As we barrel towards integration, another perk for members has landed: the Alaska Companion Cert now works with Hawaiian Airlines flights. This is a a major improvement that should have been implemented sooner, especially given Alaska Air Group’s ever-evolving fleet utilization strategy.
Though this isn’t Alaska Air Group’s first rodeo, I gotta say, I wonder what the heck is going on with their integration planning? While things have, overall, gone smoothly, they’ve also made several glaring oversights. For example, pretty early on, they began shuffling metal around as they work towards their goal of having any Alaska Air Group flights touching Hawai’i be operated by Hawaiian Airlines, while Alaska Air will operate everything else. This is all well and good, but as some markets began losing Alaska Air-operated flights to Hawai’i entirely, some long-time Alaska Air benefits began falling by the wayside. Thankfully, this has mostly been fixed now.
Alaska Companion Cert Now Works With Hawaiian
Alaska Air Group moved astonishingly fast, with the first couple of changes coming in November 2024. However, as AAG moves closer to obtaining its single operating certificate, these route optimizations haven’t stopped. Rather, it’s been a constant evolution, which has seen Alask Air already end its services between certain city pairs, ceding entirely to Hawaiian. Some examples of this are between Portland and Honolulu, as well as San Diego and Honolulu.
However, this preview of the future hasn’t come with out issue. Making these changes now means that, at a certain point in time, elite members wouldn’t receive their benefits on certain routes, while credit card benefits also wouldn’t apply on these routes. And while certain benefits may continue to be unavailable on routes seeing huge service shifts, AAG recently corrected a major wrong, as the Alaska companion certificate now works with Hawaiian.
Of course, Hawaiian operates a much more diverse route network than Alaska Air. So, I should clarify that even though the Alaska Companion Cert now works with Hawaiian, it’s valid only for domestic Hawaiian flights. And, yes, that includes inter-island flights. Whether you’d want to burn a certificate on that, though, is questionable, as a roundtrip inter-island ticket can be had for as little as $120, and the certificate’s companion fare usually ends up costing that much or more.
At any rate, that the Alaska Companion Cert now works with Hawaiian is a welcome development, especially for those of us who are grandfathered under the card’s older terms.
DOT Approves Certificate Transfer Request
Speaking of networks and certificates, on July 14, the Department of Transportation approved the transfer of Hawaiian’s certificates and other economic authorities (including route authorities) to Alaska Air Group. This approval is not for AAG’s single operating certificate, as that must come from the FAA. However, this approval represents a major step in that direction.
Now, according to Executive Order 12597, the President of the United States has 60 days to review the transfer request. If POTUS doesn’t disapprove of the request, the transfer will automatically become effective in 60 days, putting the effective date at September 12, 2025.
Since the single operating certificate will still be forthecoming in September, this transfer doesn’t really change anything. Yet. Though, we’ve already seen many changes without either of these approvals.
Vanishing Dreamliners
I made an interesting observation the other day – Hawaiian’s 787s have largely vanished from the schedules from about August/September 2025. At the moment, the four aircraft currently in the fleet are deployed on flights primarily between Honolulu and New York and Los Angeles. However, soon, these birds will transition to operating flights between Honolulu and Seattle, Honolulu and Seoul, and Honolulu and Narita. A fifth and final Hawaiian-branded 787 will arrive later this year or in early 2026.
So, the question is, where the heck are all of these jets going. I’m not the most knowledgeable when it comes to airline operations, but I doubt you need four to operate two routes. Maybe three. Does this mean that one will be taken out of service during this timeframe to be equipped with Starlink and/or rebranded to Alaska Air? I suppose only time will tell.
Workforce Reductions
Finally, we can’t cover that the Alaska Companion Cert now works with Hawaiian without going over the latest workforce reduction. To that end, AAG filed a WARN with the State of Hawai’i last week for 252 non-contract positions around September 18, 2025, which is around the one-year anniversary of the merger closing, and within 30 days after AAG receives its single operating certificate.
In case you’re wondering, by the time the workforce reductions at Hawaiian are complete, non-contract positions will have been reduced from 1,170 to 784. However, Hawaiian spokesperson Alex Da Silva notes that, since the combination, Hawaiian on its own has added 600 unionized positions, including flight attendants and pilots. Da Silva goes on to say that they’re “still getting more Boeing 787s” and that they’re also looking to hire another 100 pilots and 400 flight attendants.
I really do wish they’d stop talking about the 787, as they are being removed from Hawaiian’s fleet. Further, with these new aircraft being removed from Hawaiian’s fleet, I wonder where all of these new flight crews are going? After all, there aren’t any more orders for Hawaiian’s fleet beyond the Dreamliners, which are now, essentially, Alaska Air jets.
Alaska Companion Cert Now Works With Hawaiian, Final Thoughts
AAG has been moving quickly with Hawaiian integration work, and we’ll likely see the pace pick up further as we move closer to the issuance of the single operating certificate. But, as I said earlier, I do think they’ve been moving a bit too fast at times. So, again, it’s great that the Alaska Companion Cert now works with Hawaiian – a major oversight, in my opinion.
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