Alaska Airlines announced a fairly hefty set of updates to its loyalty program the other day. So, today, I want to go over the Alaska MP 2025 changes for Hawaiian members. No, noting is changing with HawaiianMiles right now, but there are important points for HawaiianMiles members may want to consider.
Since Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines are in the process of merging, it would be beneficial for members of HawaiianMiles to join Alaska Mileage Plan and vice-a-versa. However, as of this writing, there are more incentives for HawaiianMiles members to join Alaska Mileage Plan, especially in light of the upcoming changes to that program. And that’s why I’m doing this Alaska MP 2025 changes for Hawaiian members today – so you have all the info you need to plan your travels based on what we know today.
Alaska MP 2025 Changes for Hawaiian Members
There was A LOT to cover in the upcoming Alaska Mileage Plan changes. To get a full overview of what exactly is going on, I suggest heading to yesterday’s post before continuing on with this one. However if you don’t want to, the main takeaway there is that Alaska Airlines is giving Mileage Plan more ways to earn elite status, including from credit card use, shopping portals, hotel stays, car rentals, and award travel.
As you’ll recall, Alaska Air and Hawaiian have nearly identical elite qualifications, though Mileage Plan does have more elite tiers than Hawaiian. Moreover, in the near future, Alaska Air will aggregate elite qualifying miles (EQMs) of members of both programs to determine their statuses in both, and will even begin status matching. Of course, that will then be followed by the full merger of the programs into a single, unified loyalty program. So, there’s a reason to use every tool at your disposal to get ahead. And, again, that’s why I’m writing this post about Alaska MP 2025 changes for Hawaiian members.
International Travel
While I never though redeeming HawaiianMiles for international partner airline travel was a good idea, now traveling with partners on tickets booked via Hawaiian aren’t, either. You see, in 2025, you’ll earn EQMs for both paid and award travel with partner airlines, and earn even more EQMs when you book via Alaska Air rather than with a partner and adding your Mileage Plan number to that reservation.
As you may recall, for flights booked after October 16, 2024, for travel from January 1, 2025, partner flights booked via Alaska Air earn miles and EQMs at the following rates:
- Discount/Basic Economy: 100%
- Economy: 100%
- Premium Economy:
- Domestic First Class: 150%
- International Business Class: 250%
- International First Class: 350%
If you were to fly with Japan Airlines and credit to HawaiianMiles, the most discounted economy class fare will earn you NO miles at all and no EQMs. In fact, Hawaiian doesn’t award EQMs for partner airline travel AT ALL. At any rate, other economy fares earn anywhere from 30% to 100% of miles flown, premium economy earns from 50% to 100%, business class fares earn 70% to 125%, and first class earns 150%. So if you fly with Japan Airlines and credit to Hawaiian, you’re leaving a ton of elite qualifying miles and redeemable miles on the table.
Domestic Travel
Hawaiian has pretty good coverage around the country. However, if you want to go anywhere they don’t fly, it’s probably better for you to fly with Alaska Air instead. With their Oneworld partner, American Airlines, you can fly virtually anywhere in the country, and you’ll still earn EQMs and redeemable miles at the same rates highlighted above. And, again, this won’t be the case with codeshare flights with JetBlue.
Milestone Rewards
Another Alaska MP 2025 changes for Hawaiian members to be aware of are the milestone rewards. Yes, these are most useful if you actually fly Alaska Air, but depending what tiers you hit and which awards you select, they can help further boost your ability to earn. For example, at 20,000 EQMs, you can pick 25% more earnings on all flights, including with partners. So, take the above example of Japan Airlines, and you could earn 125% to 375% redeemable miles.
Shopping Portal
This is something HawaiianMiles doesn’t have, so it’s another of the Alaska MP 2025 changes for Hawaiian members I’d like to highlight. After all, you can earn miles via the portal even if you don’t have their credit card. However, as we all know, beginning January 1, 2025, you’ll earn 1,000 EQMs for every 3,000 redeemable miles you earn via the portal. And, guess what? There are tons of options in the portal, making earning easy.
Some merchant examples in the Mileage Plan Shopping Portal include Apple, LG, Best Buy, Home Depot, Macy’s, Lululemon, Lowe’s, and Ulta, among others.
Credit Card
The final of the Alaska MP 2025 changes for Hawaiian members I want to discuss is the credit card. As we all know, the Alaska Air Visa Signature will earn 1 EQM per $3 spent next year. That’s not a huge amount of EQMs, but it does equate to 2,000 EQMs if you have a non-grandfathered account and need to spend $6,000 to earn the companion fare every year (assuming you go for it).
That said, it’s worth noting that the Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Mastercard is currently giving you 2,000 EQMs for every $5,000 miles spent up to 20,000 EQMs through the end of 2024. That’s a better earn rate than what the Alaska Air Visa Signature will get next year, but is equal to what it gets right now. Moreover, there’s no telling if this will be a permanent feature or will end and go away at the end of this year.
Of course, now that we know that the Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Mastercard is going away, it’s a card you should pick up now if you’re interested in getting it.
Alaska MP 2025 Changes for Hawaiian Members, Final Thoughts
Even if you’ve been loyal to HawaiianMiles for your entire life, you should pay attention to Alaska MP 2025 changes for Hawaiian members. As you can see throughout this post, these changes can have very real benefits for you, you just have to be strategic about how you plan and book your travel. Unfortunately, we do also have to wait for the technology to catch up, too. You see, as of this writing, you still can’t book flights from Honolulu to Tokyo via Alaska’s website. However, when the ability is made available, you’ll earn far more miles and EQMs booking this way for travel on JAL than doing so via Hawaiian’s site.