Atmos-Fear: Program Changes for Alaska Airlines Frequent Flyers?

Please pardon the pun in the title but Atmos, the apparent new name for Alaska's mileage program when it's combined with the Hawaiian Airlines program, has a lot of frequent flyers concerned. Is the Alaska program going to become revenue-based?

In case you didn't know, Alaska is the only remaining legacy airline in North America to award status based on miles flown rather than dollars spent.

This has been a big deal for leisure travelers like us who spend our own money on airfares.

We moved our modest business from United Airlines years ago after United went revenue-based. That, and a couple of other customer-unfriendly decisions sent these two UA "Million Mile Flyers" into the welcoming arms of Alaska.

Since then, we've racked up a couple of hundred thousand flight miles on Alaska metal (i.e. Alaska Airlines planes) and many more on its partners. While we still consider Star Alliance, of which United is a founding member, to be the best airline alliance, we've been pleased with our experiences in the OneWorld alliance, which Alaska joined a few years ago. Alaska has also maintained and expanded an impressive list of partner airlines, on which Alaska Mileage Plan members can earn and redeem miles.

This year Alaska added a new feature that hasn't been common since the earliest days of frequent flyer programs. If you book your award flight with Alaska miles on Alaska or its partner airlines through the Alaska website, you earn EQMs, elite qualifying miles, although not redeemable miles, to attain the various tiers of frequent flyer status for the following year. 

It would be strange if Alaska switches to a revenue-based program immediately after implementing this change, but companies have certainly made contradictory moves before. 

There is rampant speculation that includes an active FlyerTalk thread, and discussion on such travel blogs as View From the Wing and Loyalty Lobby. 

It seems obvious that establishing a newly combined frequent flyer program with the recently purchased Hawaiian Airlines, expanding Hawaiian flights to Asia, announcing new international Alaska flights to London, Rome, and Iceland, and opening additional airport lounges, would provide an opportunity for Alaska to sneak in a few less favorable changes.

That's the way some other airlines have announced changes, and why "enhanced" has become a dirty word and sarcastic joke among frequent flyers, as in "We're enhancing your travel experience with this new feature."

Like many other Alaska customers, we'll be waiting and wondering to find out what changes it has in store for us, perhaps as early as August 20.