This week, Alaska Airlines’ takeover of Hawaiian Airlines officially closed. While Hawaiian Airlines is now part of Alaska Air Group, the two airlines are still on separate operating certificates. For that matter, the two airlines plan to keep their independent branding in the long run.
One question I’ve seen over and over is whether Hawaiian Airlines plans to join the oneworld alliance… and I’m happy to report that I have an answer.
In this post:
The plan is for Hawaiian Airlines to join oneworld
An Alaska Airlines spokesperson tells me that the company plans for Hawaiian Airlines to formally join the oneworld alliance in 2026, in conjunction with the two airlines reaching a single passenger service system.
That means that the oneworld alliance will be gaining yet another member airline. Both Fiji Airways and Oman Air are expected to join the oneworld alliance in the coming months, and we know that Starlux Airlines wants to join oneworld, but it remains to be seen if it will be accepted (given the airlines that have veto rights).
Up to four new airlines in the pipeline for an alliance is pretty great, as SkyTeam and Star Alliance don’t seem to have many new airline members planned, at least publicly.
What are the practical implications of this anyway?
Alaska and Hawaiian’s integration will be a gradual process. Even before the two airlines are on one operating certificate, we’re going to see loyalty program members get quite a bit of flexibility.
HawaiianMiles members should be able to unlock oneworld perks long before that, including elite benefits, plus opportunities to earn and redeem miles:
- In the coming weeks, it should be possible to transfer miles at a 1:1 ratio between Alaska Mileage Plan and HawaiianMiles, meaning that HawaiianMiles members will be able to (indirectly) earn and redeem miles on oneworld partner airlines
- In the coming months, we should see reciprocal status matches between Alaska Mileage Plan and HawaiianMiles, meaning that HawaiianMiles members will be able to indirectly unlock oneworld elite perks when flying on partner airlines
So for Alaska Mileage Plan and HawaiianMiles members, we’ll see quite a bit of reciprocity long before 2026.
Meanwhile the 2026 timeline will matter for those of us belonging to other oneworld programs (other than Alaska Mileage Plan), who want to be able to earn and redeem miles on Hawaiian, and take advantage of oneworld Sapphire and oneworld Emerald elite perks.
Bottom line
With Alaska having acquired Hawaiian, many have wondered what this means for the oneworld alliance. The good news is that Hawaiian is expected to join the alliance, but only in 2026. Until then, Alaska and Hawaiian flyers can take advantage of reciprocal opportunities, but those loyal to other oneworld programs will have to be patient.
What do you make of Hawaiian joining oneworld?
I fly Hawaiian often and my concern is, will Alaska pull the Airbus 330 out of the Hawaiian market and replace it with 737? DOT only requires that Hawaiian and Alaska keep the same amount of departures to and from Hawaii. Nothing is said about keeping Hawaiian's wide bodies on those routes. My guess is Alaska will remove the Airbus 330 and use them on money making business routes versus Hawaii leisure routes.
Hawaiian joining One World is absolutely meaningless if Hawaiian, like so many other alliance airlines, doesn't release award inventory to partners.
I feel like many people are taking Alaska’s statements of operating two brands too literally. Eventually they will be operating as one airline. When they are operating as one airline they may continue having the Hawaiian brand on their flights originating to and from Hawaii. They may also cobrand all of their aircraft with elements of both Alaska and Hawaiian.
Don’t expect there to be two airlines. Alaska said they will maintain the Hawaiian brand,...
I feel like many people are taking Alaska’s statements of operating two brands too literally. Eventually they will be operating as one airline. When they are operating as one airline they may continue having the Hawaiian brand on their flights originating to and from Hawaii. They may also cobrand all of their aircraft with elements of both Alaska and Hawaiian.
Don’t expect there to be two airlines. Alaska said they will maintain the Hawaiian brand, they have never said they will maintain two separate airlines.
Of course Hawaiian is joining OneWorld.
I largely agree with this sentiment. They probably said they would keep the brands separate to try and head off antitrust issues
Back when Delta and Northwest merged, Delta promised they'd keep the Memphis hub. Look how long that lasted. Airlines will say what they need to to get mergers approved
Hopefully we something in it for CX whether it's a new flight to HKG or even just a codeshare.
What about Delta and United pax who need to connect to other islands from HNL?
They get to borrow my paddle board to make the journey. Pack light.
Maui, do you codeshare? Also, do I earn any miles for the journey?
Maybe UA or Delta ends up creating an agreement with Southwest for intra-island connections.
In the past this would be been unthinkable with Southwest’s historical resistance towards partnerships with other airlines but now that they seem open to big changes (eg assigned seats) maybe they are also willing to revisit their approach with partnerships.
I keep hearing that their intra-island business is suffering so getting United and delta feed could be a solution...
Maybe UA or Delta ends up creating an agreement with Southwest for intra-island connections.
In the past this would be been unthinkable with Southwest’s historical resistance towards partnerships with other airlines but now that they seem open to big changes (eg assigned seats) maybe they are also willing to revisit their approach with partnerships.
I keep hearing that their intra-island business is suffering so getting United and delta feed could be a solution to that.
Either that or UA and DL instra-island passenger connect in California lol.
Just because Hawaiian joins OneWorld doesn’t mean they need to cancel their partnerships with Delta and United. Plenty of airlines have outside of alliance partnerships (think Alaska and Korean Air, for example).
Ben, do you think Hawaiian joining OneWorld could result in a HNL-LHR nonstop flight? I think the range could be possible with newer generation aircraft. Could you write an article about the possibilities of this route, which aircraft could do it, and whether it's been explored in the past?
Alaska doesn't even have a LHR-SEA nonstop flight. And how would Alaska get a slot at LHR?
More likely we'll see HA/AS slap their code on BA from SEA-LHR while BA does the same from SEA down.
What is with everyone's obsession w/ LHR? There is already more than enough LHR service for SEA with 4x daily. LHR doesn't actually print money in the way people think it does. And TATL is already dominated by joint ventures that Alaska is not a part of.
SEA is meant to be a TPAC hub not a TATL hub. If only HA had held onto their HND slot, although Delta might be giving up their HNL-HND slot soon as well, which AS could pick up.
The reason there's no LHR-HNL route isn't a technical one; rather, it's revenue. It's only a ~6,500nm flight, which puts it well within range of HA's existing Dreamliner fleet. I presume yields are just too low to support that flight. HNL isn't much of a business hub, and it would take longer to fly LHR-HNL-Asia than going east, so they wouldn't get much connecting traffic.
My question is if we will see expanded reciprocal benefits between AA and HA as well. If so, when?
Please start a flight between Guam and Honolulu and give United a run for their money!