Atmos Rewards Summit Card 25K & 100K Global Companion Award Basics

Link: Apply now for the Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite^® Credit Card

We’ve just seen the launch of the $395 annual fee Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite^® Credit Card, which is the new premium personal credit card of Alaska & Hawaiian, coinciding with the introduction of the Atmos Rewards program.

There are lots of reasons to get this card, from a huge welcome bonus, to the great perks and rewards for spending on an ongoing basis. I’m sorry for the amount of content about this card at the moment, but this is truly innovative, and I know there are lots of questions, and I want to address as many as them as possible.

In this post, I’d like to talk about how the Atmos Rewards Summit Card offers the ability to earn Global Companion Awards, both just for having the card, and for spending. These certificates can offer incredible value for award redemptions on Alaska, Hawaiian, and partner airlines, so let’s talk about them in a bit more detail.

How to earn Atmos Rewards Global Companion Awards

The Atmos Rewards Summit Card gives cardmembers the opportunity to earn up to two Global Companion Awards per year:

• The card offers a 25,000-point Global Companion Award as part of the welcome offer, and as an annual bonus on the cardmember anniversary every year
• The card offers a 100,000-point Global Companion Award when you spend $60,000 on the card in an anniversary year (so that’s 12-month periods from when you opened your account, different than a calendar year)

Let me emphasize that you can earn both of these Global Companion Awards, so it’s not that you can only receive one or the other. So, when should cardmembers expect for these Global Companion Awards to post? Per the terms:

• The 25,000-point Global Companion Award will post within two billing cycles of qualifying for the welcome bonus on the card, and within two billing cycles of the account anniversary
• The 100,000-point Global Companion Award will post within two billing cycles of completing the $60,000 spending requirement in an anniversary year

I suspect that Global Companion Awards will post much faster than two billing cycles in practice, though since this card just launched, we don’t have many data points yet.

Once issued, Global Companion Awards are valid for 12 months. The good news is that it’s fine if you travel after that 12 months, you just need to ticket by then (and if you end up canceling your ticket after the expiration, you’d also forfeit the certificate).

How to redeem Atmos Rewards Global Companion Awards

How can you redeem the Global Companion Awards earned with the Atmos Rewards Summit Card? They’re super flexible.

In order to use Global Companion Awards, you need to find award availability for two passengers. This can be for travel on Alaska, Hawaiian, or any of the Atmos Rewards global airline partners (ranging from Condor to Qatar Airways).

Tickets must be booked on alaskaair.com, with both passengers being booked at the same time. The cardmember doesn’t need to be one of the travelers, as the certificates can be redeemed for others. Both passengers are still on the hook for taxes and fees.

The idea is that the 25,000-point Global Companion Award will take 25,000 points off the cost of a companion’s award, while the 100,000-point Global Companion Award will take 100,000 points off the cost of a companion’s award.

You can top off these certificates with more points if you’d like, and they’re valid for one-way or roundtrip travel. Just as an example, if you had a 25,000 point Global Companion Award:

• You could book a ticket that costs 20,000 points per person; you’d pay the 20,000 points for the first passenger, and then the certificate would totally cover the second passenger (though there would be no residual value)
• You could book a ticket that costs 50,000 points per person; you’d pay the 50,000 points for the first passenger, and then you’d have to pay an extra 25,000 points for the second passenger, to cover the overage

My take on the value of Atmos Rewards Global Companion Awards

The Global Companion Awards make up a major part of the value proposition of the Atmos Rewards Summit Card. How would I go about actually valuing these certificates, though? Let me share how I think about them…

To start, I should mention that I redeem a good number of Atmos Rewards points (formerly Alaska Mileage Plan miles). They’re super handy for redemptions on a variety of airlines, and particularly, for short haul travel on American, which is especially valuable to me. So while I don’t have Atmos Rewards status, I am very much in the ecosystem.

Let me of course acknowledge that you should consider your own circumstances when deciding how much you value them. For example, if you almost always travel alone, then a companion certificate will likely be worth a lot less to you.

With that in mind, let’s talk about the two types of Global Companion Awards separately, because there are different questions cardmembers should be asking themselves.

Does the 25K certificate justify the annual fee?

You get the 25,000-point Global Companion Award annually just for having the card. Personally, I consider that to be worth pretty close to the “retail” value, since I travel on an Alaska award with a companion at least once per year, while spending 25,000+ points per passenger.

If you ask me, that more or less makes this a breakeven card for me, as I value that certificate very close to the card’s $395 annual fee. Between this and the waived partner award booking fees that come with the card, I’m way ahead, just by being a cardmember. That says nothing of the other perks, which are numerous.

Of course points give you more flexibility than an award, but I feel confident enough in my ability to use that award efficiently to say it’s basically worth face value. Of course everyone will be in a different situation, and that’s just how it is for me, as someone who redeems a good number of points.

Does the 100K certificate justify $60,000 spending?

The much more interesting question surrounds whether it’s worth spending $60,000 per cardmember year in order to earn the 100,000-point Global Companion Award. This of course assumes you have that much spending to throw at a card, which won’t be the case for many people (but there’s not much to analyze if you can’t spend that much).

I think the major consideration with putting a big amount of spending on the card is that you’re not just earning a Global Companion Award, but you’re also earning some other valuable rewards:

• You earn one status point for every $2 spent on the card, so if you’re trying to earn elite status, that will help you greatly
• The card has some amazing bonus categories, including offering 3x points on foreign purchases, as well as on dining, and on Alaska and Hawaiian flight purchases

Obviously the math will work out very differently here if you earn the 100,000-point Global Companion Award by spending $60,000 in a category that earns 1x points, vs. spending it in a category that earns 3x points. For $60,000 of spending:

• If you were just earning 1x points, you’d earn 60,000 redeemable points, 30,000 status points, and the 100,000-point Global Companion Award
• If you were just earning 3x points, you’d earn 180,000 redeemable points, 30,000 status points, and the 100,000-point Global Companion Award

The funny thing is, I’d argue that even on the low end, that’s a good return on non-bonused spending. But on the high end, I’d argue that’s basically an unbeatable return on spending.

Now, how much would I value the 100,000-point Global Companion Award? I’d probably be conservative, and value it at around half of face value. Why?

• You have a lot less flexibility than just having points, since you need to book within a certain timeframe, and need to book an expensive award to maximize value
• Many people will have to book awards as roundtrips vs. one-ways to maximize value (to get to the 100,000-point requirement), and that limits flexibility
• The Atmos Rewards sweet spots are largely for shorter haul awards, so often you don’t even want to book the most expensive types of awards with Atmos Rewards points

But even if you were to value that certificate at 50,000 points, I think that still contributes very nicely to the value proposition.

I also think what’s so brilliant here is how the way this card is structured really keeps you on the “hamster wheel” — you earn enough points so that you can actually use your Global Companion Awards, and you earn so many status points that you’re really incentivized to fly more on Alaska, Hawaiian, and global airline partners.

Bottom line

The Atmos Rewards Summit Card gives cardmembers the ability to earn two Global Companion Awards — you can earn a 25,000-point certificate each cardmember year just for having the card, and a second 100,000-point certificate each cardmember year for spending $60,000 on the card.

Everyone will want to crunch their own numbers regarding the value of this. Based on my own redemption patterns, I think the 25,000-point award is easy enough to use and worth close to the annual fee.

Meanwhile I think the 100,000-point award is awesome, but requires some discount for mental accounting purposes, given the limited uses that allow cardmembers to maximize it. However, when you consider the overall value proposition of spending on the card, there’s a lot to be said for using this card for spending.

What do you make of the Atmos Rewards Summit Card Global Companion Awards?