3 Ways I Save Big With the Alaska Airlines Companion Fare

The Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® credit card — a favorite of mine that I’ve carried for 10 years — just got a refresh. Now called the Atmos™ Rewards Ascent Visa Signature® credit card, it still comes with what I consider its best perk, the Companion Fare.

Here’s how it works: Every cardholder anniversary, you can earn a Companion Fare where you can bring a companion with you on a round-trip or one-way saver or main cabin fare starting at $122 ($99 plus taxes and fees, starting at $23). That benefit can be applied to flights in North America on Alaska Airlines or Hawaiian Airlines.

This perk has saved me thousands of dollars over the years. If you fly with these airlines and travel with a companion regularly — but not often enough to justify the annual fee on the airlines’ new premium card — this benefit alone is reason enough to get the card.

Here’s how I get great value from this benefit.

In theory, the Companion Fare benefit is for round-trip flights. But in practice, it also works for certain multicity and open-jaw flights — though some limitations apply.

This came in clutch for me over the years when booking complicated winter holiday itineraries for my husband and me. For years, we’d fly up from the Bay Area in California to visit his family in Montana, then down to Palm Springs, California, to visit my family. This trip could sometimes cost around $800 per person, since we were flying to small airports during peak season.

The Companion Fare cut our total significantly. On one occasion, for example, our initial $1,530 multicity trip dropped to just $915 after applying the benefit. That saved us over $600, justifying the card’s $95 annual fee many times over — especially since I would’ve booked that trip either way.

If you take multicity trips regularly, this benefit is incredibly valuable. And if you don’t, the potential savings just might be enough to make you consider adding another leg to your next trip — maybe to an otherwise pricey destination, like Honolulu.

I can be a procrastinator when booking travel. If I need to book flights — maybe for a vacation, a family visit or a wedding — I sometimes put it off until the very last minute. This is a pretty expensive shortcoming of mine since airline tickets tend to get pricier as departure dates draw near.

(I suppose this is a good opportunity to remind you: Thanksgiving is coming up. The best time to book holiday flights is fast approaching. Don’t be like me. Book those tickets soon!)

The Companion Fare has bailed me out more than a few times on this front, since it doesn’t place restrictions on when fares need to be booked. If you wanted to use it to book a same-day flight, you could. And if you’re using it on a last-minute flight that’s also expensive for some other reason — say, you’re flying to a small airport during peak season, this perk could be especially useful.

After all, sometimes last-minute bookings are unavoidable. If you’re traveling for a funeral or a family emergency, for example, and you don’t have enough points on hand for an award flight, the Companion Fare could be a helpful tool to have in your back pocket.

The Companion Fare isn’t just for couples flying together. You can also use it for family or group travel, with a little extra coordination.

After years of reaping these Companion Fare benefits, I convinced my husband to apply for the Atmos™ Rewards Ascent Visa Signature® credit card, too. These days, we fly with our two kids — and our two Companion Fares. He uses his Companion Fare to cover one kid’s ticket; I use mine to cover the other.

Because we’re at the mercy of the school calendar, we tend to travel during peak times. These benefits help us make trips more affordable. Earlier this year, we flew from Seattle to San Diego for vacation. The weather in San Diego was phenomenal when we went — and maybe that’s why tickets were almost $700 each for a 3-hour flight.

If we paid full price, it would’ve been over $2,700 just for flights. With the Companion Fares, we saved over $1,000.

If you plan to do something similar, just keep in mind you’ll have to make separate reservations for each Companion Fare redeemed. You’ll have to do a little extra work to make sure the reservations have adjacent seats. (Make sure you book a Main Cabin fare for more seat selection options.) Still, in my opinion, the savings more than justify the inconvenience.

The real beauty of Atmos™ Rewards Ascent Visa Signature® credit card’s Companion Fare is its flexibility. It can save you a bundle on long, carefully planned itineraries, yes. But it can also save you on those last-minute surprise trips that cost an arm and a leg.

Some credit card benefits come with a laundry list of restrictions and requirements, making them difficult to maximize. This one’s pretty straightforward. In fact, you might even maximize it without trying to, especially if you tend to fly on pricey domestic routes.

That’s what makes the card a real keeper for me — and why I’ll happily carry it for another 10 years, as long as I keep earning this perk.