Reading Time: 4 minHere at Points Path, we’re constantly looking for leverage — any and all angles to make your travel better, cheaper, and more rewarding. A key part of becoming an expert travel strategist is scrutinizing areas that others overlook.
One such area? Scanning your home airport for all the airlines that fly in and out, and asking yourself if there’s a deal to be had for those carriers that only have one or two flights.
My home airport is Raleigh-Durham International (RDU), which has a slew of flights through carriers like Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, Southwest, and Breeze Airways. There’s an outlier, though: Alaska Airlines. Alaska has but one destination from RDU, and that’s back to its global headquarters in Seattle (SEA).
Despite that, I’ve captured thousands of dollars in value from holding the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature card (recently rebranded as the Atmos™ Rewards Ascent Visa Signature Card) over several years.
At first blush, you may assume that I’m wasting my time paying the $95 annual fee. But even if you aren’t a frequent Alaska flyer, or you, too, live near an airport with just one or two Alaska flights, it's worth your time (and money) to pay attention to my strategy below.
Each year that you meet the annual spend requirement for this card (which is typically $6,000), you’re gifted a Companion Fare from $122 ($99 fare plus taxes and fees from $23) on Alaska flights booked at alaskaair.com or on Hawaiian Airlines-operated flights within North America. It’s not quite a buy one, get one situation, but it’s close.
My family loves the Hawaiian islands, which Alaska Airlines flies frequently to from … you guessed it, Seattle! In other words, if you can get from your home airport to Seattle on Alaska Airlines, you, too, can execute a discounted trip to paradise.
You should begin this process by searching for flights on Points Path to scope out travel days where the mileage award ticket costs the least.
For me, I look for a 1-stop itinerary on Alaska (or Hawaiian-operated) to Oahu, Maui, the Big Island, or Kauai. Oftentimes, you’ll find that cash prices for myriad days don’t fluctuate much, but mileage awards can vary greatly.
I would advise you to lock in your travel dates based on the award ticket pricing and grab that ticket first. Then shop for your other two tickets using the Companion Fare.
Once the mileage ticket is purchased, I log into my online Alaska Airlines account to purchase two more tickets on the same flights, applying the Companion Fare to save hundreds (often $500+) on the second ticket in this transaction.
From there, I typically call Alaska Airlines’ customer support number to link the two confirmation numbers and ensure that we’re all seated together.
But there's a second big reason to have an Alaska card. When you pay your rent through Bilt Rewards using either the Atmos Ascent card or the brand new Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® card, you’ll earn 3x Atmos points (the rebranded name for Alaska miles) on each rent payment, up to $50,000 per year.
Now, you'll pay a 3% fee for paying your rent this way, but 3x Alaska points could easily be worth the cost. Plus, if you have the higher-end Atmos Summit card, you'll also be making progress toward Alaska elite status and other card perks with your rent payments.
If you’re already paying rent, this can be a guaranteed accelerator to boost your stash of Atmos points each month. And if you don't pay rent, you can still earn Bilt points for free with any credit or debit card by joining Bilt's Neighborhood Benefits program.
But by paying rent and leveraging a key perk of the card, you, too, may be able to book an annual holiday to Hawaii at a steep overall discount.
Now, the hard part: Which island will you visit first?
