They may not be one of the big four U.S. airlines (yet), but Alaska and Hawaiian's newly-named Atmos Rewards frequent flyer program shouldn't be overlooked.
Whether you fly one of these airlines frequently or never at all, Atmos Rewards points are incredibly valuable thanks to some amazing international partners like Japan Airlines, Aer Lingus, Fiji Airways, and more. But even if you're just looking to fly domestically, there are plenty of valuable ways to fly for a bargain using Alaska miles Atmos points.
Alaska has pivoted to a new, distance-based award chart that determines how many points you need to book a particular flight. Although some of the best deals to book business or first class on Oneworld partner airlines to Hong Kong (HKG) or Australia have disappeared, it's still fairly easy to find good deals for domestic and international flights with Alaska and on partner airlines.
Here's what you need to know.
Read next: 5 Quick (& Easy) Ways to Earn Atmos Points
Step 1: Start an Award Search on Desktop with Alaska
Whether you're starting a search from scratch or received this Thrifty Traveler Premium alert for business class flights to Ireland for as low as 45,000 Atmos points one-way, the process works much the same.
Want to get alerts to use your points and miles? Sign up for Thrifty Traveler Premium!
Just want to book a short domestic flight? Start by heading to alaskaair.com, select “Use points,” and then enter your desired dates and destination.
We recommend searching for award availability one-way at a time on Alaska's website. This makes it easier to find the cheapest dates in each direction – especially if you're looking for partner airline flights, like Japan Airlines or LATAM.
After a recent change, if you search roundtrip, you'll now see the roundtrip total in the results after you search.
Lastly, click “Find Flights.” Let's take a look at this route to Los Angeles (LAX).
For domestic flights, you'll be presented with an economy and first class option, depending on availability.
If the dates don't work for you, you can use the arrows on either side to see flights on a different day or click on different dates above. You'll see the lowest points required to book that route for any given day. You can also click on “Calendar view” in the top right to pull up a full month of availability at once.
Step 2: Pull Up the Calendar to Find the Cheapest Rates
The real power of Alaska Airlines' site is its award calendar. It's key to finding the best deals, and it's incredibly simple to use.
Say you want to fly to Paris in style ,but don't want to pay cash for those crazy expensive business class tickets to the City of Light. If you're starting on the homepage, before you input your desired dates and destination, click “All search options.” You can also use this link to go directly there.
You will then select “Use points” and “Flexible dates” to pull up the calendar view. Again, make sure to select “One way” as that will be the best way to find the cheapest dates. You can do a separate search in the other direction and then book roundtrip in the end.
You will then enter your desired outbound airport and destination. For this example, I'll search from Los Angeles (LAX). It doesn't matter what exact date you put in, just select one in the month you'd like to see, and click “Find Flights.” This will open up a calendar where you can easily see award availability – flights that are actually bookable with Alaska's Atmos points.
Use the filters at the top of the calendar to narrow your results down by cabin. Since I want to fly business class, I'll choose “Partner Business.” Otherwise, the “Lowest price available” award rates will appear, which will almost always be economy tickets. You can use the arrows above the calendar to toggle between months, too.
One important note is that there is no way to filter for nonstop flights or a specific airline on the calendar view. This means many of the results in this view could include connecting flights or airlines that charge higher fees, which may not be exactly what you're looking for.
Thrifty Tip: It can sometimes help to first search for availability on AA's website to narrow down nonstop availability, then search those dates on Alaska's site.
Choose a date on the calendar and then click “View flights” to access more filtering options on that specific date.
As you'll see, a list of redemptions in every cabin will be displayed depending on availability for these Air Tahiti Nui flights (my favorite way to fly to France using Atmos points). Rather fly economy or premium economy? Alaska lists these as “Main” and “Partner Premium” respectively.
Step 3: Sort & Filter to Narrow in on the Best Flights
Odds are, your search will yield more than one ticket bookable with Atmos points. Now it's time to find the flights you really want.
Use the filters and sorting tools on the flight results page to zero in on the flights you want. You can sort by price, duration, departure, and arrival times. But the best tools on this screen are the ability to filter by number of stops and airlines.
This allows you to only look at nonstop flights or avoid airlines that tend to have high fees, like British Airways in the example above. By deselecting British Airways, you'll have a much cleaner list of results without high fees.
It's also super helpful to sort by duration and use these filters when you're looking at connecting flights. For example, this one-stop flight from Buffalo (BUF) to London (LHR) flying American Airlines for only 45,000 points one-way – one of the unique examples where you can sometimes book for fewer points by adding a connection.
I like to sort by price to see which flights cost the least amount of points. I tend not to care about layovers if I'm getting a good deal, but you might prefer nonstop flights! You could even hone in on the time of day you prefer to fly.
Note: You'll always be on the hook for any taxes and fees, even when redeeming Atmos points for Alaska-operated flights. Taxes and fees vary from around $12 for most domestic roundtrip flights with the airline or more for some of its limited international destinations.
Flying on one of Alaska's partners, like Japan Airlines or American Airlines? Taxes and fees will vary by airline and destination, but they are generally pretty low (British Airways is the major exception). Keep in mind, unless you've got Alaska's new Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® Card, you'll be on the hook for a non-refundable $12.50 booking fee for any partner award tickets booked with Alaska points.
Step 4: Select Your Flights & Book!
Choose the Alaska points fare that works for you and click through to book.
The beauty of booking with Atmos points is that you always get a main cabin fare – no stingy basic economy here. This means you'll always get free seat selection when flying on Alaska or its domestic partners, like American & Hawaiian. Seat selection fees may still apply on some international partner airlines, but not all.
Plus, every ticket booked with Alaska's Atmos points can be changed for free. If you're flying Alaska Airlines or Hawaiian Airlines, you can also cancel for free. That means you can lock in a flight for later this year using your Alaska miles right now, then cancel it if your plans change and get your miles back, along with the taxes and fees.
For award tickets with flights on partner airlines like American or Starlux, you can make free changes to the date or route of your flight. But if you want to cancel and get your points back, you'll only get most of the taxes and fees refunded. That small, $12.50 partner award booking fee is non-refundable.
Making changes or cancellations is typically pretty easy, too. Simply cancel your flight online, and Alaska will redeposit your points in your account … typically right away!
Booking Stopovers
One of the best ways to maximize your travel when booking with Alaska points is to take advantage of its amazing free stopover policy. This allows you to see two destinations for the price of one. And it even works on one-way award tickets.
But booking a stopover with Alaska points has become trickier recently.
First, you'll need to navigate to the advanced search page, which can be found by clicking on “All search options” from the homepage, or using this link. From there, select “Multi-city” and “Use points.”
In this example, I'm looking for a trip from Minneapolis (MSP) to Paris (CDG), with a stop in Dublin (DUB) on the way. Just enter each flight leg separately for your departure. If you just want to book a one-way ticket with a stopover, you can leave the return flight blank.
But after clicking “Find flights,” you'll typically land on an error page in the older design of Alaska's website when trying to do a multi-city search – even when there may actually be availability.
From this screen, you'll want to run the search again by selecting “Multi-city” and “Use points.” Then, enter the rest of your search criteria and click “Find Flights” again.
This time, you should land on some results. The display is different than a normal roundtrip or one-way search from the homepage, but you can use the filters on the left-hand side of the page and the “Sort by” dropdown to narrow down your results.
If you see a small seat icon next to the fare, this means it is a “mixed-cabin” award, meaning one flight is in business and the other is in economy. Thankfully, these types of awards now typically only combine shorter economy flights with the long-haul in business class. You can check the specifics by clicking on the icon.
For this particular example of flying Aer Lingus business class to Dublin and then connecting a few days later to Paris, it will almost always be an economy ticket on the short flight within Europe.
But when you're getting both flights – with a free stopover in Dublin – for just 45,000 points total, that's an incredible deal. Especially considering the nonstop to Dublin would cost you 55,000 points on its own.
Read more: A Neat Trick to Book Biz Class for Fewer Alaska Atmos Points
Bottom Line
Alaska Airlines Atmos points are some of the most valuable you can earn – especially if you're looking to book flights on partner airlines flying all over the world. But they've got plenty of value if you're redeeming them for flights on Alaska, too.
Whether you've got a few thousand or more than 100,000 Alaska Atmos points in your account, use this guide to find the best fares for your next trip.
