American Airlines AAdvantage and Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards have a lot in common. Both are rewards programs for U.S.-based oneworld airlines. Both offer extremely valuable redeemable miles. Both make it easy to earn elite status without flying. Additionally, elite status with either program offers benefits when flying the other airline.
Personally, it doesn’t make sense for me to chase status with either program. I don’t fly either one often enough to care much about their elite benefits. On the other hand, as a business owner (Frequent Miler is my business), I pay a lot in quarterly taxes, and I usually pay by credit card. That gives me the ability to chase elite status and other big-spend perks on a whim. In this case, the specific whim I have in mind is to earn oneworld Emerald status, primarily through credit card spend. That will give me access to oneworld first-class lounges when flying economy or business class. To earn oneworld Emerald status, I would need to earn Platinum Pro status with AA or Platinum status with Alaska Atmos. Let’s run the numbers and see which would be best…
American Airlines AAdvantage
With AA, most activities that earn redeemable miles also earn the same number of Loyalty Points (LPs) towards elite status. One major exception is with credit card spend. With AA credit cards, you earn only 1 Loyalty Point per dollar, even if your spend is within a bonus category where you earn two or more redeemable miles per dollar.
My goal is to earn oneworld Emerald Status, which comes with AA Platinum Pro status. Platinum Pro status requires earning 125,000 Loyalty Points within the status qualification period (March through February). Along the way, there are a few opportunities to accelerate status earnings from non-flight activities:
- At 15,000 Loyalty Points, it’s possible to pick 1,000 Loyalty Points as a Milestone Reward.
- At 60,000 Loyalty Points, you get a 20% Loyalty Point bonus with select partners for 6 months.
- At 100,000 Loyalty Points, you get a 30% Loyalty Point bonus with select partners for 6 months.
I currently have the AAdvantage® AviatorTM Silver World Elite MasterCard® issued by Barclays. Now that AA has selected Citibank as its sole card issuer, I don’t know how long I’ll have this card and its benefits, but for now, I get the following relevant perks:
- Earn up to 15,000 bonus Loyalty Points per status qualification period: Earn 5K bonus points at $20K spend, $40K spend, and $50K spend.
- Earn 1 Loyalty Point per dollar.
- As a bonus, after $20K membership year spend, I’ll earn a $99 + tax domestic companion certificate for up to 2 companions.
Here is how I may earn 125,000 Loyalty Points, primarily through spend:
- Assume that I’ll earn 15,000 Loyalty Points from AAdvantage eShopping, Simply Miles, and AAdvantage Hotel bookings
- I’ll earn 1,000 Loyalty Points as my 15,000 LP Milestone Reward
- I’ll spend a total of $94,000 on the Aviator Silver card:
- I’ll earn 94,000 Loyalty Points plus:
- 15,000 bonus Loyalty Points from big spend
- With a 1.75% fee for paying taxes with a credit card, $94,000 spend will cost $1,616 (I’d pay $92,384 in taxes plus $1,616 in fees)
- I’d earn 94,000 redeemable miles from that spend. Let’s conservatively estimate that I value those AA miles at 1 cent each, totaling $940 in value. Another way of saying this is that I’d be willing to buy 94,000 miles for $940.
- Net cost to purchase AA Platinum Pro and oneworld Emerald Status: $1,616 – $940 = $676
I’m not willing to assign dollar values to the $99 companion ticket or to any of the Milestone Rewards that I’d earn since I’m unlikely to use them. My net cost, then, to buy Platinum Pro status and oneworld Emerald Status is $676.
$676 would be a reasonable price to pay if I expected to get good use from the elite benefits. But, realistically, I probably won’t. Domestically, I usually fly Delta. Internationally, I typically use miles to fly business class, where elite status, or the lack of it, doesn’t make much difference.
Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards
With Atmos, there are three significant ways in which I expect to earn Status Points: I’ll earn one Status Point for every two dollars of eligible spend with my Atmos Rewards Summit Visa Infinite Card, the card will give me an automatic annual boost of 10,000 Status Points, and I’ll earn Status Points from flights booked using Atmos miles.
My goal is to earn oneworld Emerald Status, which comes with Atmos Platinum status. Starting in 2026, Platinum status will require earning 80,000 Status Points within the status qualification period (January through December).
Here is how I may earn 80,000 Loyalty Points next year:
- 10,000 Status Points from simply having the Atmos Summit card
- Assume that I’ll earn 20,000 Status Points from award flights booked with Atmos points
- I’ll spend a total of $100,000 on my card to earn 50,000 Status Points
- The $100K of spending will lead to other valuable perks:
- I’ll earn 100,000 redeemable points from that spend
- I’ll earn a 100K global companion award fare after $60K cardmember year spend.
- I’ll select to earn points from various Milestone Rewards (this assumes that Milestone selections in 2026 will be similar to 2025):
- 30,000 Status Points: 2,500 bonus points
- 55,000 Status Points: 5,000 bonus points
- Total redeemable points earned: 100K + 7,500 = 107,500 + Global companion award
- Let’s conservatively estimate that I value those Atmos points at 1 cent each ($1,075), and that I value the 100K Global Companion Award even more conservatively at $400.
- The total value of the rewards earned for the spend, then, comes to $1,075 + $400 = $1,475.
- With a 1.75% fee for paying taxes with a credit card, $100,000 of spend will cost $1,720 (I’d pay $98,280 in taxes plus $1,720 in fees)
- Net cost to purchase Atmos Platinum and oneworld Emerald Status: $1,720 – $,1475 = $245
$245 is a cheap price to pay for high-level elite status. I doubt I’ll use many of the perks that this status would offer, but it will be nice to have them just in case.
Conclusion
The path to oneworld Emerald status will require slightly more credit card spend with Atmos than with AAdvantage, but the rewards will be greater, too. The net result is that it makes more sense for me to play this game with Atmos than with AA. This, of course, is based on many simplifying assumptions which may not prove to be accurate in the long run. Additionally, this conclusion does NOT mean that the same result applies to you.
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Does the spend for elite status go by the date of the transaction or the closing date of the statement? I have a property tax bill due on 12/10 that would like to have count towards 2026 status. My Atmos statement closes on 12/7. If I make the charge on 12/10 will that count towards 2025 or 2026 status?
Great question. With most banks, it would go by the transaction date, but BOA isn’t like most banks, so I have no idea.
I love these posts, thanks for the analysis of your situation!
Unless I missed it, did you count the cards annual fees in the cost?
I purposely did not. These are cards that I already have and plan to keep, at least until the Aviator Silver card gets converted to something else. So I was simply trying to figure out, based on the cards I already have, which I should use for this purpose.
If someone is really in the Atmos environment and cheap then it makes tons of sense. Atmos awards are going further on AA and you’re racking up elite qualifying miles in the process. Putting my Bilt rent on my Summit, linking Lyft to Atmos and redeeming my Atmos points on AA, plus my 10k bonus elite should be enough to hit Emerald next year. (I fly weekly short haul AA and Atmos has around 85% availability for my flights)
You’ll also get an annual 20k global companion award with atmos!
I think you mean the Summit’s 25K award? I think Greg correctly left this out because he also left out the Summit’s annual fee. He mentioned elsewhere it’s based on the cards he already has, so it’s treated as a sunk cost I believe.
Hi Greg, I rarely disagree with you but with both of these options the opportunity cost is enormous — even if you limit yourself to business cards and avoid SUBs.
The key question is arguably whether either of these choices are worth that cost, not the relatively small difference between the two.
My sentiments exactly!!! I always want to consider opportunity cost into the equations.
Greg, I would appreciate your feedback on this!
I agree with you! Considering the opportunity cost, neither approach is particularly sensible. But sometimes I do things because I want to — not because they’re a great financial decision. That’s what’s happening here.
Ah I see, that’s fair enough Greg!
Does anyone understand how the Barclays Hawaiian cards factor in? Do they earn 3 points per $1 spent??
They earn 1 status point per $3
Ahh that’s what I meant. Thank you for confirming Greg!
Greg, do you know if there is the ability to earn Atmos status points through their shopping portal?
As far as I am aware, it is 1,000 status points for every 3,000 points earned with partners.
So while Atmos is less overall points to earn versus AA, 1:3 is not a great ratio if you are going to use the various shopping/hotel portals as part of your overall plan, versus AA which is a 1:1 ratio (and potentially 1:1.2 or 1:1.3 if you are in the 20/30% bonus having earned 60k or 100k LPs).
That’s right
Greg, thank you. That was a great analysis. Much appreciated. One question, how would you value the “opportunity cost” of spending $100,000 vs 20 credit cards required spend of an average approximately $5,000 each which would potentially yield approximately 1.2 million points on those 20 cards. Or 600,000 points if you pursued 10 cards. Opportunity cost indirectly increases the $245 Atmos cost as it also does for the $676 AA cost when your “cost” is compared to what you otherwise could have earned with $100,000 spend on multiple cards.
Still was a much appreciated analysis on your part. Thank you
Spending towards welcome bonuses will always be a much more rewarding approach. In my case I have enough spend opportunties both to meet spend on all of the cards I sign up for and do something like this.
Feels like the AA Executive Card should somehow factor into this analysis as it is an easy 20k LPs. Yes it is $595 – presume you should be able to redeem the car rental credit though so figure $475 for 20K LPs. Not sure what the opportunity cost is for $20k of spend to be spent elsewhere – presumably you have to factor that in (e.g. pay with a doublecash and get an extra 20k TY points that are worth at least 1.5c/~$300 or so). (Not factoring in the $10/mo Grubhub credit or the $10/mo lyft credit if you take 3 rides, etc.)
Would also earn 10x miles on AA Hotels bookings with Executive card. So a $500 booking gets you 5000 miles which also has at least a $50 value plus the miles/LP that you earn from AA hotels itself. I feel like an AA hotels evangelist sometimes – personally getting another 15k LPs shortly from it for 3 nights at a hotel for like $800 total or so. And there are options now to just pay for a bit more base/LP earning miles with AA hotels which could be quite beneficial if you are in the 20/30% bonus.
Anyway, definitely complicates your analysis but feels like it should be a relevant consideration.
Also you earn 1:1 base miles:LPs with AA Hotels (or 1:1.2 or 1:1.3 if you are in the bonus). With Atmos’s Rocket Miles equivalent, it’s 3:1 Atmos points:status points, unless I’m missing something. So while lower point threshold for Atmos, unless I’m missing something (and someone please do let me know if I am, because it’s a very relevant factor for me), AA Hotels is much better for LP/status earning than the Atmos equivalent.
Hi Peter, the 3:1 ratio is a very approximate match for the difference in scales between AA and Atmos, so I wouldn’t use that as a deciding factor unless you’ve assigned a value for yourself for the relevant milestones in both programs.
HOWEVER, this is a good opportunity for me to mention one of the most underreported devaluations of the year — just a few weeks ago, Rocketmiles refreshed its site and absolutely destroyed Atmos earnings. So this alone could be the deciding factor for you in favor of AA.
Not sure if I agree about the 3:1 ratio. On a random search for NY hotels mid-week next week, a number where both offer 10k miles for a 1 night stay. With AA that would be 10k LP (or 12-13k LP if in the bonus). On Atmos it’s 3.33k status points. With AA that’s 8-10% of the LPs you need for Emerald, with Atmos its ~4%.
And that says nothing about the same 3:1 ratio with Atmos shopping, right?
Unless I’m missing something, partner spend as a category is much more status-acquisitive with AA vs Atmos.
I would agree with you if we’re talking about earning status alone, but what I’m trying to say is that much of the value in these programs has been shifted to milestones other than status, especially on the AA side.
For anyone who finds status lucrative enough on its own, then by all means they should proceed, but in terms of the value of a single LP or SP, I find it important to consider all non-status milestones as well.
For example, personally I don’t get a lot of value in AAdvantage until at least 175K LPs, even though OWE is reached way before that.
PS: Are you seeing any Rocketmiles Atmos hotels earning 10K miles for under $1000/night in NYC? I haven’t seen any since the devaluation.
Oh – sure. I don’t think that amount of CC spend for status is worth it for most people at all. I think this was an honest example of someone having a lot of spend and looking for a place to park it, and so thought about what they would personally need to pay on top of the regular spend that would be needed to get OWE status.
175k LP is definitely the first real reward level with AA. And Atmos moving the 85k rewards to 95k next year, which is where you start to see more real value with them as well. I’m not saying it’s necessarily 3x easier to earn LPs than Atmos status points, but earning an LP is certainly easier than a status point, and 175k LP **might** be more achievable for some depending on spending patterns than 95k status points.
I saw a couple for $800ish but this was a Tuesday night NYC stay for next week.
Thanks Peter, all fair points. I do think the changes to milestones and Rocketmiles have a big impact for 2026.
Greg has Citigold so annual fee is $450.
@SamL – even better then – $330 (assuming you use the $120 rental car credit) for 20k LPs.
Great points. I recently cancelled my AA Executive card and can’t qualify for a new welcome bonus anytime soon. So I limited my analysis to cards I currently have.
Shouldn’t you use the cost of the tax spend as 2.625%- that is the opportunity cost of not using bofA cashback?
Or getting 2x on everything with a Double Cash? It’s like forfeiting 94,000 AA miles. But I suppose it doesn’t matter if all you’re trying to do is get status at any cost.
Good catch. In this case, I don’t have a big enough credit limit with BOA 2.62% to account for all of my spend (not just taxes — other spend too). I didn’t want to complicate the article with that nuance, but I will continue to use up most of my credit limit at 2.62%.
As to Double Cash: I’m doing other things to maximize ThankYou point earnings (and sadly have a very low credit limit on that card)
Why use a 1 cent per point assumption instead of the Frequent Miler Reasonable Redemption Value for Atmos and AA points? https://frequentmiler.com/reasonable-redemption-values-rrvs/ where you value Atmos at 1.5 CPP and AA at 1.4 CPP?
If you use reasonable redemption value (though to be honest, we can assume that you will get better than a reasonable redemption value), its even more clear that Atmos is the better choice for you.
Great question! RRVs are useful as a guide, but they don’t apply to each person’s unique situation. Just like when valuing credit card perks, when talking about acquiring miles, instead of looking at how much value I might get from them, I like to consider how much I would be willing to pay if the miles were on sale? I already have a lot of AA and Atmos miles, so I wouldn’t be a buyer at 1.5 CPP or 1.4 CPP. Instead, 1 cent per point is the rate at which I would buy if I could.
Just for argument’s sake, I assume the Qatar Airways Privilege Club Visa Infinite Credit Card wouldn’t be a good path to status. I would think the points are worth less to me, though. Also, wouldn’t the Citi AA exec card with 10,000 at 50,000 earned + another 10,000 at 90,000 points earned in loyalty points be better than the Barclay Silver? It also gives you lounge access with AA right out of the gate. It also seems like one of the cards gives you a loyalty bonus out of the combined points earned, but I could be wrong.
It would be worth doing this same exercise with the Qatar card in order to compare. I stuck with cards that I actually have. I don’t currently have the AA Exec card either (it costs a lot more than the Aviator Silver). If you often fly AA from airports that have AA lounges, then the AA Exec probably is a better pick for you. The best combination for reducing the spend required to get high level AA status is to have both the AA Exec and the Aviator Silver card since the Exec card’s Loyalty Bonuses don’t require spending on the Exec card. So spend on the Silver card and earn Loyalty Point bonuses on both.
Thre required Qatar legs kill this for most people in North America.
Few corrections for ya:
1) Atmos Platinum will require 80,000 Status Points starting in 2026, not 85,000
2) The 85,000 Status Point milestone award is moving to 95,000.
https://www.alaskaair.com/atmosrewards/content/benefits/2026-updates
Wow, thank you! I meant to check those things before publishing but it slipped my mind. I’ve corrected the post.
Yes. Worked for me, sorry you missed it.
An additional factor in favor of the Atmos route is AA has become pretty bad about saver availability.
I am surprised you missed the Air Jordan cheap path to Emerald with status match.
You mean the Royal Jordanian status match? I actually went to apply for that match a day or two after blogs published it, but by then it had already changed back to not allowing US residents to apply.