Two cards, two raises, one quiet update

Alaska Airlines and Bank of America raised the welcome offers on both Atmos Rewards personal credit cards on October 21, 2026, with no announcement fanfare and no published end date. The premium card got the bigger headline; the cheaper card got the better deal for most people. Here is how they stack up, what each bonus is actually worth, and which card to pick.

The Summit: 100,000 points plus a companion award

The Atmos Rewards Summit Visa Infinite now offers 100,000 bonus points plus a 25,000-point Global Companion Award after spending $6,000 on purchases within the first 90 days of account opening. The annual fee is $395 and is not waived.

The companion award is the part people underrate. It knocks 25,000 points off a companion's award ticket when two travelers book the same qualifying itinerary on Alaska, Hawaiian, or an eligible partner — any cabin, including international partners. Used on a long-haul business-class award, where a second seat might price at 60,000 to 85,000 points, that discount is worth several hundred dollars on its own. And it is not a one-time welcome perk: Summit cardholders receive a fresh 25,000-point Global Companion Award every card anniversary, and can earn a second, 100,000-point award by spending $60,000 in an anniversary year.

The ongoing earning is genuinely unusual for an airline card. Summit earns 3 points per dollar on Alaska and Hawaiian purchases, dining, and — the category no other airline card bonuses — purchases made in a foreign currency. Add the 10% bonus for eligible Bank of America account holders and that becomes 3.3 points per dollar abroad. The card also waives Atmos's $20-per-person, each-way partner award booking fee, hands out eight Alaska Lounge passes and eight Wi-Fi passes a year, and drops 10,000 status points into your account each anniversary.

The Ascent: up to 80,000 points and the famous $99 fare

The Atmos Rewards Ascent Visa Signature now offers up to 80,000 bonus points plus a $99 Companion Fare, on a two-tier spend structure. Spend $3,000 in the first 90 days and you get 60,000 bonus points plus the $99 Companion Fare (plus taxes and fees from $23). Push total spending to $5,000 in the same 90 days and another 20,000 points land on top. The annual fee is $95, also not waived.

That tier structure matters for how you plan the spend. If you stop at $3,000, you have earned 60,000 points — still a strong bonus, but you left a quarter of the offer on the table. The extra $2,000 of spending buys 20,000 points, which is 1 point per dollar on that stretch before counting the card's normal earning — effectively a 10-to-1 return on that marginal spend at any reasonable valuation of Atmos points. Unless the extra spending would be manufactured or interest-bearing, finishing the second tier is the obvious move.

The Companion Fare is the card's signature perk, and it repeats. After the welcome fare, you earn another $99 Companion Fare every anniversary year in which you spend $6,000 on the card. The fare covers a companion on the same paid itinerary within North America, booked on alaskaair.com and paid for with the card. On a $400 round trip, the companion's seat costs $122 all-in instead of $400 — a $278 saving that alone covers the $95 annual fee nearly three times over.

What 100,000 and 80,000 Atmos points are worth

Atmos points are among the most valuable airline miles in the U.S. because of Alaska's partner award chart, and the standard valuations bear that out: 80,000 points works out to roughly $1,240, and 100,000 points to roughly $1,550. The real value, though, shows up in the redemptions:

• Two travelers, one discount. A couple booking partner business class to Asia or Europe can pair the Summit's 100,000 points with the 25,000-point Global Companion Award to cut the second seat's price — the award, not the bonus, is what makes the Summit's first year special.
• The companion fare as a cash play. The Ascent's $99 Companion Fare is a paid-ticket benefit, not an award benefit, which means it works on routes and dates where award seats do not exist. For a family flying Alaska domestically once or twice a year, it is often worth more than the points.
• Bags for the whole row. Both cards give a free checked bag to the cardholder and up to six companions on the same reservation when the flight is paid for with the card. At $45 per bag each way, one round trip with two checked bags nearly pays for the Ascent's annual fee by itself.

Ascent vs. Summit: the honest pick

This is a $300-a-year question, and the answer depends on one thing: will you use the Global Companion Award?

• Pick the Ascent if you fly Alaska or Hawaiian a few times a year, want the companion fare and free bags, and would rather keep $300 in your pocket. The 80,000-point bonus is within shouting distance of the Summit's 100,000, and the $99 Companion Fare is the more flexible companion benefit for domestic travel.
• Pick the Summit if you book award travel for two — especially long-haul partner awards — travel internationally enough for the 3x foreign-purchase category to matter, or will use the lounge passes and the annual companion award. The first-year package (100,000 points plus the award) is worth roughly $1,800-plus in total value against a $395 fee, and the card keeps paying every anniversary.
• Skip both if you already hold or have held the same card in the past 24 months. Bank of America enforces a 24-month restriction on these products, so a recent cardholder is not eligible for the new bonus.

One more wrinkle worth knowing: Alaska has announced that eligible Bank of America points will transfer into Atmos Rewards starting in 2027, though the eligible cards and the transfer ratio have not been named yet. These welcome bonuses are the cheapest way to build an Atmos balance before that door opens — and before the next offer change, which in this program's history has usually been a downgrade.

The catch: no end date, and history says these offers shrink

Neither offer carries a published end date, which cuts both ways. There is no deadline to panic about, but there is also no warning before the bonus drops — the Ascent's previous offer was 75,000 points, and the Summit's was 80,000, and both were replaced without advance notice. The pattern across the last year has been a ratchet: each new offer is a little better than the last, until it isn't, and the step down arrives quietly. If either card is on your list for 2027 travel, the time to apply is while the elevated number is live, not after you have read three more articles about it.

The Ascent, at $95 with an 80,000-point bonus and a companion fare that pays for itself, is the card most people should actually get. The Summit is the card for people who already know what a Global Companion Award is worth — and for them, this is the best version of the offer since the card launched.

💡 Why This Matters for Your Strategy

News in the points-and-miles world moves fast, and promotional changes often have a short window. If this announcement affects a card or program you hold, log into your awardtrail dashboard to check your current benefit usage, bonus progress, and whether a transfer or redemption makes sense right now — before terms change.

As a general rule: transfer points only when you have a specific redemption in mind — transfers are almost always one-way and non-reversible. If you're unsure of the value, check our redemption guides before acting.

View Redemption Guides · Read Our In-Depth Analysis

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