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.
Well, I now have an update. It looks like for 2026 I’ll be earning zero status with American AAdvantage, and a pretty high status tier with Alaska Atmos Rewards. To be honest, I hadn’t fully processed this until today, since I wasn’t really focused on earning status with either program. Let me explain.
In this post:
Going for oneworld Emerald status with Atmos Rewards
I’ll let my frequent flyer account summaries speak for themselves. I currently have AAdvantage Executive Platinum status, and have a total of 811 Loyalty Points for the year. No, not 81,000 or 811,000, but 811.
When it comes to earning Loyalty Points with AAdvantage, as an Executive Platinum member that correlates to either $811 in co-branded credit card spending, or $74 in eligible airfare spending. Given that you need 200,000 Loyalty Points to requalify for Executive Platinum status, I think it’s safe to say that I’ll be downgraded this year. 😉
Let me be clear, I fly American a fair bit, but almost entirely using points, particularly using Alaska Atmos Rewards points. So that doesn’t earn me any status with American, but award flights do count toward Atmos Rewards status (at the rate of one status point per mile flown).
Meanwhile with Alaska Atmos Rewards, I’ve earned 66,125 status points. That means I’ve already earned Atmos Rewards Gold status, and I’ll certainly earn Atmos Rewards Platinum status, which requires 80,000 status points.
Honestly, that’s “good enough” for me in terms of the value of status, since Atmos Rewards Platinum unlocks oneworld Emerald status, and that’s the elite perk I value most. I suppose I could try to go for Atmos Rewards Titanium status, but that requires 125,000 status points.
Yes, if I actually flew on Alaska or Hawaiian frequently I’d value it for the upgrades, particularly the unlimited complimentary day of departure global upgrades. But for me the juice just doesn’t seem worth the squeeze, because I barely fly with Alaska Air Group, given where I live.
This is nothing against American… it’s just basic math
Living in Miami, American is my primary airline for domestic and short haul international flights (though I’ll book whatever airline offers the best value, factoring in schedule, price, and product). As you can see above, a vast majority of my travel on American is using points, since the carrier is actually pretty good about making award seats available.
As I make the switch from American AAdvantage to Alaska Atmos Rewards, it’s absolutely nothing against American, as my travel patterns aren’t changing. I barely fly Alaska or Hawaiian, and that won’t change. It’s just that one status can be earned with limited opportunity cost, while the other has quite a bit of opportunity cost, in terms of credit card spending.
For one, I redeem a lot of Atmos Rewards points, and I can even transfer those over from Bilt, to replenish my balance. I do value oneworld Emerald status, especially for the lounge access perks it offers. If the goal is to earn oneworld Emerald status, the math here is pretty simple.
If I were to go for American AAdvantage Platinum Pro status, that would require 125,000 Loyalty Points, and I’d need to spend around $125,000 on a co-branded credit card (or potentially a little less, if I have the most premium version of the card). For the most part, I’d be earning just 1x miles per dollar spent, so there would be an opportunity cost to that spending.
Meanwhile Alaska Atmos Rewards Platinum status requires 80,000 status points, and the Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® Credit Card (learn more) really makes it easy to unlock that:
- The card offers 10,000 status points on your account anniversary every year
- The card offers one status point for every $2 spent, but there are some major advantages, as the card is actually lucrative to spend money on — you earn a 100,000-point Global Companion Award if you spend $60,000 on the card in a cardmember year, and you also earn 3x points on all foreign purchases, which is a useful category for me
To crunch the numbers, I earned 10,000 status points just for having the card, plus 30,000 status points for spending $60,000, which earned me a Global Companion Award that’s incredibly valuable. So it was the best card for that spending, not even accounting for the elite status aspect.
Then when you add in that I earn one status point for every mile flown on an award booked through Atmos Rewards, I’m inching closer to Atmos Rewards Platinum status. Basically if I fly another 14,000 “butt in seat” award miles using Atmos Rewards points, that’ll get me there, even with no more credit card spending. How can I say no to that?!
Both Alaska and American belong to oneworld, and I struggle to find any material difference in terms of the status between the two programs, at least for my purposes. It’s not like I clear many upgrades, or find Executive Platinum status to be much more useful in terms of handling during irregular operations (in those situations, just having Admirals Club access and being nice is the best “tool”).
Bottom line
It wasn’t even terribly deliberate, but it looks like 2026 will be the year where I switch my loyalty from American AAdvantage to Alaska Atmos Rewards. I picked up the Atmos Rewards Summit Card last year, and I’ve been spending on it to earn the 100,000-point Global Companion Award, since that’s “efficient” even without status considerations.
Add in a good number of award flights, plus the 10,000 bonus status points just having the card, and I’m getting very close to Atmos Rewards Platinum status, which unlocks oneworld Emerald status. Meanwhile I’m 0.4% of the way to requalifying for AAdvantage Executive Platinum status.
Am I crazy for switching programs? Should I make the effort of going for Atmos Rewards Titanium?
You just articulated my exact strategy for 2026 ... great minds ... :).
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.
Alaska is quietly chipping away at the once-superior Atmos benefits. For example, my favorite US to Caribbean route on American used to cost a minimum of 7,500 Atmos points for the 1,000 mile voyage 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.
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
Yaaa!! I love me some good ole 'arbitrage' while it lasts. Get some!