$99 Alaska Companion Fare: How This Atmos Rewards Card Perk Works

There are various airline credit cards that offer some sort of a companion ticket for spending a certain amount. To me, one of the more valuable companion tickets is the one offered by Alaska Air Group, valid for flights on Alaska and Hawaiian.

In this post, I’d like to take a look at the $99 companion fare offered by Atmos Rewards credit cards in more detail, to discuss how it works, and how you can maximize value with it. We’ve seen some rule changes to these over time, so I think it’s worth covering the current state of them.

More from OMAAT Alaska Atmos Rewards Summit Card Bonus: 100K Points & 25K-Point Global Companion Award Read more

Link: Learn more about the Atmos™ Rewards Ascent Visa Signature® credit card or Atmos™ Rewards Visa Signature® Business Card

How to earn Alaska & Hawaiian $99 companion fare

There are two credit cards that offer the Alaska and Hawaiian $99 companion fare. Both the Atmos™ Rewards Ascent Visa Signature® credit card (learn more) and Atmos™ Rewards Visa Signature® Business Card (learn more) offer a $99 companion fare (plus taxes and fees starting from $23).

The idea is that you can book the primary traveler at the standard fare, and then the second passenger will cost you $99, plus any government taxes and fees.

The $99 companion fare is offered as part of the welcome bonuses on these cards. For context, here are the current bonuses available on the card:

• The Atmos Rewards Ascent Card is offering a huge welcome bonus of up to 80,000 points plus a $99 companion fare (plus taxes and fees from $23); earn 60,000 points plus the companion fare after spending $3,000 within the first 90 days, and earn an additional 20,000 points after spending a total of $5,000 within the same period
• The Atmos Rewards Business Card is offering 70,000 points plus a $99 companion fare (plus taxes and fees from $23) after spending $4,000 within the first 90 days

On top of that, you can earn a $99 companion fare each anniversary year if you spend $6,000 on the card. Keep in mind that you’re potentially eligible for both of these cards (including the welcome bonuses), so it’s possible to earn multiple certificates.

There’s merit to picking up both the personal card and business card, given their low fees and useful benefits. For that matter, if you’re a household with four or more people, it could also make sense for you and your spouse to each get one of these cards, so that you could use two companion certificates for a total of four passengers.

You’ll find that your $99 companion fare is deposited in your Atmos Rewards account shortly after you reach the minimum spending requirement in the first year, and shortly after your account anniversary in subsequent years (assuming you reach the spending requirement). The terms state that it could take up to two billing cycles, but in my experience, it typically posts much faster than that.

Let me also emphasize that these $99 companion fares are separate from the Global Companion Awards (worth 25,000 points or 100,000 points) that can be earned with the Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite^® Credit Card (learn more), which can be used when redeeming Atmos Rewards points. There’s a huge incentive to spend money on that card, given all the great perks offered.

How to redeem Alaska & Hawaiian $99 companion fare

When it comes to redeeming the Alaska and Hawaiian $99 companion fare, there are some details to be aware of, as you’d expect:

• The $99 companion fare is valid for travel on Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines within the Americas, including for travel in the state of Hawaii; however, it’s not valid for travel to Pacific destinations outside the United States, to Europe, etc.
• The $99 companion fare is only valid for tickets booked in economy, though all economy fare classes are included
• The $99 companion fare can only be used when there are exactly two people on a reservation, so if you have a reservation with more than two people, the option to use it won’t show
• Tickets booked with the $99 companion fare are upgradeable, both for the primary passenger and companion (this includes using complimentary elite upgrades, upgrade certificates, instant upgrade fares, etc.)
• Both passengers booked with the $99 companion fare earn points for their tickets, whether crediting to Atmos Rewards or a partner program
• The $99 companion fare is valid for one year from when it’s issued, until 11:59PM on that date; however, that’s only the book-by date, while you can travel on a subsequent date
• Tickets with the $99 companion fare can be booked directly online, by first starting the flight booking process through your Atmos Rewards account, by getting the discount code
• You’re allowed to use the $99 companion fare code for two other people (in other words, the cardmember doesn’t need to be traveling)
• The $99 companion fare doesn’t need to be used for the person it’s issued to, though the ticket does have to be paid for using the Atmos Rewards credit card of the person that it was issued to
• It’s not possible to use Alaska wallet funds for tickets booked using the $99 companion fare, which is rather frustrating
• Both passengers need to be booked on the same itinerary, travel on the same flights, and be ticketed at the same time
• The $99 companion fare is valid for roundtrip or one-way travel; it’s not valid for open-jaw or multi-city travel, or for tickets with stopovers (it used to be valid for this, but not anymore)
• The $99 companion fare isn’t valid for award travel, or for travel that includes segments on any airlines other than Alaska, Horizon, or Hawaiian

Let’s talk a bit about the actual booking process. To find your $99 companion fare, you’ll want to log into your Atmos Rewards account, and visit the “Wallet” section, where you’ll see any companion fare codes listed.

You can then either manually copy the code, or click “Use to book” to start the booking process.

If you click “Use to book,” you’ll be brought to the booking page, where you’ll see the code copied in the “Discount code” section. You’ll want to enter your origin, destination, dates, and number of travelers (be sure you select two travelers).

Once you get to the search page, you’ll see that any eligible itineraries show the green checkmark next to the itinerary, indicating that it’s eligible. That then shows you the price for the first passenger, plus for the companion.

For example, I pulled up a roundtrip ticket from Fort Lauderdale (FLL) to Honolulu (HNL) via San Diego (SAN) in one direction and Seattle (SEA) in the other direction. As you can see, the fare differs depending on whether you want the Saver or Main fare. Any fare with the green checkmark next to it would include the Alaska companion fare, and the price next to the green checkmark is how much you pay for the companion.

For example, the itinerary I chose shows a total price of $748, and that includes the companion. If you wanted to proceed with booking, you’d click the “Add to cart” button.

For example, the itinerary I chose above costs $570.49 for the first passenger, and then a total of $176.53 for the companion. That means in this example, you’d be saving $393.96 on the companion.

That’s an amazing deal, given the low annual fee on these cards. For that matter, this was just about the cheapest ticket to Hawaii I could find. Plenty of tickets in the market would cost closer to $1,000, so in that situation, the savings would be even bigger. Obviously if you’re a family and you can pick up multiple Alaska cards, the savings here could be huge.

How to upgrade Alaska & Hawaiian $99 companion fare

The Alaska and Hawaiian $99 companion fare is limited to economy tickets, though the good news is that these tickets are upgradeable to first class. There are a few ways to go about this, especially if you have elite status, like Atmos Rewards Silver, Gold, Platinum, or Titanium:

• Atmos Rewards elite members are eligible for complimentary space available upgrades for themselves and a companion, and those upgrades start clearing at 72-120 hours before departure
• With the Atmos Rewards milestone perks program, members can select upgrade certificates as a perk, each of which can be used to confirm a one-way upgrade at the time of booking, subject to upgrade availability (which can be tough to come by); note that tickets booked in Q, O, G, or X fare classes, aren’t eligible
• Elite members receive complimentary upgrades at the time of booking when booking certain fare classes and when there is confirmable upgrade availability; Silver members get complimentary upgrades on Y and B fares, Gold members get complimentary upgrades on Y, B, H, and K fares, and Platinum and Titanium members get complimentary upgrades on Y, B, H, K, and M fares
• Alaska and American offer reciprocal first class upgrades, so AAdvantage elites could also be upgraded on these kinds of fares

One thing worth keeping in mind is that Atmos Rewards offers a status match challenge, so if you’re new to the program, you can always start a status challenge shortly before using your $99 companion fare, to really get as much value as possible. This gives you status for a period of 90 days, with the requirement to fly a certain number of miles within that period. Flying on a ticket using the $99 companion fare would count toward that.

How to maximize Alaska & Hawaiian $99 companion fare

How would I recommend going about approaching the Alaska and Hawaiian $99 companion fare? Personally, I think it’s most worthwhile as part of the welcome bonuses offered on the cards, where you might as well make as much use of it as you can. Whether it’s worth spending $6,000 on the card per year to earn the companion fare depends entirely on how you’d be able to use it, plus how often you fly with Alaska Air Group.

I wouldn’t go too over-the-top when it comes to trying to maximize value, since the goal should be to use the certificate before it expires, and get at least some use out of it. In a vast majority of markets, you’ll come out ahead when using the companion certificate.

Generally speaking, the best uses of the companion fare will be for flights that involve Alaska, Hawaii, or Central America, since those are typically the furthest and (potentially) most expensive markets where this can be redeemed.

Of course you’re going to get the most value if you’re flying at a time where economy fares are the most expensive. So the ideal use would be during a busy holiday travel period, where one ticket might be expensive, but then the discount on the second ticket would make a meaningful difference.

Atmos Rewards $99 Companion Fare FAQs

Bottom line

A lot of airline credit cards offer companion tickets that come with all kinds of restrictions that make them virtually useless. That’s why I find the Alaska and Hawaiian $99 companion fare to be among the most valuable ones out there, given that the companion is basically treated like any other paying passenger.

These $99 companion fares can be a great reason to pick up the Atmos Rewards Ascent Card or Atmos Rewards Business Card, and even to spend $6,000 on it annually.

What has your experience been with the Alaska and Hawaiian $99 companion fare?