In September 2024, we saw Alaska Airlines takeover of Hawaiian Airlines close. As you’d expect, the process of integrating operations between two airlines is pretty complex (and it’s almost more complex when you consider that Alaska and Hawaiian plan to maintain two separate brands).
Continue reading: Alaska & Hawaiian Offer Reciprocal Perks, Elite Status Match
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Good, glad to see this. All they need to do now is unify the app (which they may never do... but it would be nice).
One additional thing: as an MVP Gold, I got an email from Hawaiian this past week with an upgrade cert.
Anyone know what that was about?
You are correct that Alaska elites will get “some” benefits through the status match. However, the status match is one sided and Hawaiian Airlines members get so much more and Alaska members basically got two upgrade certificates that they may or may not be able to be use.
As a 100k flyer of Mileage Plan I used to get automatically confirmed in Alaska’s version of premium economy at booking along with a good chance of an upgrade to first on flights from the west coast to Hawaii. Additionally, if the upgrade did not clear as a 100k you could preorder a free meal on the Alaska APP that they would give you in economy.
Now that Alaska plans to repurpose Hawaiian’s jets for long hauls out of Seattle, Alaska metal is not flying from San Diego (or other west coast) cities to Hawaii and instead they have allocated this to Hawaiian metal- as an elite on Hawaiian you only get “premium” economy on Hawaiian , if available at check in and you don’t get a free drink.
Alaska is a good airline, but I don’t fly them because they are on par with Qatar or Singapore Airlines. I fly them because there was a return on being loyal. However, as it stands now there is no substantial benefit to flying Hawaiian- if I have to pay to guarantee a seat in premium economy or for a drink I’ll fly United or American. Hopefully when they integrate the two programs it will be different, but I’m not holding my breath.
For anyone who charged on their Hawaiian credit card expecting to earn EQMs toward Alaska status be aware that of the five posters on FT who did this in 2024 not one has received them.
Well, the merger didn't work so well for One World Elites. I've been an AA EP for years and enjoyed my Emerald status on Alaska since they joined the One World partnership. However, in the last 8 months I've noticed I wasn't getting upgrades on Alaska flights. I asked the desk agent to look into it and she said I was waitlisted behind Alaska 75Ks. I verified this on another flight. I went from being number 1 or 2 on the waitlist to 8 or later. They also don't give you the chocolate bar anymore (I know it's trivial, but it was a nice touch for the recognition). Also, once Alaska bought Hawaiian, they stopped all flights to Hawaii. Now I must book HA and not get the benefits of my One World status, at least until next year. Unfortunately AA flights all go through Phoenix for my desitinations, so I might need to start flying United again... ..sigh..