Atmos Rewards For American Flyers: The Argument For Switching Loyalty

We recently saw Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines launch their new combined loyalty program, Atmos Rewards. The program is really well designed, and I find it to be incredibly engaging. It’s so well thought out that I’m very close to pulling the trigger on switching from American AAdvantage to Atmos Rewardds, even though I rarely fly Alaska.

Let me explain my logic, as I’ve had a countless number of people who usually fly American ask me if there’s merit to switching to Atmos Rewards.

Why I’m tempted by the Atmos Rewards program

Big picture, and before getting into the details, let me explain why I’m considering a switch to Atmos Rewards. I’d like to think that I’m a relatively rational consumer when it comes to the value that airline loyalty programs can offer.

Over the years, what I value from airline elite status has changed. Back in the day, complimentary domestic upgrades was the perk that made me pursue elite status. Nowadays upgrades are so hard to come by that I don’t value that nearly as much.

For context, I had American AAdvantage Executive Platinum status for 14 years, and I finally dropped down last year. My strategy was going to be to pursue AAdvantage Platinum Pro status this year primarily through a combination of credit card spending and crediting flights to the program.

Why did I even want to pursue Platinum Pro? A simple reason — I really value oneworld Emerald status, and Platinum Pro is the lowest elite tier that gets you that. This status offers valuable benefits across oneworld airlines, including access to incredible oneworld Emerald first class lounges.

The thing is, I kind of struggle with actually bringing myself to spend money on American’s co-branded credit cards. Why? Well, there’s quite an opportunity cost to doing so, since none of American’s cards have a terribly compelling return on spending, beyond the Loyalty Points you rack up.

Most cards earn 1x AAdvantage miles per dollar spent in most categories. At a minimum, I could earn 2x AAdvantage miles per dollar spent by instead using a Citi ThankYou card, like a combination of the Citi Strata Elite℠ Card (review) and Citi Double Cash® Card (review). So the opportunity cost is pretty direct.

Ultimately I’m okay with this opportunity cost. Still, in an ideal world, I’d be able to have my credit card spending count toward elite status without feeling like there’s an opportunity cost to that spending. This is where I feel like Atmos Rewards was the answer to my miles & points prayers, because based on how I’ve mapped this out, I could earn oneworld Emerald status with zero opportunity cost.

My strategy for earning Atmos Rewards elite status

Before I explain my Atmos Rewards strategy, let me recap the Atmos Rewards elite tiers, and how they map over with oneworld elite status:

• Atmos Silver (oneworld Ruby) requires 20,000 status points
• Atmos Gold (oneworld Sapphire) requires 40,000 status points
• Atmos Platinum (oneworld Emerald) requires 75,000 status points (80,000 status points as of 2026)
• Atmos Titanium (oneworld Emerald) requires 100,000 status points (135,000 status points as of 2026)

There are two primary aspects to my strategy of earning elite status — credit card spending and award flights. Yes, I’d earn some points for flights on revenue flights, and I’ll cover that as well, but it’s not even a core part of the strategy.

Earning Atmos Rewards status points with credit cards

A large part of my strategy with Atmos Rewards involves the newly launched $395 annual fee Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite^® Credit Card (review), which is one of the best airline credit cards we’ve ever seen. Just to recap the very basics:

• The card offers 3x points on all foreign spending, as well as 3x points on dining
• If you have a Bank of America account, you earn a 10% relationship bonus, so you earn 3.3x points on foreign spending and dining
• If you spend $60,000 on the card in an anniversary year, you earn a 100,000-point Global Companion Award
• The card lets you pay your rent with Bilt for a 3% fee, and then you earn 3x points on that spending (on up to $50,000 of spending per year)
• The card offers one status point for every $2 spent, and starting on the first account anniversary, the card offers an annual boost of 10,000 status points

To be exceptionally conservative here, I’d earn 40,000 status points per year from the card. That’s because there’s the annual boost of 10,000 status points, and I’d also want to spend at least $60,000 to earn the 100,000-point Global Companion Award.

What makes me giddy about that is that I could reach virtually all of that spending with zero opportunity cost whatsoever. This would be the best card to use for these purchases, even if status weren’t a factor.

I actually think I’d earn materially more status points than that, but that’s intended to be a conservative estimate. Those 40,000 status points would get me halfway to oneworld Emerald.

Earning Atmos Rewards status points with award flights

The Atmos Rewards program offers one status point per flown mile on an award ticket, assuming you choose to earn status points based on distance flown (which I would). This is such an awesome aspect of the program, given all the great uses there are of Atmos Rewards points.

The truth is that I use Atmos Rewards points all the time for award flights on American, which are just practical. If there’s saver level award availability, Atmos Rewards almost always has better pricing, and that says nothing of those award flights counting toward elite status.

Like, take the below award between Miami and London in business class, which costs 55,000 points through Atmos Rewards, or 80,000 miles through AAdvantage.

Or take the below award between Miami and Tampa in economy or first class, which costs 4,500 points or 9,000 points through Atmos Rewards, or 7,000 miles or 15,000 miles through AAdvantage.

For example, this year I’ve actively been trying to avoid redeeming Atmos Rewards points (simply because I have such a sizable balance of American AAdvantage miles), but I’ve already earned over 17,000 status points.

If I actually redeemed more consistently through Atmos Rewards, I have to imagine that I’d easily earn 40,000 status points per year that way, which would literally get me all the way to oneworld Emerald. Easy enough, eh?

Some people may wonder “well can you generate enough Atmos Rewards points to keep funding those award flights?” Honestly, I have very good luck finding award space on American with partner points currencies, and worst case scenario, I’ll buy Atmos Rewards points when they’re on sale.

During a sale, you can buy points for well under two cents each. First class from Miami to Chicago or New York costs 15,000 points, so that’s like paying under $300 — I’d consider that to be a deal!

Earning Atmos Rewards status points with revenue flights

If you credit revenue flying to Atmos Rewards, how lucrative is that? It’s extremely rewarding if you’re traveling on Alaska or Hawaiian, or if you’re booking through Alaska. Maybe I should fly Alaska and Hawaiian more, though I often find few opportunities to book partner flights through Alaska at a competitive cost.

Unfortunately it’s the other situations — where you book partner flights directly through partner airlines — where it’s a bit less rewarding.

As you can see below, if not booking through Alaska, the rates aren’t necessarily that great. You’re looking at earning miles equal to 25-50% of the distance flown for economy, and 125% of the distance flown for business class. But this is before the 100% class of service bonus for Atmos Rewards Platinum members, and 150% class of service bonus for Atmos Rewards Titanium members.

If you booked a reasonably priced domestic business class ticket on American as an Atmos Rewards Platinum member, you’d earn status points equal to 125% of the distance flown, and redeemable points equal to 225% of the distance flown. So that’s not horrible but also not great.

Let me emphasize that if you primarily earn AAdvantage elite status through flying American on revenue tickets, switching to Atmos Rewards probably isn’t the best strategy.

Atmos Rewards Platinum vs. Titanium status

Ultimately, Atmos Rewards Titanium status does the trick for me, since it earns oneworld Emerald. However, even without flying on Alaska much, I think there could be merit to pursuing top tier Atmos Rewards Titanium status. As of 2026, this will require 135,000 status points, so that’s 55,000 more points than Platinum.

The coolest aspect of this perk is that you receive unlimited global day of departure upgrades on Alaska and Hawaiian, which we’ve never seen an airline offer before. But even forgetting about that, let’s talk about the other reason this could make sense.

Atmos Rewards has the milestone perks program, whereby you can select certain perks for passing various thresholds. For example, if you were to qualify for top tier status, you could select a total of an additional 88,250 redeemable points as a reward (50,000 of those points are offered specifically for earning Titanium, and the remaining points are offered at lower thresholds).

That potentially moves the needle quite a bit in terms of whether it’s worth putting additional spending on a co-branded Alaska card.

Downsides of Atmos Rewards for American flyers

If you’re planning to fly American more than Alaska, what are the downsides to pursuing elite status with Atmos Rewards instead of American AAdvantage? Keep in mind that Alaska and American both belong to oneworld (which standardizes some benefits), and the two airlines also have a special partnership offering reciprocal upgrades, both to extra legroom seating and to first class. With that in mind, a few thoughts…

Personally I don’t value upgrades that much since they typically don’t clear, but Atmos Rewards members are prioritized behind the equivalent tier at American. This means that an Atmos Rewards Platinum member would clear an upgrade behind an AAdvantage Platinum Pro member, but before an AAdvantage Platinum member.

Furthermore, there’s no denying that there’s some better treatment for “native” elite members of a frequent flyer program, rather than partner elites. Atmos Rewards elite members don’t get access to a priority phone line with American, so in the case of irregular operations, you might be better off as an elite with American.

It’s also worth acknowledging that if you credit American flights to Atmos Rewards, those wouldn’t count toward million miler lifetime elite status with either program. Then again, I don’t think that’s worth going out of your way to pursue either.

Honestly, what annoys me most about booking American flights without having my AAdvantage number on them is how hard it is to manage those reservations through aa.com or the mobile app. They really don’t make it easy, and that’s a headache. Then again, I’m already dealing with that when redeeming Atmos Rewards points on American, so that would just be more of the same.

So of course there are some mild downsides. But if you ask me, being able to earn oneworld Emerald with virtually no opportunity cost on credit card spending (at least in my situation) is a major upside. If American started awarding some sort of elite qualification for award flights (as Delta and United do), I might be a bit less certain about the switch.

But as things currently stand, how do I justify not making the switch? Airlines have made all kinds of changes to their programs over the years, and broadly speaking, it’s just not worth going out of your way to earn status anymore, in my opinion. So if I can earn status with no opportunity cost, that seems like a deal that’s tough to beat.

Bottom line

Alaska has launched its new Atmos Rewards program, and I’d argue that it’s something special. As someone who tries to only earn elite status if the math makes sense, I think this is the ultimately program for maximizers.

Between being able to efficiently earn elite status through credit card spending with the Atmos Summit Card (due to the rewards structure, Global Companion Award with spending, and Bilt possibilities), plus earning status points on award flights, I have a hard time rationalizing why I wouldn’t make the switch.

What do you guys think — should I make the switch from AAdvantage to Atmos Rewards? Anyone else in a similar boat, considering this strategy?