Over the previous decade, 4 airways have dominated within the U.S.: United, Delta, American, and Southwest. Now, Alaska Airways is making a run on the incumbents—by becoming a member of forces with Honolulu-based Hawaiian Airways.
In a transfer first introduced final December, Alaska not too long ago accomplished its acquisition of Hawaiian, clearing hurdles from each the U.S. Division of Justice and the Division of Transportation. It’s the primary main airline deal since 2016, when Alaska purchased Virgin America. Whereas Alaska ultimately killed that model, that’s not anticipated to occur with its Hawaiian buy.
Let’s break down what the merger means for vacationers, together with how shortly passengers can count on to see modifications.
The manufacturers are staying separate
Alaska and Hawaiian will preserve distinct model identities, with no fast modifications in day-to-day operations. Lengthy story brief: The Hawaiian emblem, together with the corporate’s wealthy island heritage, isn’t going anyplace.
“Alaska and Hawaiian share large pleasure in connecting communities with award-winning service, and we look ahead to inviting extra friends on board to expertise what makes each manufacturers distinctive,” Ben Minicucci, CEO of Alaska Air Group, mentioned in an announcement.
In the meantime, Alaska will open a regional headquarters in Honolulu, which is able to change into the airline’s second-largest hub after Seattle. The combination may even enable vacationers to buy tickets from each carriers on every of the airline’s respective web sites.
As well as, Alaska lounge members can now entry Alaska lounges when flying Hawaiian Airways. Nevertheless, in the interim Hawaiian lounges are solely for friends of Hawaiian Airways solely, as the web site notes.
Airfare to Hawai’i, or between the islands, might enhance
Collectively, Alaska and Hawaiian account for about 40 p.c of flights (roughly 6.8 million seats a yr) from the mainland to Hawai’i, based on knowledge from journey deal monitoring app Going. With much less competitors within the area, vacationers might face larger fares.
That would imply dearer intra-island flights, which native residents continuously use to commute to work and go to family members. For its half, Alaska mentioned in an announcement that will probably be “absolutely dedicated to investing within the communities of Hawai’i and sustaining the Neighbor Island service [service available between the Hawaiian Islands] that Hawaiian Airways vacationers have come to count on.” The DOT may even require Alaska to keep up service to small, rural communities in each Alaska and Hawaii.
Within the coming months, Alaska plans to launch a free journey program designed particularly for Hawaiian residents known as Huaka‘i by Hawaiian. Perks of this program, which is the primary initiative of its form for the airline, will embrace advantages on inter-island flights, similar to 10 p.c off one reserving per quarter and a free checked bag.
Your airline miles are extra versatile (and beneficial)
There’s loads of upside to the merger for vacationers seeking to benefit from their frequent flier miles. First, the DOT is requiring that there’s no expiration date on miles in both airline’s program. Maybe extra importantly, Alaska Mileage Plan and HawaiianMiles members can now seamlessly switch miles on-line between accounts at a one-to-one ratio. There’s no cost for utilizing the service.
As a part of the Oneworld alliance, Alaska supplies entry to a collection of mileage redemption alternatives—typically fairly favorable—throughout a worldwide community of airways. And never solely can Hawaiian miles be transferred to Alaska, however by extension, American Specific Membership Rewards factors might be transformed to Alaska, too. That’s as a result of AmEx factors switch to Hawaiian miles, additionally at a one-to-one ratio (although they’re topic to a federal excise tax of 60 cents per 1,000 factors transferred). Thus, it’s potential to switch Amex factors to Hawaiian after which to Alaska.
Get elite standing with each airways later this yr
Later in 2024, elite members from both airline will be capable to hyperlink their loyalty accounts and get a standing match.
In a boon to anybody already loyal to each airways, vacationers will be capable to mix elite qualifying miles (EQMs) to find out their standing stage. As an illustration, somebody with 20,000 EQMs on Alaska and 20,000 EQMs on Hawaiian can be granted the one-time capability so as to add their two EQM totals collectively (for a complete of 40,000 EQMs).
Within the coming months, passengers may even be capable to earn HawaiianMiles on Alaska flights and Mileage Plan miles on Hawaiian flights, with elite reciprocity throughout each airways. Finally, Alaska says it is going to merge the loyalty program throughout the 2 manufacturers, with extra particulars anticipated to be shared in mid-2025.
Extra worldwide flying is probably going coming
Collectively, each Alaska and Hawaiian will function a mixed 1,500 each day flights to 141 locations, together with locations that span 29 markets within the Americas, Asia, Australia, and the South Pacific. Nevertheless, extra worldwide flying could also be on the horizon, based on Alaska executives, such because the potential for long-haul flights from Seattle.
At the moment, Hawaiian operates a fleet of 24 Airbus A330s and two Boeing 787 Dreamliners (with as much as 18 further plane coming by way of 2028). These planes have lie-flat enterprise class and longer vary than something that Alaska can at the moment fly.