The Alaska Atmos Rewards program offers great award redemption opportunities. However, there are a couple of quirks that often come up regarding which frequent flyer number you can have on a reservation. In this post, I’d like to cover the details of those rules, potential workarounds, and why they (probably) exist…
Alaska limits award ticket frequent flyer benefits
When you go to the Alaska Atmos Rewards page with award charts and click on “General Terms & Conditions,” you’ll see the following restriction listed:
When redeeming points for an award ticket from an Atmos Rewards account, customers cannot enter another airline’s frequent flyer number and is thus ineligible for benefits from another program.
In other words, the intent is that if you redeem Atmos Rewards points for travel on American (just as an example), you can’t then swap in your American AAdvantage number, or another oneworld frequent flyer number, where you might have oneworld Emerald or oneworld Sapphire status. This would be useful in situations where you want to take advantage of oneworld lounge access, if you want to assign seats at no extra cost, or if you value an extra baggage allowance.
This policy counters the industry norm. I’m not going to say that Alaska is the only airline to have such a policy, but it’s definitely among the few.
Now, let me mention that this is in the Atmos Rewards terms & conditions, so you should follow the rules. That being said, let me note a few things:
- This is definitely not directly enforceable, in the sense that other airlines don’t have this policy, so when you go to check-in with a partner airline, they’ll typically gladly swap out your frequent flyer number
- While I’m not suggesting anyone violate the rules, this is buried in the terms & conditions, so it’s not like this is some very obvious thing, and I imagine a vast majority of people don’t realize this policy exists; I’ve never heard of anyone getting in trouble for this, but that’s not to say that it hasn’t happened
- There’s an advantage to keeping your Atmos Rewards number on an award reservation, which is that you earn status points for awards
I’m not suggesting people do this, but let me also point out the very easy workaround here. When you go to make an Atmos Rewards award booking, if you book for yourself, the Atmos Rewards number will be pre-populated, and can’t be changed.
Meanwhile if you select that you’re booking a “New passenger,” the frequent flyer program field will be empty, and if you leave it that way, you’ll then have the option of entering any frequent flyer number on the website of the partner airline, since there’s no Atmos Rewards number on that booking. There’s also nothing preventing the passenger from having the same name and date of birth as the primary account holder.
Again, I’m just sharing the factual reality of how things work, rather than condemning or condoning any practice.
Alaska limits lounge access with other elite status
Separately, I should cover a topic that’s along the same lines, but different, and it specifically impacts accessing Alaska Lounges. With most oneworld airlines, you can have one frequent flyer program number on your reservation (for points accrual and some elite perks), and then still use another frequent flyer number to access lounges, based on having oneworld Emerald or oneworld Sapphire status.
The Alaska Lounge policies webpage says the following regarding accessing lounges based on elite status:
All guests must include their eligible frequent flyer number on their reservation prior to check-in to access the lounge. oneworld frequent flyer membership cards do not grant access to the lounge and the frequent flyer number on the reservation will determine whether a member is eligible for access.
So you can only use oneworld elite status to access Alaska Lounges if that number is also on your boarding pass. Are there any workarounds here? Well, the restriction is only about what frequent flyer number you have on your reservation when you check-in and enter the lounge, and not about which you have when you board.
Of course if you’re relying on a particular account to get a complimentary upgrade or preferred seating, you don’t have much choice there. However, if you’re not actively taking advantage of any of those perks, you have more flexibility. You could always try to use your loyalty number that gets you lounge access, and then change your frequent flyer number at the gate, prior to boarding.
What’s the motivation for these quirky policies?
Alaska is typically a very generous airline when it comes to its loyalty policies, given that it’s something that sets the airline apart. So, what’s the motivation for these rules?
One would assume that the primary logic here for both policies involves reimbursement for lounge visits. I’ve written in the past about the economics of airport lounge access. If you’re accessing lounges based on elite status, it’s my understanding that the airline with which you have elite status foots the bill (and that includes for oneworld).
It’s possible I’m mistaken, but I know that back in the day the airline actually operating the flight paid for lounge access, regardless of which oneworld airline you had status with.
Regardless, it seems like there’s no downside to Alaska when you book a partner flight and change the frequent flyer number. Instead, the only circumstance where there’s even a possibility of Alaska incurring any cost would be for travel on Alaska. Again, at least that’s my understanding…
Bottom line
Alaska Atmos Rewards is a great program that offers lots of awesome redemption opportunities. There are a couple of oddities when it comes to changing the frequent flyer number you have on a reservation, though.
Specifically, if you book an award through Atmos Rewards, you have to leave your Atmos Rewards number on the reservation, and not a partner program number. At least that’s what the terms state, though there are certainly workarounds.
Furthermore, you can only use oneworld elite status to access an Alaska Lounge if that actual frequent flyer number is on your boarding pass. Again, there are some potential workarounds there, but that’s the policy.
What do you make of these Alaska Atmos Rewards frequent flyer number restrictions?
