Atmos Rewards, the loyalty program of Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines, recently updated its policy when it comes to award travel for lap infants. The program now has the industry’s most generous policy for this, and it’s a major reason to redeem points through the program.
In this post:
Atmos Rewards charges (basically) nothing for lap infants
I’ve written in the past about the topic of infant award travel, for those situations where you’re traveling with a child under the age of two (this assumes they’re traveling as a lap infant, and you choose not to get a separate seat for them).
Broadly speaking, the policy in the industry is that there’s no cost to add a lap infant on domestic flights, while on international flights the cost is equal to 10% of the revenue adult fare, plus taxes & fees. That typically applies even on an award ticket.
As you might expect, this can get pretty expensive. For example, if you were to redeem American AAdvantage miles for an adult to travel in business class from Miami to London, you’d then have to pay 10% of the cash business class fare, plus taxes & fees, for the lap infant. In some cases that could be close to $1,000, so that’s rough, just for the privilege of holding a baby for a long time.
However, there are some loyalty programs that have better policies. For example, Air Canada Aeroplan lets you add pay just 2,500 Aeroplan points or 25 CAD to add an infant to any one-way award, in addition to paying taxes & fees.
Well, there’s a new program that now has the industry’s most generous policy. If you’re redeeming Atmos Rewards points, you can now add a lap infant to an international award ticket at no cost, aside from the taxes & fees (we’re talking government mandated taxes & fees, and not any carrier imposed surcharges). This doesn’t just apply for travel on Alaska and Hawaiian, but also applies to travel on all partner airlines, as long as the ticket is issued through Atmos Rewards (so it’s on 027 ticket stock).
Alaska’s website was recently updated to reflect this:
For long-haul international Atmos Rewards bookings, lap infants are charged only the applicable international taxes. At this rate, the infant will travel on your lap and won’t have their own seat.
That almost sounded too good to be true, so I checked with a spokesperson for Alaska, who confirmed this (“OA” stands for “other airlines,” and “027 stock” stands for tickets issued by Alaska or Hawaiian, so that includes all Atmos Rewards redemptions):
For both AS/HA and OA metal, lap infants on all accompanying award tickets are only charged applicable international taxes. However, the ticket must be on 027 stock, or it goes to the ticketing carrier per their policy.
This is incredible, and a huge advantage to using the program. Just as an example, a while back the best award ticket I could find for a family trip including our younger son (who travels as a lap infant) was in American international first class. I ticketed, and then remembered that I’d have to pay 10% of the cash fare for the lap infant. That turned out to be over $1,400, so I immediately canceled the award, and found another option.
Loyalty programs ordinarily pocket this lap infant revenue
The funny thing about lap infant award travel is where the money actually ends up going. For example, if you redeem Alaska points for travel on American, you could technically add your lap infant either through Alaska or through American. It’s not often in the airline industry where you have the flexibility as to which airline you do something through.
Some might wonder “well isn’t American expecting that lap infant revenue if you redeem Alaska points, but they don’t charge anything?”
As I understand it, this is where it gets sort of funny. When you ticket a lap infant through one frequent flyer program, that revenue (aside from taxes) doesn’t actually go to the operating airline, but instead, stays with the loyalty program. So as you can expect, it’s really lucrative if you have someone redeem miles, and then throw you hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars just for a lap infant.
So Atmos Rewards is forgoing quite a bit of revenue with this opportunity, but it definitely makes the program a lot more attractive for those traveling with lap infants.
Bottom line
Atmos Rewards, the loyalty program of Alaska and Hawaiian, now lets you add lap infants to international awards while just paying taxes & fees. This is literally the most generous policy in the industry, since you’d ordinarily have to pay 10% of the cash fare for the lap infant on an international ticket, and that can get very expensive for premium cabin tickets.
Some programs do offer much better deals for lap infant travel, but nothing quite like this. So if you are traveling with a lap infant, this is a major reason to book through Atmos Rewards.
What do you make of Atmos Rewards’ lap infant award travel policy?
I also can't see this going well on the partner airline. When I did this just before the change with JAL in May 2026, the flight attendants were nice about it, but we're still strict and didn't care that we bought the ticket as a lap infant (we had the extra seat, but didn't want to use it). They said they knew that we bought it with points and that the child was ticketed as...
I also can't see this going well on the partner airline. When I did this just before the change with JAL in May 2026, the flight attendants were nice about it, but we're still strict and didn't care that we bought the ticket as a lap infant (we had the extra seat, but didn't want to use it). They said they knew that we bought it with points and that the child was ticketed as a lap infant (under 2) with their own seat, but still, we had to follow Japan Airlines rules. They were really nice and just seemed to know their rules and I feel like someone is going to have to train a partner airline staff. Is that even feasible?
This is crazy.
I feel like ~1 month ago, Alaska had the literal worst lap infant award ticket policy ("we can't do it. No Lap infants on partner award tickets"). And now they have gone to the best policy.
Works for me, as I have a lap infant and a boatload of Atmos (or transferable Bilt) points.
The new policy has been in effect since June.
Most AS agents have absolutely no idea about it, unfortunately.
You have way too many Atmos posts. Are you being paid by Alaska for these?
Much ado about nothing until either (1) lap infants can be booked online similar to Aeroplan or (2) AS agents get better trained
Does this apply to tickets that have already been booked? JAL partner award specifically
Before this you could not add a lap infant to international partner awards, they needed a full ticket. In fact, when you chose as a passenger "child <2" there would be a pop-up stating as much and it'd add a full passenger.
Ben, let me tell you how this works in practice. You can't book the lap infant ticket online. You have to call. One-hour hold, you get to an agent who says this cannot be done, never heard of the policy change even though I read it out loud from the AS website. I try the chat, same answer. I try calling again, there's an agent familiar with the new policy but needs to transfer me...
Ben, let me tell you how this works in practice. You can't book the lap infant ticket online. You have to call. One-hour hold, you get to an agent who says this cannot be done, never heard of the policy change even though I read it out loud from the AS website. I try the chat, same answer. I try calling again, there's an agent familiar with the new policy but needs to transfer me to the "global something desk" - another 30 minutes on the phone, there's an agent there who can do that. The agent says she "made a notation on the ticket" - I'm a bit surprised there's not a separate ticket number but she insists this is how it's done.
On the day of the flight, I arrive at the airport and, guess what, the check-in agent says the infant is not added to the ticket. She calls the manager, calls HQ, but only Alaska can add the infant. I'm told I have to call Alaska. The flight, in the meantime, departs without us, because getting to Alaska means at least one hour on the phone.
Why does it need to be so difficult and why Alaska agents can't get proper training?
Can you update already booked award flights and add the infant to it or has all to be booked together?
Currently holding Condor flights booked with Atmos points and had to book an additional seat for lap infant under the old rules.
Would be great to cancel that additional seat .
What does 027 stock mean?
@ Derek -- It means ticketed by Alaska, so I'll update the post to reflect that. Sorry for any confusion.
Sorry if this is a dumb question. But what is 027 stock?
If I redeem Atmos miles for Starlux business class, is my lap infant free?
@ Derek -- Not a dumb question, sorry for not clarifying. 027 is the "ticket stock" whenever you book through Alaska or Hawaiian, so that includes all Atmos Rewards award tickets, including on Starlux.
Ben, sounds like you'll wanna add this new-found 'benefit' in your recent 'I’m Switching My Loyalty To Alaska Atmos Rewards' post! https://onemileatatime.com/insights/alaska-atmos-rewards-loyalty/
@ 1990_ -- Hah, you sure are on top of things!