Bleh, well this is disappointing. Earlier I covered how the Alaska Airlines and Singapore Airlines partnership is being scaled back considerably. That’s not the only partnership where that’s happening, as it’s going to be a similar story for Alaska and LATAM. Thanks to Bjarne for flagging this.
In this post:
Alaska & LATAM partnership coming to an end
While Alaska belongs to the oneworld alliance, the airline also partners with all kinds of other airlines, including independent carriers, and those belonging to other alliances. For many years now, Alaska and LATAM have had a partnership, offering reciprocal points earning and redemption opportunities. Unfortunately this won’t be around for much longer.
As of October 1, 2025, the two airlines are ending reciprocal frequent flyer redemptions, so it’ll no longer be possible to redeem Alaska Atmos Rewards points for travel on LATAM, and vice versa.
Meanwhile reciprocal points earning opportunities will gradually be eliminated. For Atmos Rewards members, here’s what you can expect:
- For tickets booked through August 31, 2025, it’s possible to earn points at the current rates, regardless of when travel takes place
- For tickets booked between September 1 and September 30, 2025, it’s possible to earn points for travel through December 31, 2025
- For tickets booked on or after October 1, 2025, and for travel on or after January 1, 2026, it will no longer be possible to earn points
It’s hardly surprising this partnership is ending
Frankly, I’m surprised the partnership between Alaska and LATAM lasted as long as it did. Keep in mind that Delta owns a significant stake in LATAM, and LATAM’s strategy in the United States is very closely tied to Delta, given how Delta tends to interact with its equity partners.
Given that Alaska and Delta are basically at war in Seattle, I’m shocked that Delta hasn’t forced LATAM to end this partnership sooner. More broadly speaking, there are other reasons that partnerships like this could be scaled back, but I’d be surprised if that weren’t the primary motivation here.
This sucks for Atmos Rewards, as there’s no denying this was a valuable and unique partner for the program.
Bottom line
Alaska Airlines and LATAM are ending their partnership. As of October 1, 2025, reciprocal points redemption opportunities will be cut, and for travel as of January 1, 2026, all reciprocal points earning opportunities will also be eliminated. This is a shame, as this was a really useful partnership.
What do you make of these Alaska & LATAM partnership ending?
this is, per industry insiders, more of a temporary remission given how badly Delta is struggling in Seattle
temporary remission? AS isn't going to reinstate loyalty program relations that it is now cancelling
If anything, AS is realizing - as I said before - that it makes no sense for AS to have loyalty program relationships with carriers against which it competes for longhaul passengers. Either another carrier is your friend or it is not; AS tried to be friends w/ everyone in SEA not named DL and then quickly realized as soon...
temporary remission? AS isn't going to reinstate loyalty program relations that it is now cancelling
If anything, AS is realizing - as I said before - that it makes no sense for AS to have loyalty program relationships with carriers against which it competes for longhaul passengers. Either another carrier is your friend or it is not; AS tried to be friends w/ everyone in SEA not named DL and then quickly realized as soon as it wanted to fly longhaul international that it was helping not only DL's friends but also many other airlines that were paying less for loyalty program seats even as AS spent more to keep passengers.
You came up w/ your own false conclusion and then twisted the narrative - which is exactly backwards of what is actually happening.
Wasn’t this highlighted as one of the massive benefits for applying for the new Alaska credit cards ?
With the concessions Alaska was forced to make by the DOT with the merger re its loyalty program not devaluing I couldn’t understand how the economics would work out. Now I’m starting to see how they were able to agree.
Sure am glad I didn’t make any speculative transfers to Hawaiian miles from cc programs. I suspect more of these quasi devaluations to come
Atmos did a really great job polishing the furniture before announcing the inevitable.
Meanwhile Citi rolled out a really weak premium card (Elite) together with the very best of bread and butter in the form of Strata Premier / Strata Regular / DoubleCash with TY point transfers to AA.
I’m happy to keep hitting singles and doubles with the AA ecosystem. Still by far the easiest path to OWE with the least spend,...
Atmos did a really great job polishing the furniture before announcing the inevitable.
Meanwhile Citi rolled out a really weak premium card (Elite) together with the very best of bread and butter in the form of Strata Premier / Strata Regular / DoubleCash with TY point transfers to AA.
I’m happy to keep hitting singles and doubles with the AA ecosystem. Still by far the easiest path to OWE with the least spend, especially for those of us taking advantage of AA Hotels.
You must be delusional to think that AA devaluation isn’t coming in the next 12 months.
The AA devaluation is already here and continuing. Eyes wide open. Building a transferable point currency has always made the most sense versus with any particular airline. I wish TY transferred to Aeroplan but still plenty of partners including AA which has best redemptions of the big 3. Some value to be had with Atmos but could say that about lots of programs. Stick with basic principles and be happy with singles and don’t expect home runs.
As I have said, there is no way that AS could continue with the multitude of other airline partner programs even as it develops its own international flying. It makes no sense for them to help other airlines that compete directly against some of AS' own services and, in the case of Latam, AS' primary competitor, Delta.
Really? So what does this mean for the Atmos program especially if other partners terminate their partnership?
Based on the plethora of posts of this program over the last 2 weeks, I was led to believe that Atmos was the next best thing to Costco's cranberry and walnut bread.
Get ready to say bye bye to Korean Air as well!
Not really surprised that that one's lasted (at least until recent times) due to Korean not wanting to rock the boat during their merger approvals. But like you said, it'll be shocking if that relationship sticks around much longer.
Korean isn't allowed to drop any pre-merger partners for a set amount of time as one of the conditions.
Can I book future trips before Oct 1?
Yes, but...
Based on my spot check, LATAM J availability at the far end of the booking window (07/29/2026 as of today) on Atmos are already zero-out on MIA-SCL, MEX-SCL, CUN-SCL etc. Qantas can see some of them, Qatar can see some, LH can see some, just not for AS.
The only J seat AS can still book now is -- surprise -- ATL-LIM. Delta cleared the plate but forget its own base.
Just another reason why I am glad I decided on the Amex business Platinum card now instead of the Atmos one.
Why didn't you get both? Isn't like there is a requirement to only get one of them!
There is no way I would be able to meet the spending requirements of both in the amount of time needed to get the bonus points of them so I had to choose just one. The 250K bonus Amex offered me was something I couldn’t turn down. I like being able to transfer points to different programs also instead of being stuck with just one.
You didn't get swept up by the massive Atmos credit card peddling this site did for the last two weeks?
Glad I just went to Argentina and Chile on an AS LATAM award earlier this year.
Yep. Done Chile two years ago and will do Argentina this year, glad to have used the miles. I know this one would be among the first to go, so I really made a point of going to South America whenever my schedule allows.
As for LATAM, I wonder how long some of its partnerships from the LAN side (BA/QR/QF) and from the TAM side (LH) will last. I do expect VS partnership to last.
With Iberia they even have some reciprocal elite benefits!
I don't think DL is particularly bothered about those partnerships though as its transatlantic JV is restricted to North America and the southernmost destination of VS in the Western hemisphere is Grenada.
I surely hope you are right. Then we can still have MEX-SCL J seat on 30K LH miles.