Later this week, Alaska Airlines will go live with one of the most interesting new features of its Atmos Rewards program : the chance to choose how you'll earn points.

Typically, an airline just tells customers how they'll earn miles.

But beginning Thursday, Alaska and Hawaiian Airlines frequent flyers will be able to pick how they accrue both points and elite status.

Here's how the choices stack up:

This setup is one Alaska had f irst announced last summer when the carrier combined its loyalty program with Hawaiian and launched Atmos.

A first for a U.S. airline, it was a big reason the new program won a TPG Award earlier this year for innovation in loyalty.

"Choice accrual" essentially allows members to maximize their loyalty earnings based on how they tend to travel.

For instance, if you tend to make a lot of connections and rack up a ton of flight segments, you might benefit from earning via segments flown (500 points per flight).