Are we all (mostly) winners? My take on Alaska's new unified Atmos Rewards program

It's not often that loyalty programs are fully reborn, and it's ever rarer for most of the changes to appear mostly positive without much in the way of a devaluation.

The last time something of this scale happened was when Air Canada brought its Aeroplan loyalty program in-house and fully revamped it from (basically) scratch.

Here we are, five years later, and Alaska Airlines is out with its long-awaited new loyalty program, Atmos Rewards. This program combines the former Mileage Plan and HawaiianMiles programs. With it comes an all-new premium credit card — the Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® Credit Card — as well as a slew of changes for existing members of both legacy programs.

We've already covered the basics of Atmos Rewards (which kicks in Wednesday for Mileage Plan members and Hawaiian flyers who linked their accounts to Mileage Plan and on Oct. 1 for everyone else), but now it's time to dive deeper into the changes — and why there appears to be lots to love.

Earning points and status your way

This is perhaps the most interesting aspect of the new Atmos Rewards program: Beginning next year, you'll be able to choose a track for earning both points (formerly called miles) and status points.

The three tracks are distance flown, price paid and segments flown.

You'll only be allowed to change your track once a year, so you'll need to forecast your flying patterns many months at a time to determine what works best for you. Of course, the devil will lie in the details and your particular situation.

The distance track awards 1 point and 1 status point for every mile flown. (It wasn't immediately clear if there will be a bonus for premium-cabin bookings.)

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The price paid track offers 5 points and 5 status points for every dollar spent on base airfare, including upgrades purchased to premium cabins, but it excludes other ancillary fees, like checked bags.

Meanwhile, the segments flown track offers 500 points and 500 status points for every segment flown — ideal for those frequently traveling on cheap flights shorter than 500 miles, such as within California, within Alaska and between Hawaiian islands.

It is an unprecedented move for U.S. airline loyalty programs to give flyers the option to pick the track for earning miles and status. Better yet, keeping a distance-flown track in 2026 brings back memories of the glory days of strategic mileage running across the major U.S. airlines.

Alaska will be the only U.S. airline to offer a distance-only track to status and mileage earning, and maximizers — myself included — should be grateful.

Earn status via award travel

Earning status credit from award travel is a perk that Alaska first introduced in 2025, and it'll be included as part of the revamped Atmos Rewards program, too.

You'll earn status points based on the track you pick.

• Distance: 1 status point for every mile flown on an award redemption
• Spend: 5 status points for every $1 spent purchasing flights
• Segments: 500 status points for each award segment flown

This is great news for those who frequently redeem miles with Atmos Rewards. Delta and United also offer this perk (but sadly, American doesn't). Even though it'll be faster to accrue status from revenue tickets, at least you'll be putting your miles to work when you make a redemption — both for the award flight itself and to help engender future loyalty to Alaska.

Valuable premium card

Alaska already teased a new premium card launch this summer, and the final product — the Atmos Rewards Summit card — mostly lives up to the hype.

The card is designed for global travel, and I like its unique spend multiplier and lucrative Global Companion Award.

There are two versions of the Global Companion Award: a 25,000-point award earned for new account spending and after each card anniversary, and a 100,000-point award earned after spending $60,000 or more in a card anniversary year.

These certificates can be used to discount the redemption for a companion award ticket by the value of the certificate. For instance, if you're booking a 120,000-point award for you and a companion, you could redeem the 25,000-point award to turn your second ticket into a 95,000-point redemption.

It's great that these certificates work on Alaska, Hawaiian and Alaska's entire network of global partners in any class of service. As a frequent redeemer of long-haul business-class awards with Alaska, this perk alone could be worth picking up the card.

Plus, one of the card's bonus multipliers is 3 points per dollar on foreign purchases — making it the only card with such a lucrative multiplier for foreign transactions. For that reason alone, I'll likely pick up the card just to put it to use when I'm traveling.

The card also includes a waiver for the pesky $25 round-trip partner booking fees, which I incur every time I make a non-Alaska or non-Hawaiian redemption. (I've racked up hundreds of dollars worth of these fees over the years.) While it'd be great if Alaska just dropped these fees entirely, at least using the card will do that for me.

There are plenty of other perks with the card. For me, the best aspect of this card is that it's designed both for those who fly Alaska and for everyone else who might not be based on the West Coast but enjoys earning and redeeming points with the carrier.

I'm based in New York City and fly Alaska only a couple of times a year, but I will certainly be signing up for the card. That's a big win for the program and the executives who designed it.

Localization and globalization

One of the biggest unanswered questions of the Hawaiian Airlines takeover has long been how Alaska will maintain the Hawaiian identity within the combined carrier.

We're starting to get a glimpse of that with aircraft deployment strategy, new liveries and, now, the loyalty program.

While Atmos Rewards will combine the two programs, Alaska will still offer localized flair through what it's calling Atmos Communities. I love this concept and think it's a great way for loyalty programs to ensure they're not confined to a one-size-fits-all model.

The Atmos Communities will comprise existing groups unique to members within a specific area of residence, like the Huakaʻi by Hawaiian for Hawaii residents and Club 49 for residents of the state of Alaska; it also comprises new interest-based groups for those who travel with families, embrace wellness and more.

The four new communities coming in 2026 include:

• Global Locals: designed for those who live abroad and want a faster path to status
• Culinary Journies: designed for foodies who want to earn bonus points to visit foodie destinations
• Active Escapes: designed for members who want to earn bonus points for visiting outdoor-focused destinations
• Families On the Go: designed for families who want "thoughtful extras" to make family travel more affordable

This program isn't fully fleshed out yet, aside from the existing communities that are already live. That said, I'm excited to see what Alaska does here, especially because the promise of interest-based benefits is a unique and innovative new way to add some personalization to a loyalty program.

Free global upgrades

Alaska announced that its top-tier Atmos Titanium members will enjoy complimentary, day-of-departure upgrades into global business class for them and a companion without requiring points or a certificate. Furthermore, next spring, status holders and one companion can take advantage of complimentary upgrades on Hawaiian flights within North America.

Alaska is spinning this as a unique perk of top-tier status (no other U.S. airline allows free global upgrades without any certificate), and some aviation insiders will quickly praise this move.

I far prefer to confirm my long-haul upgrades well before the day of departure — so much so that unless my standby upgrade is a shoo-in, I'm looking into backup options.

This is great news for top-tier status members who are willing to risk it, but it doesn't do much for me. I'd far prefer certificated and confirmed upgrades for top-tier elite members.

Free Starlink Wi-Fi

Alaska announced that it'll bring free Starlink Wi-Fi across both the Alaska and Hawaiian fleet throughout 2026 and into early 2027. Hawaiian's Airbus jets already feature Starlink, but it'll be great to see the carrier outfit the rest of the Hawaiian fleet (sans Boeing 717) and all of the Alaska fleet, including regional jets, with Starlink.

Free access will be granted for Atmos Rewards members — no elite status required.

Starlink is already among the best inflight internet providers, so it's great to see Alaska rolling this benefit out more broadly with the launch of Atmos Rewards.

Partner booking fees

One of the most frustrating parts of the Alaska loyalty program is the pesky partner redemption fees, which total $25 for round-trip tickets purchased on non-Alaska or Hawaiian metal.

Partner awards are definitely costly for Alaska, but Alaska is also the only major airline in the U.S. to levy extra fees (outside of government-mandated taxes) for partner redemptions.

While it's not technically a devaluation since these fees existed in the former program, Atmos Rewards will pass along the same partner booking fee as before. The good news is that the Atmos Rewards Summit Card includes a partner booking fee waiver, and as a heavy redeemer of Alaska miles, I'll easily make up the $395 annual fee just in partner booking waivers.

Harder to earn status

This one is undeniably a devaluation. In 2026, the thresholds for earning top-tier Atmos Platinum (formerly MVP Gold 75K) and Atmos Titanium (formerly MVP Gold 100K) will increase. The former will require 80,000 status points, up from the existing 75,000, while the latter will jump to 135,000 status points, up from 100,000.

Alaska will give Platinum and Titanium elite members who earn status in 2025 a head start to soften the blow in 2026. The former will receive 5,000 status points, and the latter will get a 20,000 status point bonus.

Of course, making it harder to earn status is a bummer. But the good news is that spending on the new Atmos Rewards Summit card will earn status at an accelerated rate compared to the existing Alaska visa card. I'd imagine most top-tier elite members will want to pick up the card to help close the gap to status.

Nevertheless, higher thresholds are never fun, so beware of this one.

Wild card: Redemption rates

Let's face it: Until now, Alaska has been a West Coast-focused airline with an above-average loyalty program that helped the airline appeal to many of us in the points and miles world. With Hawaiian, the airline is (literally) spreading its wings across the globe, and one might expect that this increased reach and relevance would be met with less lucrative redemption rates.

Luckily, Alaska states that "the value of points does not change, and points do not expire." The airline is also committed to keeping the structure of the partner award chart in place with the new program, Alaska executives told TPG.

"Broadly speaking, the way we’ve structured [award charts] around distance, it works," explained Brett Catlin, Alaska's vice president of loyalty, alliances and sales.

On the surface, this sounds fantastic, especially for those of us who speculatively transferred tons of Amex points to Hawaiian (and then to Alaska) before that loophole ended.

But as we've seen time and again from loyalty programs, partner awards in particular are among both the most popular redemptions for the maximizers among us and the costliest for the award program.

I have no inside information telling me otherwise, but if I were a betting man, I'd say that Alaska's existing award rates aren't here to stay for the long haul. They're already lower in many cases than the competition; Alaska likely can't sustain these rates forever if it wants to maximize revenue and minimize outstanding liability (in the form of unredeemed points) from its loyalty program.

Even Catlin said that "there are always nuances [in pricing], and you have to revisit from time to time."

For now, I'd count this one as developing — but at least there's plenty of other good news packed into Atmos Rewards.

Related reading:

• When is the best time to book flights for the cheapest airfare?
• The best airline credit cards
• What exactly are airline miles, anyway?
• 6 real-life strategies you can use when your flight is canceled or delayed
• Maximize your airfare: The best credit cards for booking flights
• The best credit cards to reach elite status
• What are points and miles worth? TPG’s monthly valuations