In September 2024, we saw Alaska Airlines’ takeover of Hawaiian Airlines close. It has been an absolutely fascinating couple of months for Alaska Air Group, given the direction the company is headed.
While we’ll see the company form a single loyalty program around the middle of 2025, for the time being, Alaska Mileage Plan and HawaiianMiles are still operating as two separate programs. It’s possible to transfer miles at a 1:1 ratio between the two programs, but up until now, that has been the extent of it. There’s now an interesting update (thanks to Lester for flagging this)…
Alaska Mileage Plan adds award redemptions on Hawaiian
As of today, Alaska has added Hawaiian award flights to its website, meaning you can directly redeem Mileage Plan miles for travel on Hawaiian, rather than needing to first transfer them to HawaiianMiles.
The Alaska-only award chart has been updated to be the Alaska and Hawaiian award chart. It only lists “starting at” prices, so unlike awards on most partner airlines, pricing is dynamic.
Don’t expect that this suddenly opens up some amazing redemption opportunities with super low pricing. Rather I’d view this more as an additional step toward the two programs being integrated. I imagine it’ll take Mileage Plan some time to optimize pricing of Hawaiian flights.
Keep in mind that a big motivation for Alaska Air Group acquiring Hawaiian was the implications for the loyalty program. Hawaii is a super popular vacation destination and an aspirational place that people want to redeem miles for, so I’d expect attractive award pricing over time.
Alaska Mileage Plan award pricing on Hawaiian
How does pricing for Hawaiian award flights compare between Alaska Mileage Plan and HawaiianMiles? Well, for the time being, you’ll want to continue to check Alaska Mileage Plan and HawaiianMiles pricing, as there’s not necessarily pricing parity between the two programs. I’m finding pricing to generally be similar, but there are still some differences.
Pulling up a one-way Seattle to Tokyo flight, in both economy and business class, HawaiianMiles is charging 34,300 miles and 95,000 miles, while Alaska Mileage Plan is charging 35,000 miles and 95,000 miles. Close enough!
For a one-way Los Angeles to Tokyo flight, in both economy and first class, HawaiianMiles is charging 11,428 miles and 80,000 miles, while Alaska Mileage Plan is charging 35,000 miles and 95,000 miles. Close enough!
There are some awards where the pricing differs more, though. For a one-way New York to Pago Pago itinerary, in both economy and business class, HawaiianMiles is charging 115,000 miles and 225,000 miles, while Alaska Mileage Plan is charging 164,000 miles and 225,000 miles. In economy that’s more substantial of a difference (not that I recommend redeeming miles that way).
One major advantage of booking through Alaska Mileage Plan is that you can now book itineraries that include travel on both Alaska and Hawaiian on a single award itinerary, while that isn’t possible through HawaiianMiles.
Bottom line
Alaska Mileage Plan has rolled out award redemptions on Hawaiian. While it has been possible to transfer miles at a 1:1 ratio between the two programs, it’s now also possible to redeem miles for Hawaiian directly through Alaska’s website or app.
I don’t see anything hugely exciting here, which is to say that pricing is mostly comparable between the programs, and when it’s substantially different, it’s not usually a great deal anyway. Regardless, it’s nice to have this functionality directly through Alaska, and I’m sure this will evolve quite a bit over time.
If you are going to redeem for award flights on Hawaiian, make sure you comparison shop pricing between Alaska and Hawaiian (and even American, for that matter).
What do you make of being able to redeem Alaska miles directly on Hawaiian?
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