The DOJ has approved the acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines by Alaska Airlines. The Department of Transport still needs to approve the acquisition but many people smarter than myself have stated that the DOJ approval was the major stumbling block after the DOJ had previously blocked JetBlue from acquiring Sprint.
Some readers have reached out to ask if it makes sense to apply for Hawaiian airline cards/transfer miles to Hawaiian ahead of the acquisition in the hopes that these become (the more valuable to them) Alaska miles. I see three potential options:
- Programs combine
- Miles transfer to Alaska airline miles at a rate of 1:1
- Miles transfer to Alaska airline miles at a rate WORSE than 1:1
- DoT blocks the merger, Hawaiian airlines miles remain the same as they currently are
Alaska Airlines has already confirmed that the airlines will have a shared loyalty program but that the two different airline brands will remain. Currently American Express is also offering a 20% bonus to Hawaiian airlines by 8/31 and Barclays has a 70,000 point bonus (Barclays and Hawaiian also recently renewed their partnership).
My personal feeling is that if the acquisition is approved the miles will transfer at a rate of 1:1 as while Alaska miles are generally considered more valuable it’s not a ridiculous difference of say 1:2 and the goodwill earned by the 1:1 rate vs say a 1:0.8 is worth it. If you do find Alaska Airline miles valuable I think that transferring points in particular can make sense due to the current transfer bonus but obviously there is a non zero risk that this goes poorly and you’re stuck with Hawaiian miles or a bad conversion rate.
FYI…the Barclays card offer for 70k/no-spend is dead. As of now only the min $2k spend offer is still live.
DP – applied 3 days ago (9/19) and still received the no-spend offer.
Act soon!
I applied today for the 70k single-purchase offer and was approved without issue. See the comment section on the DOC page for the 70k offer for details on how to navigate the required promo code.
Applied & approved for the personal Hawaii card for 24K (too high! I will call in to reduce it to 5K!).
Also, garretg from FM posted a link for the biz @ 60k + 10k for authorize user.
Hahaha 🤣🤣…..bad customer demographic….
Any thoughts on going the other way? I don’t have an Alaska card but frequently fly Hawaiian (and already have their card). I don’t fly Alaska. Should I start building up my points with them anyway to use on future HA flights?
Applied and approved — easy 70K Alaska miles (eventually )
Had an inflight code so lobbed in an app for the 70k after 1 purchase. Instant approval with 30k CL which I didn’t really want lol. US Bank, Citi and Amex have been rejecting me lately so semi surprised w an instant approval from Barclays
How many inquiries in last 24 months?
7/24 personal cards, inquiries on transunion that it pulled was 6
also a heads up that this card reported FAST to credit bureaus. prob the fastest any personal card has shown up as a new account ime wow
Looks like coach seats to Hawaii often run about 20k out of my home airport so not a total loss if things don’t go through – but not great either. I may play the lotto and transfer some but paying $99 for the risk is a little annoying on top of it
Applied for the Barclays HA card last evening & got the standard Barclays “in review” message. This am, though, the new acct showed up in my Barclays app. Repeated worst customer service of any issuer (& Wells is hard to beat but somehow they manage).
Alaska miles are definitely valuable, but I don’t believe they are among the most valuable ones. I have had about 500K of them and had a hard time find any reasonable use for them in the past couple of years except for a few awards on AA here and there. Their chart is fantastic on the paper but availability at that rate is pathetic and usually exorbitant number of miles are charged for awards (e.g. Qatar). Phantom availability is common (e.g. Icelandair, Condor, LATAM, Korean, etc.)
Then they charge $25 non-refundable partner booking fee. It’s like adding 2500 miles or so to your supposedly fantastic redemption of 4500 or 7500 miles for AA short haul, and you will not get the $25 back if you cancel the ticket. That’s a reason not to book using Alaska miles when there is a reasonable chance to cancel, which is most often. \
Alaska miles are not as easy and as valuable as it is portrayed, and I, personally, redeemed millions of AA, UA, DL, AC, TK, AV, and … miles travelling domestically and internationally all the while when I could not find a reasonable use case for my Alaska miles.
The nonrefundable booking fee is $12.50 not $25
$12.5 one-way, $25 round trip.
Thank you for your analysis & experience – definitely things to consider before booking!
Cathay Pacific to China and Japan Airlines/Qatar
Only if availability is there at a reasonable price when and where you want to redeem.
When is the last time you’ve seen CX award availability via any program other than Asiamiles? (Answer: pre-covid)
Partner booking fees are an important item to highlight – not being a user of Alaska miles I wasn’t aware of it off hand. I’ve seen a similar issue looking at low cost economy partner awards through Avianca LifeMiles or Aeroplan, the booking fee is a high percentage when you are talking an economy award for not many miles.
Partner booking fee is something to consider for AV too, and even worse is the steep cancellation fee that AV and AC have. That being said, Star Alliance releases more award space than One World and Skyteam and AC has many truly useful partners with true award availability and IT that is far superior to Alaska. AV is better left alone unless you are absolutely sure you won’t cancel your plans and chance of IRROPs are almost zero.
Completely agree. The non-refundable partner fee definitely should be considered in their mileage prices more often around here. It especially dimishes the value when booking for families.
Right now it’s probably still worth having some AS miles banked in order to keep one more AA booking option open, but if AS takes one more hit to AA availability and prices per flight, I’ll likely be shifting more heavily towards on BA for short hauls on AA.
But what really stands out for me is that for the $12.50 non-refundable fee, it offers me flight changes or cancellations right until the last moment, even for Economy redemptions. I see it as an upcharge I pay to guarantee that flexibility. While other programs (barring United) may charge less but not provide that flexibility at all for Economy. I’ve in past cancelled international trips last min and received the points instantly.
I understand if you’re exclusively travelling J or booking short-haul economy, confirmed dates, then this is a minor annoyance.
United and American allow free cancellation of all award tickets until last moment, and Delta does too (except for Basic Economy and tickets originating outside US/Canada).
Door buster deals!
if MR can transfer to AS after the merge…….
Extremely unlikely to be the case. They have no transfer partners now most likely because their co-brand partner, BofA, doesn’t allow it- and that won’t be changing. That’s what makes the current transfer option so unique and possibly enticing.
Bilt points have transferred 1:1 to Alaska Airlines since March