US Bank’s SKYPASS Visa Signature isn’t too impressive as far as airline cards go, but it’s well worth it if you happen to travel with Korean Air often, since the miles earned are good for reward travel and upgrades on that airline, as well as the other SkyTeam partners.
You get the standard earnings rate of 1 mile for every dollar charged on the card and double miles on Korean Air ticket purchases. The good news is that the spending requirement for the sign up bonus is low — all you have to do is make one purchase. The bad news is that the bonus is also low, at just 15,000 bonus miles. This is enough to grab you a domestic flight in Korea… and not much else. Still, it’s nice that they give you 2,000 bonus miles every year you renew to help off-set the $80 annual fee. That and having no foreign transaction fee are features we would love to see on all airline cards.
The SKYPASS card also gets you two Korean Air VIP Lounge coupons every year. You do have to be flying with Korean Air to use these, but they work in lounges across North America and South America as well as Seoul, Korea. Each coupon is good for one person, so you can either use them for two lounge visits for yourself, or for one lounge visit where you bring a friend.
The miles you earn from making purchases on the SKYPASS card count towards Morning Calm Club membership. That is a pretty rare feature for an airline card and a pretty nice name for elite status. Morning Calm Club membership gets you exclusive check-in services, lounge access, priority baggage handling, and SkyTeam Elite member status. To qualify, you need to accumulate 50,000 miles, but sadly only 20,000 can be gotten from the SKYPASS card. Still, it puts you almost half way there.
Again, this card makes sense primarily for those who already travel with Korean Air a good bit. Also note that you can always top off your Korean Air account with Ultimate Rewards points from the Chase Sapphire Preferred — which is arguably a better card in basically every way.
Other perks include bilingual customer service and a free credit score every month. Plus, since this is a Visa Signature card, it has all of those benefits, as well. Visa Signature benefits are largely aimed towards travelers; the list includes stuff like travel insurance, rental car insurance, lost luggage reimbursement, concierge customer service, and more.
