Alaska Atmos launched a few weeks ago to much fanfare, with a lot of buzz centered around the program changes and new premium credit card. One uncertainty that had persisted was how Alaska would handle premium cabin tickets booked through partner airlines. Alaska has long been known for its generous class of service bonuses on premium cabin paid flights booked and flown through partners. The latest program information hadn’t addressed whether or not those would be maintained in the new Atmos program. However, we have been able to confirm with Alaska representatives that there are no changes to the partner earn charts as published today — only tickets sold via Alaska Air Group (and ticketed on Alaska ticket stock) will follow the new choice-based structure.
As a reminder, Alaska this year unified the partner earn chart, with revenue flights booked on partner sites earning the same bonuses. In the past, some partners (like British Airways) had higher class of service bonuses than others, but these days you earn the same class of service bonus across partners.
The good news is that Alaska tells us that there is no change to the rate at which miles and status points are earned for flights booked through partner sites. The new choice-based earning structure applies to flights booked through Alaska and ticketed on Alaska ticket stock.
In other words, if you book a paid partner business class fare through AlaskaAir, you’ll earn based on the style you choose (distance, fare, or segments). If you book via a partner site, you’ll continue to earn distance-based points as per the chart above (in that example, 125% of distance flown in both redeemable points and status points).
That earning structure is relevant for many folks because there are times when it makes sense to book paid business class tickets through, for example, a credit card portal in order to take advantage of elevated point value when using points to pay for your flight. Presumably because Alaska won’t have access to the revenue information for such a flight, if you enter your Alaska Atmos number on an eligible flight booked on a partner site, you’ll earn according to that chart above.
On the other hand, if you book partner-operated flights on Alaska-issued ticket stock, you’ll earn based on the method you choose when the new program goes into effect in the new year.
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
Curious if by “partner” alaska means the actual airline partner’s site, or any third party travel agent such as AMEX Travel. If you look at the terms and conditions it states, “Please note: Flights booked with these partners through any other website or third party are not eligible for points accrual.” which seems to imply sites like AMEX Travel would be considered an “other website”.
Nick, Tim seems to contradict you on partner earning rates booked on Alaska in his September 15 Complete Atmos guide.
He states that starting in 2025 “The earnings on partner flights when purchasing through Alaska are terrific…Unfortunately, that’s only when buying a ticket through Alaska. The vast majority of partner flights will most likely be purchased elsewhere, when the earnings become much closer to other programs (although still based on distance flown, which is nice).”
He does not explicitly state this is going away in 2026 and the way it’s written implies the 2025 changes will remain in place. Am I misunderstanding something the way it’s written or does it need additional clarification?
Does domestic first code as business or first for AS mileage accrual?
Do you know, for the various domestic carriers (particularly AA) if upgrades from economy to domestic first will code as first or economy for AS accrual?
Looking for good accrual plays flying long but cheap paid first class domestically.
From my “Points Activity” page, a past flight from 2023 in “Domestic First” shows up as: “Alaska Airlines SEA-MIA AS305 J “.
And shows 2724 points earned, plus 2724 “Bonus points” (but asi said, that was from 2023).
Question, if you choose revenue earning but then occasionally fly partner airlines (booked via partner airline) does that mean you don’t get status points for those partner flights?
I believe this article is stating that you will still get distance-based acrrual at the chart in the article (which, I believe, is a new, less rewarding chart that was introduced at the beginning of this year).
How crazy is that? You earn more Alaska miles for business class on partners than Alaska itself. Even for Alaska flights you might be better off buying them through a partner (if you can).
Not really crazy or new for many airlines.
Just to clarify, are there class-of-service bonuses when booking through Alaska? If you choose to earn via distance, you earn the same when booking via Alaska regardless of class of service? And elite bonuses only apply to Alaska-booked flights, not partner flights?
COS bonuses are gone for flights booked through Alaska, whether on a partner or on Alaska itself. You really have to be very careful about the way you want to earn, as distance is only going to benefit people if they primarily fly cheap tickets over long distances.
I feel like removing COS bonuses was a bit of a stealth devaluation hidden in this new “choice” system. They make it sound like distance-based earning is preserving the way you’ve always earned with Alaska, but if you flew premium cabins with any regularity that’s not going to be the case.
Right, the post notes that they are gone for flights booked / ticketed through Alaska.
Wouldn’t you come out ahead choosing revenue-based in that case though? Like let’s say that you regularly fly paid business class round trip from New York to London. That’s got to be around $2500 at best most of the time these days, right? (and often more). At a base of 5x, that’s ~12,500 miles round trip (I know not exactly because it’s not based on taxes, but even if we say that the base fare is $2K, that’s still 10K miles round trip). At about 7,000 miles flown round trip, you’d have been looking at about 8,750 miles with the 25% class of service bonus, right? You’ll come out ahead with revenue-based earning if that’s your situation.
I certainly understand that there are probably examples that exist where people will come out behind, but the math seems to me to be designed to do a pretty good job of keeping things about even or a little bit better. The big gotcha is that you have to choose one or the other and stick with it even if your travel patterns change. That does stink. At the same time, I imagine that there are many people who will have a relatively clear idea of what their year is likely to entail. Not everyone, but more than a few people do most likely I’d think?
I don’t love the example, but I do see your point. NYC-LON is a very competitive route, a $2,500 fare for transatlantic business class is very low (a bit more common on this route that has super capacity), and this isn’t a common route for people who actually fly the airline often, most of whom will be based on the west coast.
I was thinking more about premium transcons, which would have a far less favorable outcome, until I realized that you can’t book AA transcons on Alaska’s website. So there’s no real difference which method you choose, as those flights are going to be subject to the partner pricing regardless.
Alaska’s own transcons are more reasonably priced as they’re not lie flat, and with those you’re coming out roughly even (around $1,000 fare, which is going to net 5k for either calculation), although pricing can often be higher than that.
Where this is really going to make a difference for Alaska flyers is business class mainland to Hawaii or on the new international routes out of SEA. Those rates tend to be much higher and you’ll be far behind with the distance model.
I think you can book JFK-LAX on American on the Alaska site. The prohibition on codeshares involves AA hubs (and is due to expire at the end of 2026).