Black cats, broken mirrors, and a Microsoft outage that kept Outlook down for nearly all of yesterday. Friday the 13th came early, but we’ve got some good news to make up for it: a limited-time 80,000-point Atmos points on a $95 card you don’t have to fly Alaska to love. Also today: EVA Air business class to Southeast Asia for 75,000 miles, and Android users finally get their own AirTag rival.
- 😍 You Don’t Have to Fly Alaska to Love This 80K Bonus
- 🤝 Deal of the Day: EVA Air Biz Class to Southeast Asia for 75K Miles
- 🏷️ Android Users Finally Get Their Own ‘AirTag’
- 📡 On Our Radar: Traverse City, Michigan
- 🎙️ On the Pod: How to Earn Points for the Whole Family
- 💬 Join the Conversation in Our Premium Slack Community
- ✈️ Other Travel Tidbits
😍 You Don’t Have to Fly Alaska to Love This 80K Bonus
If you’ve been thinking about adding the Atmos™ Rewards Ascent Visa Signature® credit card to your wallet, now’s the time to act.
For a limited time, new cardholders can earn up to 80,000 Atmos points plus a $99 Companion Fare (from $122 total with taxes and fees) with the current two-part bonus:
- Earn 60,000 points and the Companion Fare after spending $3,000 in the first 90 days
- Earn 20,000 more points after spending $5,000 total in that same 90 days
Factor in the points you’ll earn on that $5,000 in spending and you’ll walk away with 85,000 points in total. All that for a card with a modest $95 annual fee? Not bad!
We don’t know exactly how long this bigger bonus will last, but offers this rich rarely stick around for long.
And most importantly: you don’t need to be an Alaska flyer to get big value out of these points. Atmos Rewards has 30-plus airline partners and a distance-based award chart with some real sweet spots:
- Japan Airlines business class to Tokyo from 60,000 points one-way from Seattle (SEA) or Vancouver (YVR), or 75,000 from Chicago-O’Hare (ORD), Dallas (DFW), and more
- Fiji Airways business class to Fiji, Australia, or New Zealand from 75,000 points one-way, with a free Fiji stopover
- Aer Lingus business class from the East Coast to Dublin for 45,000 points
- Short domestic flights from 4,500 points in economy, like Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) to Chicago-O’Hare (ORD). That price applies on American Airlines, too.
After the bonus, the card keeps paying for itself:
- A free checked bag for you and up to six companions on the same reservation
- Priority boarding on Alaska flights
- An annual Companion Fare after spending $6,000 in a cardmember year
Want something more premium? The Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® credit card is worth a good hard look.
With its current limited-time bonus, you can earn 100,000 points and a 25,000-point Global Companion Award after spending $6,000 in the first 90 days.
The Atmos Summit is pricier, with a $395 annual fee, but the annual Global Companion Award (which works on partner airlines, too) can help offset much of that cost.
On top of that, you get eight Alaska Lounge passes a year, 3x points on dining and foreign purchases, waived partner award booking fees, and 10,000 status points every card anniversary.
If you fly a few times a year, the math can work out fast.
Whichever card you choose, a big bonus that you can use far beyond Alaska’s own network makes these two of the easiest airline cards to recommend right now.
Just don’t wait too long!
Take a look at all of the Atmos Rewards Cards and their current limited-time bonus offers!
– Jackson Newman, senior editor
🤝 Deal of the Day: EVA Air Biz Class to Southeast Asia for 75K Miles
Heat scale (out of 3): 🔥🔥
Why we love it: Use your points and miles on EVA Air Business Class to fuel your next trip to Southeast Asia!
Solid availability flying from Chicago (ORD), Dallas (DFW), Houston (IAH), Los Angeles (LAX), New York (JFK), San Francisco (SFO), Seattle (SEA), Toronto (YYZ), Vancouver (YVR), and D.C. (IAD). Transfer points from Citi and/or Capital One to book!
Sign up now to get all the details on this deal & don’t miss the next flight deal alert.
Already a member? Log in to see all your deals.
– Gunnar Olson, Thrifty Traveler Premium deal analyst
🏷️ Android Users Finally Get Their Own ‘AirTag’
For years, iPhone users have had an easy way to keep tabs on their checked luggage with Apple’s AirTags. Meanwhile, Android users have had to rely on a patchwork of third-party trackers (some better than others) – or put blind faith in the airline not to lose it in the first place.
But not anymore: Google’s new Pixel Tag went on sale Wednesday, and it’s likely the best bet for Android users looking to track their luggage from here on out.
While a tracker won’t stop an airline from losing your bag, it gives you a lot more visibility when it goes missing – and you can tell the airline exactly where it’s at instead of waiting on their system to catch up.
The Pixel Tag covers the basics well:
- Works with any Android phone running Android 9 or newer
- Taps Google’s Find Hub network of more than 1 billion Android devices to find your bag anywhere in the world
- Ultra-wideband precision finding with on-screen directions and distance once you’re in close proximity
- Water resistance and a user-replaceable coin battery that should last a little more than a year
- Lost mode, which shows your contact info to anyone who finds it
There’s also one trick Apple’s AirTags don’t have: press the Pixel Tag’s button twice and it rings your phone (even when it’s on silent). This means you can actually use it in reverse to help locate a misplaced phone.
A single Pixel Tag runs $29.99, or $99.99 for a four-pack. That’s (uncoincidentally) the same as Apple’s current AirTag – but you can often find better deals on older first-generation AirTags. They’re slightly less capable, but they still do the job for tracking luggage.
With Google’s new Pixel Tags, there’s really no good reason left to check a bag without a tracker in it … no matter which phone you carry.
– Jackson Newman, senior editor
📡 On Our Radar: Traverse City, Michigan
Welcome to On Our Radar – a weekly look at the news and trends we’re watching lately!
Traverse City, Michigan intrigues me, but it’s not (just) about Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore or Mackinac Island. It’s the airport (Duh).
According to Cirium schedules data, next year, TVC Airport is getting two surprising, long (ish) haul domestic flights from Los Angeles (LAX) and San Francisco (SFO) once a week on 737-800 aircraft. Those flights will join existing service from United, American, Delta, Allegiant, and JetBlue to Traverse City (TVC) in 2027, too.
So why am I so interested in this Northern Michigan city with a metro area population of about 156,000 people?
Because last year Traverse City saw more than 4 times as much airline capacity as it did a decade ago, and airlines are still adding flights there … even as Traverse City’s population has grown only 6% in the same period. 🤯
Here’s a chart showing the growth of available seat miles (the best way to calculate capacity) at TVC since 2016. In it, you’ll see that 2026 was the largest year ever for the big 3 airlines (United, American, Delta), even as Allegiant scaled back slightly.
United and American’s Chicago (ORD) flights and Delta’s Detroit (DTW) flight account for about 67% of flights in and out of TVC, but only about 25% of capacity.
That’s because airlines have been steadily operating larger and larger planes into TVC to fuel this growth.
United, for instance, swapped out small regional jets (50-70-seat airplanes) on its Denver (DEN) route in favor of 737-MAX8 and 737-800s (150-180-seat airplanes) for the past few summers.
Thanks to those bigger planes, the airport is busier than ever. According to the TraverseTicker, in 2025, the airport saw 935,816 passengers – a 19% year-over-year increase – in a building designed for 350,000! 📈
So, how’s the airport dealing with that uptick in capacity? TVC has already broken ground on an airport expansion that is set to open in 2028. Above is a rendering courtesy of the airport.
You have more Traverse City flight options than ever if a visit to Northern Michigan is on your radar. And if you’re a traveler based near TVC, you know what more capacity means! Cheaper flights!
– Gunnar Olson, travel reporter and flight deal analyst
🎙️ On the Pod: How to Earn Points for the Whole Family
📗 Earning points and miles for the whole family requires a lot of strategy – a strategy the women at the Points Talk Squad are steeped in. This week, Alex and Pam come by the show to talk about the highs and lows of family travel.
Watch it now on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
💬 Join the Conversation in Our Premium Slack Community
A helpful recommendation or a new points strategy could make all the difference for your next trip!
Our Premium Slack Community connects you with fellow travelers to ask questions, share advice, and learn from each other’s travel experiences. Thrifty Traveler team members join in, too!
Take a peek at the conversations happening in the Premium Slack to see what members are sharing! Access is included with your Premium membership.
Join the Thrifty Traveler Premium Slack Community here!
– Kat Erdahl, community marketing manager
✈️ Other Travel Tidbits
- 🛋️ United is finally giving Denver (DEN) a Polaris Lounge. DEN is the airline’s only mainland U.S. hub without one, and United says design is underway for a two-story space near gates A18-A20, with a target opening in late 2028 or early 2029. (The Points Guy)
- 🗼 The White House wants another $30.1 billion to fix the country’s aging air traffic control system and airports. That’s on top of the $12.5 billion Congress approved last year. (Reuters)
- ✈️ Alaska Airlines is coming to Iowa for the first time. Daily nonstops from Seattle (SEA) to Des Moines (DSM) and Jacksonville (JAX) start June 24, 2027, and Charlotte (CLT) and Norfolk (ORF) start June 10. These are the first Seattle nonstops ever for DSM, JAX, and ORF. (Alaska Airlines)
- 🎮 Southwest just hosted the first live gaming tournament in the sky. Twitch streamers competed and livestreamed on a Starlink-equipped flight from Austin (AUS) to San Diego (SAN), on their way to TwitchCon. Southwest expects Starlink on its entire fleet by fall 2027. (Southwest)
