Tag Archives: Credit Cards

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How to Redeem the Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards 25K Global Companion Award (Step-by-Step Guide)

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope you had a great weekend. Last summer, Alaska Airlines introduced the new Bank of America Atmos Rewards Summit Visa Infinite Credit Card, which included a generous welcome offer and a new 25K Global Companion Award benefit. I recently redeemed my 25K Global Companion Award and realized there weren’t many guides showing exactly how the redemption process works. In this post, I’ll walk through every step of the booking process, from locating the award in your account to confirming that the correct number of points were deducted after booking.

25K Global Companion Award at a Glance

  • Saves up to 25,000 points on a companion ticket
  • Works on Alaska Airlines award bookings
  • Must be redeemed before expiration
  • Any unused value is forfeited
  • Applies automatically during checkout

In August 2025, I was approved for the credit card and received the 105K point welcome bonus plus a 25K Global Companion Award in November 2025.  Here was the email offer I received from Alaska Airlines:

Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards Summit Visa Infinite Card welcome offer with 25K Global Companion Award bonus

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One Year Later: An Update to Our Simplified Wallet Strategy for 2026

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Good morning everyone, I hope your weekend is going well.  Last year, we set out to simplify our wallets before Madison was born (Cutting $2,000 in Credit Card Annual Fees: Our Simplified Wallet Strategy for 2025). Our goal wasn’t to maximize every credit card perk. Instead, we wanted to reduce the total amount paid in annual fees, eliminate coupon-book credit cards (cards with high annual fees and lots of credits), and keep only the cards that delivered outsized value with minimal effort. One year later, it’s time to see how closely we stuck to that plan, what surprised us, and which cards earned a permanent place in our wallets.

One Year Later at a Glance:

  • 💳 Closed 5 credit cards
  • ⬇️ Downgraded 3 credit cards
  • ✨ Opened 5 new credit cards (and earned 360,000 points & miles in welcome bonuses)
  • 💵 Received $429 in retention offers
  • 🏨 Prioritized Free Night Certificates and travel credits over coupon-book benefits

Cards We Closed

Credit Card Name Annual Fee Notes
Laura’s AMEX Gold $325 Closed card in February 2025 (we were tired of jumping through hoops to get all the monthly credits.)
Barclays JetBlue Plus $99 Closed card in March 2025 (we didn’t have any upcoming JetBlue flights planned.)
Bank of America Air France / KLM $89 Closed card in March 2025 (we didn’t have any upcoming Air France / KLM flights planned.)
AMEX Delta Platinum Business $250 Closed card in July 2025 (I redeemed all my Delta SkyMiles and didn’t have any upcoming Delta flights planned.)
Laura’s Barclays Hawaiian Airlines $99 We decided to keep this credit card open in the hopes of a future product change to a Bank of America Alaska Airlines Credit Card.
AMEX Business Gold 3 $375 Closed card in November 2025 (we were tired of jumping through hoops to get all the monthly credits.)

While most of these credit cards come with a variety of credits / coupons, these cards did not provide enough value for us to justify paying the annual fees for another year. Continue reading →

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2026 Travel Predictions Midyear Review: Which Predictions Came True?

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope your weekend is going well. As we approach the halfway point of 2026, I thought it would be fun to revisit my 2026 travel predictions and see how many have come true so far.  Predicting the future is never easy, especially in the travel and credit card world, but it’s always entertaining to look back and see what actually happened.

Below are my original predictions and a midyear update.  Predictions in green have come true, while predictions in red have not come true just yet… 

Airline Predictions (0 / 3):

  • Alaska Airlines will change the Global 25K Companion Award into a Global 25K Award Discount (valid for a single passenger). – Nope, Alaska Airlines has not made any changes to the Global 25K Companion Award. 
  • Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, or Delta Airlines will launch a debit card. – Nope, none of the 3 airlines has launched a debit card.
  • Southwest Airlines will not award Rapid Rewards Points on Basic Fares. – Nope, Southwest Airlines has not made any changes to earning points on Basic fares.

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Success! I Used My $325 Altitude Reserve Travel Credit Through the US Bank Travel Center

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope you had a great Father’s Day Weekend. I enjoyed celebrating my first Father’s Day with Madison and Laura.

Last week, I needed to book a hotel stay for an upcoming trip. While planning the reservation, I remembered that I hadn’t yet used the $325 annual travel credit on my US Bank Altitude Reserve Credit Card, so I decided to put it toward this booking.

This was my first time using the travel credit through the US Bank Travel Center. In previous years, the credit was automatically applied to eligible travel purchases made directly with the credit card. Under the current system, however, the credit must be used through the US Bank Travel Center, so I booked the hotel reservation there instead.

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My Online Passport Renewal Only Took 2 Weeks (Full Timeline & Process)

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Updated 2pm PT on 6/21/26: I hope everyone is having a wonderful Father’s Day Weekend!  A week ago, I received an email from the Trusted Traveler Program (TSA PreCheck / Global Entry) that said my passport on file had expired and that I needed to update my passport information in the system. Thankfully, I was able to enter my new passport information into the system.  Screenshots of the email and passport update process are shown below.

Good afternoon everyone.  Almost a year ago, I received an email reminder from the US Passport Renewal system notifying me that my passport was due to expire in June 2026. Since Madison was born in August 2025 and we didn’t have any international travel planned for the next couple of years, I decided to wait until the expiration date got a little closer before starting the renewal process.  I recently completed the online passport renewal process, and the experience was surprisingly fast and easy (spoiler alert: it only took 2 weeks!)

Getting Started with Online Passport Renewal

To begin the process, I visited the official Travel.State.Gov website and went to the Renew Your Passport Online page to start the process.

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