Alaska Airlines Adds 20% Back On Kids’ Award Flights—Plus Elite Status Credit For Bilt Transfers

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These benefits come from Alaska’s new, free Atmos Rewards communities. You have to choose one community per person, but a household can take advantage of more than one. With the Atmos Summit card’s free points sharing, one adult can earn status credit for transferring points and another can redeem those same points for the children’s tickets and collect the rebate. Four new communities launched October 1, joining the existing programs for Alaska and Hawaii residents. For most people who live elsewhere, the standouts are Families on the Go and Global Locals. There’s something about Alaska’s naming conventions, though. I can’t keep myself from wanting to call the program AtMost Rewards (‘at most you’ll get some rewards’) and ‘Global Locals’ surely becomes GLOCAL. Families on the Go Rebates 20% of Points Redeemed for Children’s Award Tickets. The child must be 12 or younger when traveling. The adult whose account supplies the points needs to belong to Families on the Go. The children don’t have to select that community themselves. You need the full number of points to book, and the points generally come back within 24 hours after completing travel. It covers eligible awards on Alaska, Hawaiian and partner airlines. The published rules don’t limit it to coach. Up to seven children can qualify on one reservation. There’s no annual cap on the rebate or limit on how often you can use it. Taxes, fees and carrier charges aren’t rebated. Existing bookings can qualify. The redeeming member needs to belong to the community when travel takes place and remain enrolled through completion. Two children’s awards costing 100,000 points apiece would return 40,000 points. That makes their combined net cost 160,000 points, plus the original taxes and fees. For a family of four with two adults and two qualifying children, all paying the same award price, this works out to 10% back on the points spent for the whole family. Global Locals Makes Points Transfers Count Toward Elite Status. Members receive one status point for every 25 base Atmos points deposited through an eligible transfer partner. The currently included partners are Bilt Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy. Bilt transfers 1:1: 50,000 Bilt points become 50,000 redeemable Atmos points, plus 2,000 status points. 100,000 Bilt points produce 4,000 status points. 250,000 Bilt points produce 10,000 status points. The Global Locals FAQ expressly lists eligible programs. The status calculation uses base Atmos points received. Bonuses awarded in connection with a transfer are excluded. Marriott’s conversion rate is 3:1, with a 60,000-point Bonvoy transfer producing 20,000 base Atmos points and a 5,000-point transfer bonus. It seems as though only the base Atmos should earn the status points. There’s no cap on status points from these eligible transfers, and no separate ceiling on the status level they can earn. Earning status entirely through ordinary 1:1 Bilt transfers would require: Status Status points required Bilt points transferred Silver 20,000 500,000 Gold 40,000 1,000,000 Platinum 80,000 2,000,000 Titanium 135,000 3,375,000 That’s expensive way to manufacture status from scratch, but it also seems like a good way to top off towards status (say, instead of an end of year mileage run). Interestingly, Global Locals also awards 10% more status points on qualifying flights that start or end outside the United States, including partner flights and award travel credited to Atmos. Th The Summit Card Lets A Household Combine The Transfer Benefit and Children’s Rebate The Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® credit card comes with free points sharing, allowing a primary cardholder to connect with up to 10 other Atmos members. Points can move in either direction between the primary cardholder and each linked member, without a transfer fee. Adult A selects Global Locals. They transfer 200,000 Bilt points into their own Atmos account, receiving 200,000 redeemable points and 8,000 status points. Adult B selects Families on the Go. This is the adult who holds the Summit card. They connect Adult A through the card’s free sharing network. Adult A sends the 200,000 redeemable points to Adult B. The 8,000 status points stay with Adult A. Adult B uses those points toward the children’s awards. If the children’s portion of the family booking costs 100,000 points each for two children, Adult B receives 40,000 points back after travel. Adults’ tickets are additional. That produces 8,000 status points for one adult and a 40,000-point rebate for the other from the same original 200,000-point Bilt transfer. Adult A also earns the Global Locals flight bonus while traveling the award booked from Adult B’s account. There’s a reason to have the Summit cardholder be the family’s award booker: the card’s partner award booking fee waiver requires redemption from the primary cardholder’s account and payment of the applicable taxes and fees with the card. Sharing points into a non-cardholder’s account gives up that waiver. Certain legacy Hawaiian credit cards and the Bank of Hawaii Hawaiian debit card also have sharing benefits. All Six Communities Compared For comparing all six communities, these are the main benefits: Community Who can join Main reasons to choose it Families on the Go Any Atmos member 20% back on eligible award tickets for children 12 and under; family destination challenge and offers. Global Locals Any Atmos member, including U.S. residents One status point per 25 eligible base points transferred in; 10% extra status points on qualifying international flying; international destination challenge. Culinary Journeys Any Atmos member Food and wine offers and experiences, plus a destination challenge that includes major cities such as Austin, Chicago, New York and Washington National. Active Escapes Any Atmos member Outdoor travel offers and experiences, a destination challenge focused on outdoor trips, and an advertised 30% AllTrails membership discount. Club 49 Eligible Alaska residents Two free checked bags on eligible travel to or from Alaska and three within Alaska; two annual Travel Now discounts for qualifying last-minute refundable travel; Freight for Less, weekly flight offers and a destination challenge. Huaka‘i Eligible Hawaii residents Two free checked bags on neighbor island flights; a quarterly 10% neighbor island booking discount, increased to 20% for eligible cardholders; monthly offers and a destination challenge. A 50% bonus on neighbor island redeemable and status points begins January 1, 2027. The four unrestricted communities also offer quarterly flight deals, partner promotions and 20% off qualifying Atmos Rewards Unlocked experiences associated with their community. That experience discount excludes auctions and the separate Events & Travel offerings. Each community’s destination challenge can earn a total of 10,000 redeemable bonus points plus 10,000 status points for visiting its 10 listed destinations. The current challenge runs through December 31, 2027, and eligible paid and award flights can count when credited to Atmos. The first five destinations together earn 1,500 of each type of point; the last two earn 5,500. There’s also a separate 100,000-point prize for the first eligible member to complete each community’s list. That’s one winner per community. To enroll, log into your Atmos account and select “Join a Community.” You can make one selection per calendar year. Joining now means you can choose differently beginning January 1, 2027. You’ll keep points already earned if you switch, but your destination-challenge progress won’t follow you to the new community. Topics on this page Editorial note: any opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any card issuer. Comments made in response to this post are not provided or commissioned nor have they been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any bank. It is not the responsibility of advertisers Citibank, Chase, American Express, Barclays, Capital One or any other advertiser to ensure that questions are answered, either. Terms and limitations apply to all offers.