Link: Apply now for the Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® Credit Card
We recently saw the launch of the $395 annual fee Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® Credit Card (review), 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. It’s a card I’ve already applied for.
In this post, I’d like to talk about how the Atmos Rewards Summit Card offers a partner redemption booking fee waiver. Personally, this is a benefit that goes a long way to helping me offset the annual fee, so let’s take a look at the logistics, as I’ve received some questions about it.
In this post:
How to save on every Atmos Rewards partner award booking
There are lots of great uses of Alaska Atmos Rewards points, especially for travel on partner airlines. If redeeming on partner airlines, the program charges a $12.50 award booking fee, which applies per person, and per direction of travel. So if you book a roundtrip award for two people, you’re looking at $50 worth of fees.
Another thing worth mentioning is that the $12.50 fee is non-refundable. So while you can otherwise cancel and redeposit award tickets at no cost (in terms of getting points and taxes back), that booking fee can’t be refunded.
This is a junk fee, plain and simple, though it’s not uncommon to see programs charge these kinds of fees (Air Canada Aeroplan and Avianca Lifemiles have similar fees), and the program also offers great value in many markets, so it’s a fee worth paying.
Fortunately this is an area where the the Atmos Rewards Summit Card can help — as a benefit, cardmembers receive a waiver of the partner redemption booking fee. Here’s how this works:
- The primary cardmember using their Atmos Rewards points is eligible for the waiver of the partner award booking fee
- This benefit can be used an unlimited number of times, for one or more travelers, and it doesn’t matter who is traveling
- In order to receive the waived partner award booking fee, taxes and fees must be purchased with the primary cardmember’s Atmos Rewards Summit Card
How do the logistics of this work? Say you’re, looking at a 4,500-point award from Miami (MIA) to Tampa (TPA) on American, which shows $19.10 in taxes & fees during the booking process (the $12.50 partner award booking fee, plus the $5.60 in taxes & fees).
I have the Atmos Rewards Summit Card saved in my Atmos Rewards profile…
…so then on the payment page (before confirming the reservation), I see the price reduced by $12.50, to just $5.60 total. You’ll see that it says “Atmos Rewards Summit card booking fee waiver,” showing the $12.50 fee subtracted.
Just as a point of comparison, if I instead use the other card connected to my profile, it no longer shows the discount. Similarly, if I input my credit card number when booking an award through someone else’s Atmos Rewards account, it also doesn’t show the discount.
These waived $12.50 partner award booking fees add up
I know a waived $12.50 fee might not sound like much on a card with an annual fee of nearly $400. However, to me, this is one of my favorite perks of the Atmos Rewards Summit Card. I redeem Atmos Rewards points on American all the time. My most frequent route is between Miami and Tampa, where you can’t beat the rate through Atmos Rewards, of 4,500 points in economy or 9,000 points in first class.
I often speculatively lock in these awards too, and without the card, I’d be on the hook for losing the $12.50 non-refundable fee. That’s not a huge deal, but of course if I can avoid it, I will.
Just as an example, below are the reservations confirmations I’ve received from Atmos Rewards since in the last two months alone. As you can see, that’s nine award tickets, so that’s $112.50 in fees.
With Atoms Rewards having increasingly moved to a program where the best value redemptions are for short haul awards, the frequency with which I redeem has also increased, and that makes the $12.50 waived fee all the more valuable.
These great value short haul awards are also the reason there’s merit to American flyers crediting to Atmos Rewards, especially with the program awarding status points for award flights, which pairs nicely with spending on your card to earn status points.
Bottom line
The Atmos Rewards Summit Card offers a huge number of perks, and I’d argue that one of the most underrated benefits is a waived partner award booking fee. Ordinarily, Atmos Rewards charges $12.50 per person per direction for a partner award, on top of the standard taxes and fees.
If you’re anything like me and constantly redeem Atmos Rewards points on American for short haul travel, then this benefit alone can go a long way to recouping the annual fee. Hopefully the above is a useful rundown of how this benefit works, for those who were wondering.
What has your experience been with the Atmos Rewards Summit Card waived partner booking fee?
I don’t love that this card enshrines a waiver of something that patently isn’t competitive and shouldn’t exist. Your bragging post isn’t doing what you think it’s doing
@ Stvr -- Sorry, bragging? About flying between Miami and Tampa a lot, to visit my parents? I'm not sure that's much of a flex...
Create a junk fee, then waive it as a benefit and have people talk about it as a 1:1 benefit.
@ 54austin -- In fairness, this fee has been around for many, many years (like, as long as I've been using Alaska Mileage Plan, which is well over a decade). So yes, it's a junk fee, but it's not one that was added just so that it could then be waived as part of a credit card benefit.
Recently saved $100 booking flights for my family of 4 using Atmos points on AA flights. Definitely a nice benefit.
Lucky,
Alaska IT still hasn't fixed the slips in this benefit that impact a small but significant number of bookings (mine included).
Might have mentioned on another post - the fee waiver fell through the cracks for me a couple of times, and it required almost 3 hours on the phone to fix.
Most concerningly, reservations agents got their supervisors on the phone and they were all too happy to double down on a...
Lucky,
Alaska IT still hasn't fixed the slips in this benefit that impact a small but significant number of bookings (mine included).
Might have mentioned on another post - the fee waiver fell through the cracks for me a couple of times, and it required almost 3 hours on the phone to fix.
Most concerningly, reservations agents got their supervisors on the phone and they were all too happy to double down on a grossly-incorrect reading of some of the language on Alaska's website, in order to deny this benefit to those who were only booking one-way travel. They even went so far as to claim it was Bank of America's problem, and that it was something I would have to take up with Bank of America separately in order to get resolution.
A very American Airlines-esque approach. Disappointing.
The daytime customer-service representatives from the corporate office fixed the issue, but that took still more time on the phone.
Useful warning to have for your readers. Sour note on an otherwise nice card.
@ abhinav -- Thanks for sharing your experience, that's super frustrating.