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Atlas Card Announces More Details, $999 Annual Fee
A long-in-the-works premium charge card has announced details about the product.
About Atlas Card:
As observed by Doctor of Credit, the Atlas Card site has been updated with specifics about the card. First, the card will carry a $999 annual fee. For that cost, cardholders will receive a number of credits, rewards, and perks.
One of the credits is a $189 credit for Clear Plus — which will cover the full cost of a yearly membership to the time-saving service. As for other memberships, the card also includes a One Medical membership ($199 statement credit), an Erewhon Cafe membership ($100 statement credit), and a FUTURE fitness training membership ($25 per month statement credit). Additionally, a Priority Pass Select card is included, offering access to more than 1,300 airport lounges. However, this particular Priority Pass is limited to two complimentary visits per year.
In terms of rewards, the card earns 5x points on BLADE helicopter rides and flights. Elsewhere, cardholders can earn up to 3x points on purchases in their top spending categories. All other purchases will earn 1x points.
One unique feature of the Atlas Card is its flight cancellation benefit. According to the site, cardholders can change or cancel any flight for any reason and have fees reimbursed up to $600 per year. Atlas also boasts its own “Supper Club,” which includes dedicated reservations to select restaurants.
Previously:
This version of the Atlas Card comes after years of evolution. Originally, the company then known as PointCard announced plans for a premium charge card to be known as Titan. That card would have had a $399 annual fee, offered up to 5x points on purchases in a select category, trip cancellation insurance, and other perks. After the closure of the PointCard Neon debit card, the company also announced that it would rebrand to Atlas Card — although further details on the proposed product weren’t revealed until recently.
My thoughts:
For me, Atlas Card is a non-starter. In fact, it could literally be a non-starter as I’m still not confident that the product will roll out despite this latest update. Assuming it does, it’s hard for me to imagine the market for this product given the high annual fee and only a handful of offsetting credits. For example, while the Atlas Card will include a credit for Clear Plus, the American Express Platinum Card (which comes at a cost of $695 per year) includes the same credit alongside several others. With that said, the flight change/cancelation perk might be interesting — although several airlines have loosened their flight change policies in recent years.
Overall, while I’ll continue to keep an eye on the Atlas Card, there’s pretty much no scenario in which I get the card for myself. To me, it’s just another disappointment from a company that I originally thought had a good thing going.
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