards in my wallet. While the $395 annual fee may seem steep, the massive welcome offer, annual Global Companion Award and ancillary perks like flight delay compensation ensure that the card more than pays for itself.