UPDATE: Whew! This was a false alarm. An Alaska spokesperson has confirmed that a “technical issue affecting the prices of some connections on partner flights involving Europe, the Middle East, and Asia” has been pinpointed and resolved. The award chart remains unchanged…at least for now. I’ve verified that connecting itineraries are once against pricing according to the prevailing award chart.
Something strange appears to be going on with Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards partner award pricing, and it appears to be bad news for anyone booking partner awards with connections.
Alaska Atmos Rewards Is Pricing Some Finnair And Iberia Awards Above Chart Levels
Alaska Airlines publishes Atmos Rewards award charts, and that transparency is one of the things I appreciate about the program. In theory, partner saver awards should price at the published “starting at” levels, even if higher pricing sometimes appears for non-saver space.
But that does not seem to be what is happening right now on at least some connected itineraries.
One Mile At A Time highlights a couple of very specific examples that suggest something is off.
For example, a Finnair award from Dallas to Helsinki prices at 35,000 points in economy or 70,000 points in business class, which is exactly what you would expect based on the 5,001-7,000 mile distance band in Alaska’s published chart.
However, if you add a connection onward to Stockholm (or European city) on the same itinerary, pricing jumps to 55,000 points in economy or 110,000 points in business class. That should not happen if the itinerary is still supposed to price according to the chart.
I was just able to replicate that moments ago, so if it was (or is) a glitch, it is still pricing at new and higher levels:
The same pattern appears on Iberia. A flight from Chicago to Madrid prices at 27,500 points in economy or 55,000 points in business class, which lines up with the 3,501-5,000 mile band.
But if you continue onward to Barcelona or other European cities, the price rises to 35,000 points in economy or 70,000 points in business class.
Turkish Airlines did something similar in 2024 (charging extra for connecting flights) and British Airways has long done this with its own loyalty program, so this would not be something revolutionary.
Devaluation, Glitch, Or Something Else?
At this point, it is not clear what is going on.
Maybe this is an intentional devaluation of partner awards with connections. Maybe it is a technical glitch. Maybe Alaska is changing how it prices these awards and just has not communicated it yet. Live And Let’s Fly has already asked Alaska Airlines for confirmation.
But whatever the explanation, this is not a great look. If this is a devaluation, Alaska should say so plainly rather than letting members discover it through oddball pricing searches. If this is a test or tech glitch, the answer is why…
As part of its regulatory assurances for the merger with Hawaiian Airlines, Alaska promised it would not inflate the award charts for Alaska and Hawaiian flights, but made no such promise for partners flights. We have seen in the past that Alaska Airlines has devalued these awards without notice.
CONCLUSION
There appears to be an issue with Alaska Atmos Rewards pricing on some partner awards with connections. Nonstop itineraries on Finnair and Iberia appear to price as expected, but when a connection is added, award costs rise well above what Alaska’s published charts would suggest.
Maybe this is a glitch. Maybe it is a devaluation. Either way, I’ll be watching it closely and will update this post once I have official confirmation one way or the other.
isnt it the same in The US, say I want to fly from NYC to EYW and theres no non-stop so I will be charged say JFK-CLT and then CLT-EYW which will cost more then if there was a nonstop. My point AFAIK they always charged more if you have to make a connection (maybe that wasnt the case Intl) I always saw the chart as non-stop based rather then distant based, meaning if I had a 2 stopper to get somewhere within the same mileage ditance it wasnt cost the same as simply going to the 1st stop the flight makes
The same glitch has been around for a while on AA flights. A direct is much cheaper than a connecting flight.
Not surprised. It’s a damn shell game.
If true, that’s a major blow for those of us who maximize Alaska for partner awards. And, rarely are there ‘great’ options using their points on actual Alaska metal.
All said, I wish we had some baseline consumer protections against these corporations manipulating their programs with basically no-notice or recourse. If I were the bank(s), I’d want to ensure the value proposition holds up, too.
They’ve been handing out miles like jellybeans. They straight up lied about the HA merger, shocker! Severe devaluation was inevitable. Time to switch to 3% RH gold card and call it a day. These mileage programs are heading towards completely worthless.
Ben at OMAAT had reached out to AS and got a reply this AM that it was a technical glitch. So hopefully they have fixed it. Here’s what he posted regarding the AS response.
“An Alaska spokesperson has confirmed that there was a technical issue affecting the prices of some connections on partner flights involving Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, and that issue has been resolved. There are no changes to the award charts. “
Great. I just heard back as well and will update post shortly.
I think the system glitch has not fully fixed. If the route requires non-oneworld partners (such as Starlux), the pricing is still high. You can check Hong Kong (HKG) to San Francisco (SFO) via TPE. It’s priced at 65k. but normally it should be 37.5k. If you book the two legs separately (ie, HKG->TPE at 7.5k and TPE -> SFO at 37.5k), the total is cheaper. So I believe they haven’t fixed the system glitch completely.
Thanks for flagging this. We will keep watching.
Meanwhile, here’s another piece of news concerning AS: ↓
https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/ntsb-investigating-close-call-between-fedex-alaska-airlines-jets-2026-03-19/