Alaska Airlines Debuts Earn-Only Partnership With ITA Airways — Here’s How You’ll Earn Points on Flights Alaska Airlines Debuts Earn-Only Partnership With ITA Airways — Here’s How You’ll Earn Points on Flights

Alaska Airlines Debuts Earn-Only Partnership With ITA Airways — Here’s How You’ll Earn Points on Flights

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The newest Alaska Airlines partner has landed: ITA Airways. The Rome-based carrier is now an Alaska partner, which means you earn Atmos Rewards points on ITA flights, though for now, that’s nearly the full extent of the partnership.

Here’s what to know about the new Alaska Airlines and ITA partnership, plus a refresher on how you’ll earn Atmos Rewards points when flying partner airlines.

Alaska Airlines and ITA Airways Launch Earn-Only Partnership

Alaska Airlines has a fair number of partner airlines. Some let you earn and redeem miles, while others are earn only. The newest partner, ITA Airways, falls into the last camp as an earn-only partner.

ITA Airways’ logo was added to Alaska Airlines’ partner webpage on January 10, 2026. And as of now, you can book an ITA Airways flight and earn Atmos Rewards points.

The catch, which we’ll cover shortly, is that how many points you earn depends on where you book your ticket.

Alaska Airlines earn-only partner tails.
Credit: Alaska Airlines

Inter-alliance partnerships aren't the norm — but not unusual for Alaska

What’s particularly interesting about this new partnership is that Alaska Airlines, a Oneworld member, teamed up with a Star Alliance airline. While inter-alliance partnerships aren't exactly rare for Alaska, they're still not the norm.

But with Alaska gearing up to launch flights from Seattle (SEA) to Rome (FCO), this one makes a good amount of sense. From a passenger perspective, it’s also a win since you can connect to onward ITA flights and have your checked luggage travel with you.

At the time of writing, though, there’s no indication this partnership will expand beyond earn-only. And that’s likely because ITA Airways belongs to a different alliance than Alaska. If you recall, you can no longer redeem Atmos Rewards points on Singapore Airlines (Star Alliance), and the Korean Air partnership was scaled back significantly (SkyTeam).

So, this might be some helpful context as we understand where this new relationship might or might not be headed.

an ITA Airways plane taking off
Credit: Lukas Souza/Unsplash

Related: Beginner's Guide to Airline Alliances & Partnerships

Earning Atmos Rewards Points on ITA Airways Flights

If you credit your ITA Airways flight to Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards, the rate at which you earn points depends on where you book your ticket. Alaska awards points at different rates when you book through its own website versus booking directly with a partner airline.

What’s frustrating about a structure like this is that there’s often far better flight options when you book partner flights through said partner’s website than through Alaska’s. That means you’ll likely have to settle for fewer points and elite status credits if you book directly with ITA.

On the bright side, Alaska plans to boost partner earning rates for select premium cabin flights later in 2026. However, those positive changes won't extend to economy fares, which will stay at their current earning levels.

To help you determine what you'll earn, Alaska does publish easy-to-read earning tables. On this webpage, you can view both the “earning on partner flights booked on Alaska” and “earning on partner flights booked via partner site” sections to calculate exactly how many rewards you’ll earn on an ITA Airways flight, depending on where you book.

Bottom Line

After adding a slew of partners during 2022-2024, it’s been a while since Alaska Airlines added a new partner. And while ITA Airways won't offer much beyond points earning and interline connectivity for now, there’s still something to be excited about here. With Alaska about to launch flights to Rome, you’ll soon be able to connect beyond Rome on a single ticket — and earn Atmos Rewards points in the process.

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