In September 2024, Alaska Airlines acquired Hawaiian Airlines. We’ve known that the company plans to launch a new loyalty program, while maintaining two separate airline brands. So there’s now an exciting update, as we’ve just learned the details of the company’s new loyalty program, Atmos Rewards (separately, I’ve covered how Alaska will introduce free Starlink…
Continue reading: Innovative: Alaska & Hawaiian Atmos Rewards Loyalty Program Unveiled
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Will status points be granted on award flights under this "you-pick-your-method" system?
@ Lee -- Yep! Either one status point per mile flown if you use the distance method, or one status point for every 20 points redeemed if you use the price paid method.
Given that Alaska's program is distance based, I'm struggling to see when choosing anything other than distance flown would be more advantageous.
Multiplying out each of their mileage bands by 20 exceeds the cost for most flights, except for some fringe scenarios for First Class longhaul redemptions, which basically don't exist.
As far as it's concerned, unless Alaska is drastically raising its redemption costs, mileage is always the way to go.
Are there any updates to how lifetime status is earned? Limiting recognition to flights on Alaska metal may keep me on AAdvantage despite living in Seattle.
Continuing on the topic of free upgrades for longhaul flights. Seems like Alaska intends to fly to Auckland, either meaning they are rebranding the HNL-AKL flights as Alaska flights. Or they intend to launch SEA-AKL?
@ Stephen -- No updates to how lifetime status is earned, as it'll be based on Alaska and Hawaiian metal. Indeed, lack of lifetime points for travel primarily on other airlines is a downside for those crediting to the program, but that's hardly unique to Atmos Rewards.
@ yoloswag420 -- Sorry, what are you basing that on? Are you talking about this quote?
"We'll be the only U.S. airline to offer complimentary day-of-departure upgrades into global Business Class without points or a certificate. That means upgrades for our Titaniums + 1 companion to destinations like Rome, Tokyo, Auckland, and beyond."
If so, global upgrades apply on both Alaska and Hawaiian, which is why destinations of both brands are mentioned.
@ yoloswag420 -- Earning based on distance flown will almost always be the better deal for award redemptions, but it might be a different story on revenue tickets. Of course you have to choose one earning option for both revenue and award flights, which is the limiting factor here.
I generally travel solo and live in NYC where Alaska has a more limited presence. Is this loyalty program worth exploring?
Alaska needs to stop selling $200 transcon upgrades out from under their elite members.
@ Carl -- I hear you, but in fairness, which airline doesn't do that? It's just the way the industry works nowadays, and I don't actually consider a good shot at a first class upgrade to be one of the biggest perks of elite status nowadays.
@ Jon -- It's worth exploring, but it might not be the best choice for you. There are still some unique things about the program (compared to American AAdvantage), like the ability to earn elite qualification for award flights.
Does the 3x points on all purchases in foreign currencies count towards status? If so, I would only need to spend ~ Euro $22k (~ USD$25k) for Atmos Platinum (OneWorld Emerald)?
@ Simon -- No, the status points qualification is the same regardless of whether you're spending in a multiplier category or not. So earning 3x points wouldn't change the pace at which you earn status.
The article CLEARLY stated: "The Atmos Rewards Summit Visa Infinite Card earns one status point per $2 spent . . . "
Got it, thanks Ben. So, in fact, I would need to spend US$80k on the card to achieve Atmos Gold (OW Sapphire) if I was going for status on CC spend alone. There are no accelerators for CC spend.
I am wondering how the earning methods will compare when flying partner airlines (e.g. Condor).
Also: AS has a 500 mile minimum earning per segment as of now. I would assume that going away is another downside.
@ Simon -- Starting your first anniversary you get a boost of 10,000 status points, so you'd only need to spend $60K for oneworld Sapphire.
@ HejBjarne -- Good point about the 500-mile minimum, that's something I hadn't considered. Regarding earning on partner airlines, that's something that will evolve over time.
If you're using the price paid method, initially you'll earn status points on most partners based on a percentage of the distance flown, factoring in fare class. However, for airlines that share ticket fare information, Atmos Rewards will also eventually start awarding points based on the cost of the partner ticket.
@ Thomas -- I believe it should be the same as other Alaska cards for those purposes.
Where did you read that Hawaiian flights will also give out free global upgrades?
You can see the benefits are not the same across Alaska and Hawaiian. https://www.alaskaair.com/atmosrewards/content/benefits/global
Only the "When flying on Alaska Airlines" section offers the free global upgrades for Titanium members.
"First and Business Class upgrades for all global flights — Starting spring 2026" is not listed under "When flying on Hawaiian
Airlines"
Its not eligible for status points, but alaska and bilt still have the same partnership so the 3x alaska points if you pay bilt the transaction fee exists, its on their website.
I take that $200 upgrade as a great deal (even as a 75k) and think of it as just earning more toward status.
This is probably the best loyalty program news in quite some time. I live in a bigger AA hub than MIA that doesn't even have AS service at all and put everything to the AS program. I fly a lot of short haul and can't beat the ability to earn on segments, especially as I'm buying a few weeks out and taking advantage of lower fares. I probably would be barely Gold with AA on Loyalty Points even though I'm flying AA 80+ flights a year while with AS I'm 75k.
Ben, only downside to being an AS elite in an AA hub is that, if it's anything like my horrid home airport, the AA agents can't grasp Oneworld status or, even if they do, that Alaska elites have benefits on American that are separate from the rest of Oneworld partners. I've had Admirals Club agents in CLT, ORD, and smaller airports argue to me that Alaska elites are not eligible for upgrades. I've bought a walk-up ticket before and gotten a coach seat in the last few rows of the plane (while First was showing 9 open seats and nobody on the upgrade list, Main Cabin Extra had whole rows open). Or "I've gone ahead and put your AAdvantage number back on your reservation" when they get confused over an Alaska elite flying on AA entering the Admirals Club with an actual Admirals Club membership card (and dropping me from the upgrade list or premium seats in the process). But those 4500/7500 short haul and mid-haul award redemptions are great... and you can get 9/15k First quite often (I wouldn't pay 9k miles to upgrade to First on CLT-MIA, but a 15k all in CLT-DFW-AA Eagle connection is worth it)
Will AA elites still be upgrade eligible? Will EP be eligible for global upgrades?
@ Ly -- Nothing is changing with American upgrades on Alaska. They'll continue to be available, but global upgrades are only for Atmos Rewards Titanium members, and not equivalent passengers at American.
Will status points earned through credit card spend additive to any of the three status earning options? i.e. can one chose distance flown as the primary path for status and complement with status points from cc spend?
@ yoloswag420 -- I just checked, and Alaska has confirmed that was an oversight, and the website will be updated soon. Global upgrades will apply on both Alaska and Hawaiian.
I frequently am doing award redemptions on Alaska and AA. I have found, especially in the past few years, AA is significantly more flexible and better value for most international premium cabins. Things like points value or being able to connect multiple partners in meaningful ways on the same ticket.
Pure point value aside, a huge underrated value is being able to get an AA EXP agent on the phone who knows the actual rules of the program and can help book things more flexibly that might be difficult or not appearing online. Gone are the days of the AS international partner desk that had knowledgeable agents empowered to help customers. Nowadays AS basically just pulls up the same system we're looking at and says the equivalent of "yeah i'm not seeing it either". Just did this last week with a JAL flight where the AA Agent immediately got it done after calling AS who "couldn't see it on the website".
Not a big deal for the 80% of flyers, but a consistent headache for those of us looking to maximize value.
So we actually cancel the Alaska Visa and apply for the new card or it is automatically converted by B of A?
I know I’m in the minority with this.
As a Pualani Platinum flyer with the majority of my flights coming from neighbor islands flights this feels like a kick in the nuts.
- 100% bonus miles is now 50%
- 3 bags becoming 2
- 500 bonus miles for neighbor island flights erased.
- No mention of how the plumeria lounge will come into play.
- No mention of 1st class upgrades for neighbor island flights (I know it’s only 20-40 minutes but at 5am it’s a nice perk)
- Downgrade on the amount of family you can upgrade to extra comfort.
@ Sheelaghgoes -- If you have an existing card, it should be automatically converted.
Who would choose to be awarded by segments at a partly 500 miles per segment? Does this foreshadow the elimination of the elite 500 miles minimum per segment for distance based earners?
Perhaps for someone who lives in Oahu and commutes round trip to the neighbor islands daily or almost daily, getting 500 miles per segment would be valuable, assuming they only take a few long distance flights to the mainland or Asia every year?
Flying three times a week RT to a neighbor island would be about 150,000 points in a year at 500 per segment. Mileage wise would be a fraction of this.
This is crucial. If you have a $2500 rent payment, that $30000/yr should earn 15k status points and 90000 Atmos points for a 3% transaction fee ($900). That will get you 50% of the requisite spend for the 100k global companion certificate. It will also get you the first level of status.
This very much competes with Bilt's premium offerings. I wonder how long it will be allowed to last, because it is not at all clear to me that Bilt has a better value proposition for that level of spend (mostly because rent is excluded from the fast track status calculation).
- For distance-based status points earning is there any fare class multiplier?
- For revenue-based status points earning will there be a status multiplier or is it a flat 5 status points per dollar?
- For revenue-based status points earning have they published a chart for flights booked on partners?
- I guess I also have the same question for redeemable miles but I'd assume the answers there are yes to all.
Seems like $60k spend is the sweet spot given that it nets you both the 100k cert and Atmos Gold aka OW Sapphire (30k spend + 10k boost). This seems appealing but I also expect the AS planes will be half full with Golds now.
I've been trying to figure out the fare class multipliers as well, and I can't find a clear answer. For 2025 the fare class multipliers are unchanged, but the site doesn't seem to say whether they will remain in force for 2026.
Why in the world is Atmos loyalty an entirely separate app from the Alaska and Hawaiian apps? The rest of this looks decent but what the helly
@ GS -- Purely speculation on my part, but my guess is that soon enough we're going to see everything integrated into the Atmos app (including bookings on both airlines). After all, Alaska Air Group wants people to go to once place to plan travel, despite maintaining two brands. So I suspect it just wasn't worth investing in updating the other apps, only to eventually sunset them.
@ Watson -- Great questions, and I followed up with a contact about this. Elites will continue to earn their elite tier bonuses, but those elite bonuses won't count toward status.
That means that all members earn 5x status points per dollar spent, regardless of whether they have no status or Titanium status (in contrast to programs like AAdvantage).
For revenue based earnings on partners, earning will continue to happen the way it currently does for not, though that could change over time, at which point new charts will be published.
Yes, that. AA has business class awards CGK-BOS on JL for 70k miles, AS wants 110k miles. And AA actually has some availability about 2 weeks out (with a domestic segment from ORD or DFW), while AS only has the ridiculous 255k awards on Qatar.
@Ben: What about fare class multipliers (e.g. 50% more status points if booking I or D)?
@ eaci -- You're talking about rewards based on distance flown on revenue tickets? Those multipliers for class of service remain...
Nerfing 500 mile minimums is a BFD for many HA elites. Instead of distance based earnings withWright 500 mile minimums, we get to choose between a huge reduction in interisland earning or a huge reduction in long haul earning.
Ben - you're probably already working on this but would love to see an article discussing the pros / cons of pursuing elite status with American vs. Alaska for various types of travelers.
Ben, is the 10,000 annual status boost awarded only upon renewal, or do we get it now if we signed up and were approved for the Summit card?
Will the multipliers for class of service remain for all 3 earning options (segments, distance, spend)?
Booking a partner business class flight on Alaska gets you 250% EQM (based on distance) today. How will that be earned across the 3 earn options?
I can't wait for the laugh when I ask my gas company if I get a discount for using their card to pay my bill.
At 5x pts/dollar spent, the higher elite tiers are much more expensive than AA's. But the credit card is much more lucrative. The math skews more to spending than flying... and I'm sure that's the point.
"Atmos Rewards"
Named by the same geniuses that gave us "Bonvoy". Or, maybe it was generated by ChatGPT. Either way....good grief.
Maybe you have to select balance transfer when you apply? I didn't, because I have the companion fare grandfathered in without the spend requirement, and it created a new account rather than converting the old one.
I have an absolutely burning question in my mind that I cannot seem to find an answer for, and maybe it is too early to know.
The Question is - if we were to choose a revenue based award system with Atmos awards, would that solely be rev based for Alaska flights, or would it be revenue based for all OneWorld partners as well? Ie. Spend $1000US on a flight with Cathay Pacific and earn based on the $$ or still would be based on distance flown? That would be a huge win for me personally...!
Anyone know the answer?
How do you know if the loyalty program is so compelling as you claim? We have not seen the number of points required for redemption etc. There are many details not known still. The other question is about the earning structure of points, Dollars, and segements. Earning by which method would be best and how often you can change between is still unknown.
@ iamhere — There’s no change to existing redemption rates, so we do know how much awards cost. Nothing is changing there.
+1 to this question; I'm wondering the same thing. I have a $4.5k business class ticket to India booked via Alaska for next spring 2026. Based on the 2025 250% EQM bonus, I was expecting to earn about 40k EQM for that trip. Now it looks like I'll be screwed either way as there are no disclosed premium cabin status points bonuses (or elite status-based status points bonuses, it seems; I'm an MVP Gold 75k) --- only 22,500 status points if i choose revenue, or 19k if choose distance.
I have been trying to use it overseas since yesterday and have encountered various bofA/Visa Secure technical problems, have now spent the better part of three hours on the phone and been authenticated over 6 times to try to remove the block form spending/unnecessary fraud alerts to no avail.
I am being told it's because I'm using the card overseas-which is EXACTLY how this is marketed.
The Bank of America Team is telling me I need to go into a BofA branch to speak to a live person ...which is obviously not doable while overseas. It's not 1971.
My card has been totally blocked from use, I will be unable to fulfill the spend requirements for the bonuses, am spending $395 for this and I now totally regret having applied for this card.
Per the Atmos 2026 FAQ:
> What flights will be eligible for choice based earn?
> Choice based accrual applies to all Alaska, Hawaiian, codeshare and partner tickets booked via AlaskaAir.com and HawaiianAir.com. Partner flights booked direct with partners will continue to earn a percentage of flown miles if either the distance or ticket price earning method is chosen, or will earn 500 points per segment if the segment earning method is chosen.
It's unfortunate they still haven't made checked baggage policy competitive with others. No 70lb baggage either with status nor with business/first (both standard on every other major airline).
When is this rolling out? It's already 2026, but I don't see the option to pick the earn choices nor the new partner earning rates being applied. I have a bunch of flights coming up soon and would definitely like to take advantage of the new earning methods and rates to get elite status..