I've written in the past about the case to be made for American AAdvantage loyalists switching their business to Alaska Atmos Rewards, especially in light of changes that we saw to the Atmos Rewards program in 2025. As I explained at the time, this is a strategy I was considering, but not one I followed through on in 2025, since I was already most of the way to earning status with American, so a mid-year switch didn't make sense.
Makes complete sense. This sort of arbitrage is becoming more and more rare these days, but I have to imagine AA will shut it down in the coming years. Either less awards to partners like UA/DL have done or something else. Great for the time being though
@ Harold -- You're absolutely right, nothing is permanent, and my strategy will likely evolve again in the future. But based on the current state of things, this seems to be the most logical. 🙂
Alaska is quietly chipping away at the once-superior Atmos benefits. For example, my favorite US to Caribbean route used to cost a minimum of 7,500 Atmos points for the 1,000 miles until a month or so ago, and now it is never less than 12,500.
But I switched to Alaska a year ago after 2 million butt-in-the-seat American miles (and lifetime AA Platinum) for the reasons that Ben stated.
@ Bobo -- Hmm, I'm curious, which route is this? It sounds to me like a situation where there's not saver level award availability, so there's some "rule buster" availability?
WAS-FPO. Looking out to end of schedule next summer, I don't see any more 7500 mile availability, it is 12,500 minimum. I'm thinking the mileage-based "award chart" is basically gone as it already is with the others.
Any update on when the new ways of earning choices will go live other than “later in 2026”?
Not in a hurry. For most of us, this will be another way of chipping away at our benefits. Want premium cabin bonuses AND credit for actual miles flown? Won't get both. Want to keep the 500 mile minimum for that 100 mile flight? Not happening either.
I am in a hurry! For me it’s all about the increased earning rates for direct bookings in premium cabins with partners. That and the status points on award bookings is what’s made me choose Atmos rewards over other programmes for status.
@phillip That is my number 1 gripe! communiites should have been done and extended J/F earning on partners was promised....especially when i have a partner J class fare pending....i lose half of the potential earning
You just articulated my exact strategy for 2026 ... great minds ... :).
Major benefit of Atmos is that (at least for now) Alaska gives status points (one per mile flown) on award flights booked using its own miles. (American don't do that. Just sayin... *stink eye*)
Sorry, trying to work my head around your math - you said you'll earn Platinum after the 10k bonus + 30k from $60k spend + flying 14k miles, but that adds up to 54k not 80k for Platinum? I guess that's on top of your current status points and not starting from scratch?
@ SDFlyer -- Sorry for the confusion. It's 10K status points just for having the card, 30K status points for spending, and then I've earned the additional status points primarily through award flights through the program, as you earn one status point per mile flown. The 14K is in reference to the status points I still need, rather than the ones I've earned (I'm currently at around 66K status points for the year).
I do see the logic, at least unless American decides to give status points for award tickets on their own metal like UA and DL (or AS on any OneWorld carrier).
Also feel like this makes it an easy call for you to downgrade Strata Elite for the time being since you probably don't need more AA miles at the moment and the Admirals Club passes are obviously redundant if you have and value unlimited access from the AA lounge card.
@ dx -- In fairness, I still value AAdvantage miles immensely, have a huge balance, and continue to use them. Over the years I've very much decoupled my strategy when it comes to points I redeem vs. status I pursue.
Your plan works as long as AA keeps releasing saver award Y and F award availability to partners. This can change any time without notice.
They can pull a UA where J saver awards are pretty much only available for their own elite or credit card holders.
Or they can behave like CX where it only releases a subset of Y awards to its OneWorld partners and PY/J/F are unicorns particularly on long haul.
@ Edward -- Yep, they definitely, can, and nothing is permanent. I'll adjust my strategy over time as needed, based on how things evolve.
As a current Alaska Atmos Titanium member, I want to point out a minor error in the article - it takes 135,000 status points to attain the Titanium tier, and not 125K.
caution if you book a ticket with AA and then creddit to AS the milage credit can be bad. i have booked main cabin and upgraded seats and recieved 25% of the milage flown. never have that problem with alaska
@ enrique -- A good point worth bringing back. As you can see based on my AAdvantage account, there's not a whole lot of revenue travel on American to speak of. :p
The earning rate on paid AA tickets is precisely why I haven’t switched. That, and IROPS support.
Living in Florida, at least for now, you still get a min 500 miles out of any AA hop (that's not Basic). Going up and down the East Coast, this works for me. Going out West, I'll either drive down to MCO and hop on AS metal, or occasionally I'll find a decent codeshare out of my home airport of JAX (just got a decent deal on JAX-PHX-SEA booked via AS).
But what if you are using a AA biz card and basically earning status for two people by using the AU card to get LP's for both P1 and P2.
Also, I believe that AA has cut off partner access to award seats at 1 week, so that kills last minute bookings where AA is usually king in terms of pricing vs the cash price.
When something is too good to be true, it usually is. Wait for the next set of changes.
"wait for the next set of changes" is a poor strategy when everybody is racing to the bottom. It's not like airline status lasts, so you might as well be flexible and be open to shifting your strategy as programs evolve on a year-by-year basis
With the new AA Exec card you need 170k LP to get to EP because you'll get 3x10k LP rewards. You can book a vacations package through AA Vacations and with the current offer get 11x miles/LP (there's also a cardholder address to get an extra 10% off hotels/cars). You can stack with AA eshopping for another 5x miles/LP. And pay with the card for 1x mile/LP and to use the $250 credit. That's 17 miles/LP per $. So for ~$10k ($9,750 after the credit, and you have to account for taxes not being included, etc...) you're EP and enjoy your trip.
(And if you were in the 25% LP bonus after getting 60k LP and registering, it would be even less. ~$8,529.41 gets you to 145k LP plus 25k LP from the LP bonus plus 30k from the Exec card).
Good angle though I don't think the 5x eshopping stacks - the terms say that's not fulfilled by eshopping, it's just advertising the 'normal' 'up to 5x' when you book at AA vacations. So it's 11x for EXP with the current promo through 9/30 vs 5x normally.
"AAdvantage eShopping® doesn't handle the fulfillment of earned AAdvantage® miles or Loyalty Points for these types of stores. AAdvantage® miles earned with this partner will appear in your AAdvantage® account directly and do not count towards AAdvantage eShopping® bonus promotions."
Interesting, that doesn't appear on the "button" at all - you just activate it like a regular shopping session. Honestly haven't cared about AA Vacations at all until the card refresh - thanks for flagging, @Greg.
All it says on the button is "Merchant terms:
Special terms: Price exclusions: For car rentals, additional taxes and fees apply. For itineraries that include flights, checked bag fees may apply. For hotel stays, resort fees, incidental fees and parking fees may apply. Tax exemptions: For some international destinations, you may qualify for a refund of a portion of the air taxes after you've finished booking. To claim an exemption, you may be asked to show proof of residency / citizenship at the airport."
I do see if you go to the main eshopping site and click through that it has the language you are quoting. But far from clear.
I do think the point still holds though - fine, 12x instead of 17x (11x from vacations and 1x card). That's ~$14.2k of spend on AA flights plus hotel and car rental spend (less at least one $250 credit). Who knows if MaximizeMiles 11x promo will continue - but there's some decent incentive to just running some hotel/car rental travel through AA to get 12x miles/LP on spend.
How does one stack the AA vacations together with AA eshopping on the same spend (to get the 11x + 5x + 1x = 17x described) ??
@Lucky, are you planning on keeping the Citi AA Executive card for domestic lounge access? AFAIK, AA AC members (including Citi) can just show their AC card, so it's not subject to AS's stupid restriction on FF #s on BPs.
@ Tennen -- Yep, absolutely plan on keeping it, and there are no issues accessing as a member even if crediting to another program.
My main issue with Atmos Rewards is poor earnings on premium (J/F) travel.
One point that's not mentioned in the article is that you can rake up a lot of Loyalty Points through AA hotels - there's an opportunity cost but still often makes sense.
Yes, I think you are crazy for switching. You live in Miami - even traveling mostly rewards on AA - there is still an advantage for being EXP. You won't have access to the EXP phone line or possible irrops. Not that hard to get to 125K AA LP. I guess you are still burning off the 7M miles you got for the $30K investment in the Simplymiles charity promo - when LP's started. How many of the 7M miles do you have left? Once those are gone you most definitely want to be back at EXP.
I've found some great redemptions on AA through atmos. However, it would worry me if AA started reducing award availability
When even poor folks such as myself can easily earn status with Atmos you know a devalue is right around the corner. Whether it be on the AS side or the AA side or both.
Bob gets it. Anyways, Alaska has already been doing stealth devals so not to look like a liar and cheat. But soon, they will show their face. And AA must deval to make it thru this POTUS (a known PDF) term.
With only taking award flights, along with summit 10k, I’m on track for gold this year. AS system is too good to be true, not sustainable. We enjoy while it lasts.