187. Atmos Rewards Explained: Alaska Airlines' Loyalty Program, Partners, and Best Uses

Point Me To First Class

The episode explores the evolution of Alaska Airlines' loyalty program into Atmos Rewards following its merger with Hawaiian Airlines. Guest

Key takeaways

• The transition from Alaska Mileage Plan to Atmos Rewards includes expanded global routes like Seattle to Rome and Tokyo via Alaska metal.
• The 'Alaska Black Card' (Atmos Summit Rewards Visa Infinite) offers benefits such as waiving partner booking fees and providing same-day changes.

Main topics

• Atmos Rewards evolution
• Hawaiian Airlines merger impact

Notable quotes

Generous is the word.

Conclusion

The episode serves as a guide for travelers to rediscover Alaska's loy

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:01) Welcome to Point Me to First Class, the only show for employed professionals, entrepreneurs, and business owners who are looking to optimize their higher-than-average expenses to travel the world. I'm your host, Devin Gimbel, and I believe that your expenses are your greatest untapped asset, if you know how to leverage them. Ready to dive into the world of credit card points and miles so you can travel more, travel better, and travel often? Let's get started. Speaker 2 (0:29) Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. In the award travel world, there are some points in Miles' loyalty programs that seem to get all the attention. And then there are programs that quietly sit in the background. Offering some really interesting opportunities that not a lot of us may even notice. For a long time, I think Alaska Airlines' loyalty program fell squarely into that second category. Unless you lived in Alaska, were based on the West Coast, or regularly flew Alaska Airlines-operated flights, you may not have had much reason to pay attention to Alaska miles. Historically, these miles weren't nearly as easy to earn as a lot of other airline currencies. And if you rarely set foot on an Alaska Airlines airplane, you might reasonably wonder what exactly you were supposed to do with them. But here's where things get interesting. Some of the best uses of Alaska miles have very little to do with flying Alaska Airlines flights. Atmos Rewards, which is Alaska's loyalty program, gives you access to an enormous collection of partner airlines. And those partnerships can unlock award flights to Europe, Asia, Australia, and beyond, sometimes at prices that make Atmos a very compelling currency to have. And this program is going through a fascinating transition right now. Alaska's acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines, the launch of Atmos Rewards, new credit cards, new ways to earn elite status, new international routes, and some temporary opportunities that made Alaska miles dramatically easier to acquire. have brought a lot more attention to a program that used to fly somewhat under the radar, and Atmos itself is still evolving. So I think this is a really interesting moment to ask, what should those of us who care about award travel actually know about Atmos Rewards? That is what today's episode is all about. I'm joined by Betsy Wilson from Become Travel Rich and Alaska Airlines University, who has been immersed in the Alaska loyalty program for years. Betsy has more knowledge and experience with this loyalty program than anyone else I know, and she's here today to highlight what exactly this program can actually do for you. We'll talk about where Betsy is still seeing great award opportunities, which partner redemptions have become harder to find, and some of the lesser-known features of Atmos that distinguish it from other airline programs. We're also getting into the Atmos credit cards and how to think about whether one deserves a spot in your wallet, plus a significant strength of this loyalty program in particular. elite status. So whether you've been collecting Alaska miles for years, you suddenly have a pile of Atmos points that you're trying to figure out how to use, or you've mostly ignored this program because you thought, I don't live in Alaska. Why would I care about Alaska Airlines? This episode is for you. By the end of our conversation, you'll have a much clearer picture of what Atmos Rewards can offer, where its most interesting opportunities are right now, and whether this is a program that deserves more of your attention going forward. Let's get into it. Speaker 1 (3:20) Welcome, Betsy. I am so thrilled to have you here today. Speaker 2 (3:24) I'm so excited for you to share all of your knowledge, all of your wisdom about the Alaska Atmos program with everybody listening. But before we start diving into details about Atmos itself, let's start at the beginning. Could you tell us a little bit about who you are and how did you become so knowledgeable about Alaska Airlines and their loyalty program? Speaker 1 (3:45) Yes. Hey, Devin. Thank you so much for having me. And that's a great question. I think I just got lucky, to be honest. I was born and raised in Alaska, and I actually used to work in the oil field, which is the top of Alaska. So I'm born and raised in Anchorage, which is like South Central area. And then the oil field was a two-hour plane ride. So for 11 years, for every two weeks, I would be taking a plane to and from. the oil field on Alaska Airlines, which then gave me elite status for this is my 12th year having elite status with Alaska Airlines. And also when I was a kid, my mom, when I was traveling, set me up with an Alaska mileage plan number, which was the former program of Alaska Airlines. And so I've had that number for 26 years. And so truly, it feels like I just got lucky with the most generous program. I've been following the program, using this currency for many, many years, been earning the elite status. There was an opportunity for us to earn elite status in the past through segments instead of actual distance flown. And so that's how the oil field workers in Alaska were able to earn status pretty quickly, depending on the rotation that you were on. And of course, I also like to travel in my time off. That was kind of the whole point of working in the oil field is to work. a lot real hard and then go play real hard. And so that is how I became obsessed with the Alaska Airlines program. And before it became Atmos, I noticed that everyone was like, did not care really about the Alaska Airlines program. Whereas I was confused when I came into the space in 2021. And I was like, Why do people not care about the Alaska Airlines program when I'm using these points to fly on partner airlines that the cent per point is obnoxiously large? So it was kind of like an opportunity for me to be like, it's not just for Alaskans. I know I'm from Alaska, but this program is so valuable for everyone. Yeah, Speaker 2 (5:53) I think that. What you just said is so important because when I think about the landscape of points and miles, especially for folks who are based in North America, have access, especially to the U.S. issued credit cards, where we have now so many different transferable points currencies available to us, airline specific points and miles available to us. I think that Alaska is not usually kind of one of the what I think of as like the top five airline loyalty programs that gets talked about. a lot as being really valuable or really accessible. And I think that there are a lot of misconceptions about this program. And one of the biggest ones being that, unlike you, who's actually based in Alaska, so many of us aren't. And I'm based in the Midwest. I feel like there might be one Alaska flight a day, you know, out of O'Hare, probably going to Portland or maybe to Anchorage. And for people who are thinking, I don't live anywhere near Alaska, I may not even live on the West Coast. Alaska seems like it is a very regional airline. It doesn't have quite the geographic spread as something like a United or an American Airlines. Talk a little bit more about why you think that's the wrong way to think about this program for someone who is really interested in points and miles and award travel. Yeah, Speaker 1 (7:04) you made a really good point. They have previously been known as a regional airline, but just in the last 12 months, we've gotten routes to Rome. This is on Alaska Metal. This is on the Alaska Airlines 787 that they inherited with the merger of the Hawaiian Airlines. So they have routes now going global and they have made a serious commitment to being a global destination. Right now we have Alaska Airlines, of course, has Tokyo direct from Seattle. And then these are all direct from Seattle. We've got Tokyo. We've got Rome. We've got London and Reykjavik in Iceland. So these are direct from Seattle to those destinations on Alaska Metal. And they're announcing like seven more, which they haven't given us a timeline, but they're going to be announcing more when the airplanes are done being made. So I guess to answer the question is they want to be a global airline. Speaker 1 (8:08) Yes, they've been known notoriously as a regional airline, but that was just talking about the actual aircraft and the flight schedule of Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines. The value in the AMAS program is the partner relationships, right? We've got 30 plus partners and these partners ebb and flow. They're changing. The rules are changing. But we do have Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines. Both are now part of the One World Alliance, which is, I believe, 16 airlines. or maybe 17 now that Hawaiian has been added. And so having access to not only using the currency, the utmost currency on those airlines, like Qantas, like Qatar, like Japan Airlines, a lot of people I've heard Porter can have some really good redemptions. So we've got a lot of access to those like higher end airlines that we just mentioned before. And American Airlines, duh. I mean, that is one that the American Airlines, Alaska Airlines relationship is. actually unique outside of being a one world partner. They even have even extra benefits for people, especially if you're an American Airlines elite, you have more benefits within the Alaska Airlines ecosystem. And so the value isn't just in them becoming this global airline, but also using that currency for those more well-known airlines. Yeah, and we're Speaker 2 (9:29) going to get into a lot of those details a little bit later in the conversation, specific redemptions that you think provide tremendous amount of value using Alaska Miles, the partnerships that you love to use yourself and recommend to other people. But before we get into some of those details, I wanted to keep it, again, a little more high level at the beginning. So for folks who maybe already understand other loyalty programs like or flying blue or British Airways, where do you see Atmos fitting in to that landscape? I Speaker 1 (9:59) have to admit, I'm not super well versed on a lot of other airlines outside of maybe doing like one or two redemptions. And I always feel like I'm always curious, is the grass greener on the other side? And I challenge myself to just stay where I'm at, stay in my lane and just be grateful for everything that I do. have access to. And we should always lead with that with any currencies, like gratitude for the opportunity to access luxury seats, be able to fly across the world with our families, maybe three or four people and not pay that full price for that ticket. So I don't know much about the details on the other currencies to be able to compare it. But what I do know is that anytime I go book a flight, I have. the currency to book that travel with the Atmos points that I have for my family of three. And I think that Speaker 2 (10:54) that is going to be the aspect that appeals to a lot of people listening to this program that, again, maybe they are more familiar with some of these bigger loyalty programs or the ones that have more options just in terms of like hub cities and different airlines that are bookable through them that I think Alaska is a program that's actually been very easy to overlook. For people who maybe aren't in the same exact geographic situation where you are, where it's such an obvious choice for you, for other people where it's not the obvious choice, I think that it has gotten so little attention historically compared to other loyalty programs. And I'm hopeful that that is one of those things that this conversation might actually change for people who haven't had access to Alaska flights themselves or who've started their points and miles journey kind of. thinking about some of these other loyalty programs to begin with, making sure that they understand what is it that Atmos really does have to offer? And is that a program that many of us have been overlooking that we shouldn't have been? And because you're so familiar with it and you've Speaker 1 (11:55) used this program for Speaker 2 (11:57) such a long time in so many different ways, I'm curious that if you had to describe like the personality of the Atmos program, Speaker 1 (12:04) how would you describe it? Generous is the word. And I use that when I'm speaking to my students and I speak about that on Instagram because I just feel so generous. There seems like, especially as they're building out this new Atmos program, which is less than a year old, Atmos came out on August 20th, 2025. And so the new credit card, the Alaska Black Card, which is called the Atmos Summit Rewards Visa Infinite. That's a... Big word. That's a long word. So in our community at Alaska Airlines University, we dubbed it as the Alaska Black Card because it's a black card. And I can't take credit for that. That was actually an executive who made that joke at a conference that I was