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.
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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?