It’s a fascinating time for loyalty at Alaska Air Group. We’ve recently seen Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines merge, though two separate brands are being maintained in the long run (though all flights now have the ”AS” code, as ”HA” has been retired). We’ve also seen the airline group introduce a new loyalty program, known…
Continue reading: Alaska Atmos Rewards Elite Status Guide: Silver, Gold, Platinum, Titanium
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Hi!
Have you also seen the new rule about partner airlines' extra bonus on business tickets?
(New partner earn rate:
We're making it even more rewarding to fly Business and First Class when you book directly with our partner airlines.)
I live in Asia and this can be critical if I can get extra points from booking partner airline tickets directly, since booking them from Alaska website now is generally pricey.
(I often take Malaysia and Sri Lanka air business flights, booking directly from their websites)
Do you think I'm understanding this correctly? Please let me know if you have any thoughts on this.
Thank you for reading
They made titanium incredibly tougher to achieve this year. It went from 100K miles to 135K miles. The rest (gold, silver, platinum) went up 5k-10k which is understandable, but 35K miles equals roughly 6-10 more round trips depending how far you fly. Seems a bit much.
The switch to points from miles also has me skeptical that we will see a switch to money spent vs miles flown in the not to distant future.
I'm Atmos Titanium and have been top tier on Alaska for 14 years running. But have you tried to book partner flights on points to Europe? You can't. Alaska has vast amounts of inventory listed, but when you hit the "purchase" button it bounces you right back with an error message. And Reservations is unable to assist. They get the same results. I have tried this on untold numbers of flights on American, Iberia, and RAM on flights listed as OW East Coast to Europe at 27.5K. They're all unbookable -- and as far out as November. This is a major problem that I don't see Alaska addressing. What good is it to accumulate miles when you can't use them as advertised?
This program simply isn't worth it anymore. Too difficult to book awards, too many hoops to jump through. Stop pretending this program is legitimate when for the majority of travelers it is a roach motel of points one can never redeem.
@Jeremy --> wholeheartedly agree that 135k was a substantial increase and, at least for me, is virtually impossible. My sights are set on the 95k milestone. We'll see...
@PDXPat --> This October, I'll be flying to Europe in Business using Alaska points on a partner airline for my wife (Gold) and myself (Platinum). I had no trouble booking business tickets for us to Asia in Business on a partner airline. In the former, it was with an independent carrier; in the latter, it was with a oneworld airline.
@Alpha --> Personally, I don't know what you're talking about. I mean, I believe you, but this has not been my experience -- not even close. I have redeemed hundreds of thousands of AS points over the years, and since it's becoming ATMOS (versus Mileage Plan), this hasn't changed at all. This year alone, I have either already flown or booked future business class tickets out of SFO to Hawai'i, Europe, New York and DC -- each time traveling on points, each time with my wife, each time with no problem(s). Additionally, to date, I've been upgraded to First on 6 out of 11 AS flights, and twice on AA out of four flights. (This does not count the automatic upgrades to Premium/Main Cabin Select or whatever they call it now.)
But as always it's quite literally a case of YMMV...