Alaska-Hawaiian Elite Status Matching

In what was a bit of an early Christmas present earlier this week, Alaska-Hawaiian elite status matching became available. Actually, it became available sometime around Friday-Saturday, but the landing page was frequently going up and down. Whether that was an error or just the site overloading, we haven’t a clue. 

While being able to book Hawaiian flights on alaskaair.com and Alaska flights on hawaiianairlines.com is great, it’s kind of pointless for elite members who eschew elite perks while flying on the “other” airline. In fact, this is a complaint I’ve been seeing an increasing amount of, especially since Alaska Air moved to consolidate Hawai’i service under Hawaiian Airlines, removing our choices from certain routes. Given the happenings, Alaska was under pressure to get its promised status matching system in place, which it finally did recently, as Alaska-Hawaiian elite status matching is now available. 

However, this isn’t only about status matching. This is also about elite qualifications in-general. 

Alaska-Hawaiian Elite Status Matching

Given the happenings I covered above, this is probably something Alaska Air Group should have launched, oh, I don’t know, at least two weeks ago. Better late than never, I suppose. But now that Alaska-Hawaiian elite status matching is here, there isn’t much to cover about it. You do have to go to a specific page to do the linking, but, other than that, we already knew how elite tiers would match up. After all, Hawaiian has only two elite tiers: Pualani Gold and Pualani Platinum. That said, here’s a refresher if you need it. 

• Alaska Mileage Plan MVP <-> Pualani Gold
• Alaska Mileage Plan MVP Gold/75k/100k -> Pualani Platinum
• Pualani Platinum -> Alaska Mileage Plan MVP Gold

Now, it’s worth noting that elite perks remain as they were pre-merger. That means that when an Alaska Mileage Plan MVP Gold 100k travels on Hawaiian as a Pualani Platinum, you’ll receive Hawaiian’s existing Pualani Platinum perks and not your MVP 100k perks. The opposite is also true for Hawaiian elites on Alaska flights. And this is how things will remain until the loyalty programs officially merge. 

Combined EQMs

When you link your Alaska Mileage Plan and HawaiianMiles statuses, the folks at Alaska Air Group will also look at the number of Elite Qualifying Miles (EQMs) you earned with both airlines. So, say you’re an MVP in Mileage Plan and Pualani Gold in HawaiianMiles. If you have enough EQMs between the two programs, you’ll automatically be elevated to MVP Gold and Pulani Platinum. Of course, this process uses the existing thresholds, as they’re pretty similar between the two programs:

• 20,000 EQMs: MVP and Pualani Gold
• 40,000 EQMs: MVP Gold and Pualani Platinum
• 75,000 EQMs: MVP Gold 75k and Pualani Platinum
• 100,000 EQMs: MVP Gold 100k and Pualani Platinum

Alaska-Hawaiian Elite Status Matching, Final Thoughts

If you’re thinking that the fact that Alaska-Hawaiian elite status matching is now available will result in a flood of new elite members for both airlines, you’d be absolutely correct. This is especially true with the EQM matching. PLUS, Alaska Air offers status matching from several other airlines (this is usually a one and done kind of thing), so if you haven’t done so previously, you could bring over your status from American, Delta, or United, among others, and obtain both MVP and Pualani status. 

But, of course, with more elites means more competition for valuable upgrades. This will be especially true in major hubs, such as Seattle, Honolulu, and San Francisco, as well as other important cities throughout the system, such as Portland and Kahului, among others. So, you know, temper your expectations. 

Either way, though, this is great news for elite members of either airline. Now, especially since you don’t always have a choice, you no longer have to travel without your hard-earned benefits.