Originally Posted by
Waitlisted
I’m really hoping that Alaska or a clever FT flyer member will develop a quick and easy cheat calculator to help some of us figure out whether spending or miles will be the best route to go for us based on our travel patterns. But in reading all the above posts, it seems there are still a lot of unanswered questions before we have to make that decision less than three months from now.
https://www.alaskaair.com/atmosrewar...s/2026-updates
“COMING LATER IN 2026”
I assume they don’t mean 1/1/2026 by “later in 2026” so you may have more time.
I have been thinking about how I would determine what the best strategy is for me. In my case it not only involves choosing an earnings method for flights, but also deciding whether to choose AAdvantage or Atmos. And how much credit card spend to direct at the respective credit card. It’s giving me headaches because there are so many unknowns — not only gaps in the AS Atmos program description, but also how many awards I will realistically fly on AS that earn status points.
I don’t know that it is possible to create an easy calculator. Maybe AS could display what you would have earned in 2024 and 2025 under the various options, and if you think your purchase and travel patterns aren’t changing, that could give you an indication what to choose.
I am actually fairly certain that choosing revenue based earning is not going to be beneficial to me as I don’t foresee myself buying a lot of expensive revenue tickets on AS next year (too many miles/points still in various programs).