Atmos Rewards will soon let members choose how they earn points—by distance, price, or segments flown. Here's the rollout timeline and which option makes the most sense.
"I should also mention that Atmos Rewards promised to improve points earning rates for premium cabin tickets on partner airlines when booked directly with those airlines."
But will Alaska bump up earn rates for premium cabins on Alaska metal or when booked with Alaska?
you highlight a very clear loophole in why you should not pay for J class on AS...but AS ticketed and partner operated J class fares are insanely high to get the 250 percent....so they should just put everything long haul J to 250 percent.
Again, Alaska knocking it out of the park, lately. See, this is actually giving consumers a choice (not the fake 'choice' of unbundling fares, but really just charging more, like DL and UA have done recently, even for business class. Lame.) I'm glad they're keeping distance-based; and that even point redemptions on partners earn status with AS. That was a very pleasant surprise when I flew JFK-EZE in F on AA metal (before they retired 773 F cabin) using AS.
Does the cost paid include seat upgrade? I’ve got a 200 mile flight I bought with points, then paid $80 for a seat upgrade. Which option is best in this case? Thx and yay Alaska!
@ Tm -- Yep, if you choose the revenue based model, then seat upgrade fees do earn you points (both redeemable points and status points).
Ive been hearing anecdotes that J class partner ticketed and operated are now posting at 250percent..but others not.
I have a BA J class ticket later in October.....would love to have clarity on when this actually starts.....
What’s the bonus for elites and business fares if one chooses points per dollar?? Under the current scheme, 99.9 % of the people including business travelers will get more points and status miles with distance than ticket value.
This is just a stop gap until they fully switch to revenue based.
@ Davisson -- The elite bonuses are the same across methods, while there's not really the concept of class of service bonuses anymore.
Is the 500 mile minimum going away if you choose distance?
Ben, I'm curious on your take for how award trips and status points via the BoA Alaska Summit and Ascent credit cards might affect the distance vs. spend method to earn status.
@ rww -- I would say it shouldn't materially change things. The status points earning on the credit card is the same, regardless of the method you choose. Meanwhile for award flights it comes down to whether one would be better off earning one status point per flown mile, or one status point for every 20 points redeemed. Looking at most of my saver level award redemptions, the math is more favorable for the distance based system, even when redeeming for premium cabin tickets.
Note that Alaska previously confirmed that distance-based earning will not receive any class of service bonus. So if you fly transcon or similar in J, you wouldn't get any bonus vs if you had flown economy.
Also, they said when they announced initially that paid for seat assignment and class-of-service upgrades will earn points under the revenue-based option.
@ clb -- You're right, I forgot to include that in the post, so I just added it. Thanks!
"A majority of passengers spend an average of under 20 cents per mile (Alaska’s average passenger revenue per available seat mile is around 15 cents), so I tend to think the old system continues to make the most sense for a vast majority of people."
does this math hold up, though? that's *available* seat mile, and not all seats are occupied, which means that those empty seat miles are subsidized by the seats actually occupied by pax, which would seem to suggest that those ticket sales are at something of a higher cost basis than the average seat mile revenue in order to balance out the empty seats which earn zero cents per mile
@ digital_notmad -- That's a totally valid point. We're still talking about an average load factor of 80%+, so on *average* people will come out ahead with the distance based system. I guess everyone will have to crunch the numbers for themselves, based on their own situation.