Alaska Airways introduced a variety of adjustments final month when it unveiled its new Atmos Rewards loyalty program. However one of many greatest wins for frequent vacationers was the factor the airline did not change in any respect: its common award chart.
Going ahead, redemptions through Atmos Rewards will look very like they did with the service’s former Alaska Airways Mileage Plan program.
That information was welcome to the scores of loyalists who’ve lengthy prized Alaska’s mounted, predictable redemption costs — a construction that persistently unlocks a number of the greatest award offers of any U.S. airline, each on Alaska and its community of companions.
As we speak, utilizing Atmos Rewards factors (previously Alaska miles), you may e-book a brief home flight on Oneworld alliance companions like American Airways for as little as 4,500 factors one-way — a deal that personally saved me tons of of {dollars}, 1000’s of factors and various hours sitting in visitors on Interstate 95 this summer time.
You may as well use Atmos Rewards factors to e-book a transatlantic flight from the U.S. to Europe for as little as 22,500 factors, together with on days when competitor award pricing can run tens of 1000’s of factors pricier.
Alaska’s program can unlock the swankier seats, too: Earlier this 12 months, some TPG staffers used Alaska’s program to fly to London for 55,000 factors in American’s new Flagship Enterprise suites.
Bucking an business development
Alaska’s award pricing edge comes, in no small half, from its award chart — a distance-based system that costs flights by miles flown, not by unpredictable elements like demand or journey dates.
That strategy, as soon as extra widespread all through the business, makes Atmos Rewards a little bit of an outlier. Many airways have moved to dynamic award pricing, the place the factors or miles you want can fluctuate very like a money fare — and take a chunk out of your frequent flyer account steadiness within the course of.
Business pundits and factors and miles fanatics feared Alaska may do the identical because it launched a brand new loyalty program with merger accomplice Hawaiian. These fears lingered even after the service final 12 months promised it would not devalue its miles (now factors) — a pledge that helped safe Biden administration approval of the acquisition.
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Then got here Aug. 20, when Alaska Air Group unveiled Atmos Rewards and executives made it clear that the corporate would maintain its promise — and its award chart.
“I get that, as an business, we have conditioned company to anticipate the worst anytime there is a loyalty program change,” Alaska’s prime loyalty govt Brett Catlin advised me, alluding to the myriad of airline (and lodge) program pivots that, all too usually, have led to clients needing extra factors for a flight or lodge night time than earlier than. “That is not the best way we’re wired.”
Accomplice award charts bought a refresh in 2024
Past that ethos, we also needs to level out: Alaska simply refreshed its accomplice award chart in April 2024, a couple of 12 months and a half in the past.
Since then, the airline’s setup has routinely led to its loyalty foreign money rating among the many most respected of any U.S. service in TPG’s data-driven factors and miles valuations up to date every month (although American Airways AAdvantage miles narrowly led the best way in September 2025).
The worth of these factors — and the rising quantity of award house Alaska gives on companions — has, in flip, raised the profile of this system, from its bank card lineup to its 1:1 switch partnership with Bilt Rewards. And that is even amongst East Coast flyers who seldom fly with the Seattle-based service.
“We have created a proposition that resonates with company. We have seen [program] utilization go up dramatically over the previous 12 months,” Catlin stated.
Lingering issues?
In fact, how strongly Atmos Rewards resonates with vacationers in the long run will rely closely on the airline’s future plans for its factors. And whereas executives aren’t making pricing guarantees (no service or … firm … ever would), Catlin provided this broad assurance:
“We’ve got no plans, at this level,” he stated, “to seriously change how we’re structuring redemptions.”
These assurances have not fairly erased all issues; my colleague, TPG senior author Zach Griff, nonetheless fears pricing hikes may in the end be on the horizon — at the very least, for some flights.
“If I have been a betting man, I would say that Alaska’s current award charges aren’t right here to remain for the lengthy haul,” he wrote in his evaluation of the brand new Atmos Rewards program. “They’re already decrease in lots of instances than the competitors; Alaska possible cannot maintain these charges perpetually.”
The airline is not ruling out some pricing changes down the road. That features potential adjustments to its personal (nonpartner) award chart to account for its more and more world route community.
“And there is all the time nuances, and you need to revisit every now and then,” Catlin added.
Larger-picture, although?
“We’re not making an attempt to hoodwink anyone,” he stated. “And so I feel that mentality continues.”
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