There are two consumer Hawaiian Airlines credit cards, and some are getting both

Barclays issues the Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Mastercard that we have long listed on our best offers page. I had previously missed that there is also a second version of the consumer Hawaiian Airlines Mastercard. The other Hawaiian Airlines Mastercard is branded as the Hawaiian Airlines Bank of Hawaii World Elite Mastercard. Based on my previous (mis)understanding, I didn’t expect that second card would be available to non-Hawaii residents, but data points indicate that it is — and that it is at least possible to get both cards.

There are two consumer Hawaiian Airlines Mastercards on the market

There is a lot of potential for confusion here.

There are two Hawaiian Airlines consumer credit cards:

• The Hawaiian Airlines® World Elite MasterCard® issued by Barclays (link to our card page)
• The Hawaiian Airlines® Bank of Hawaii World Elite Mastercard® (link to our card page).

What makes things incredibly confusing is that both cards are actually issued by Barclays. One is branded as being issued by Barclays; the other is branded as the Bank of Hawaii version, but it is actually also issued by Barclays.

Some report success getting both cards – even on the same day

I’m not sure whether I never knew about these two different versions of the card or whether I had conflated the situation with a similar (but different) setup for United. There is also a United Airlines credit card that is issued by a Hawaiian bank. However, the First Hawaiian Bank United Airlines credit card is only available to residents of Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. At first glance, I (incorrectly) assumed that the Bank of Hawaii-branded Hawaiian Airlines Mastercard would only be available to residents of Hawaii.

As it turns out, numerous data points (such as those here, here, and here) going back a couple of months in the comments at Doctor of Credit indicate that it is indeed possible to get both cards.

The preferred way to do things seems to be to apply for both cards on the same day. Even if the first application is instantly approved, the second application is likely to go pending for further review and/or to be declined for already having the product, so you’ll need to be ready to call reconsideration for at least the second application. However, according to multiple data points (including this one I listed above), many reconsideration representatives are apparently very much familiar with the fact that these are two separate products (and if you reach a representative who is not aware, it would probably be worth pointing out that it’s a separate product and/or hanging up and calling again if necessary). Again, multiple data points indicate that people have been able to shift around credit limit from existing Barclays cards (including newly opened Hawaiian card #1) in order to get Hawaiian card #2 opened.

To be completely clear, you can not to my knowledge get two of the same Hawaiian Airlines Mastercard. You would need to open one Barclays-branded Hawaiian card and one Bank of Hawaii-branded one. I believe that the Bank of Hawaii version of the card has “Bank of Hawaii” printed in the top left (the current cart art is significantly different).

Obviously there is no guarantee of approval for both, but in this hobby a positive data point (or in this case many positive data points) proves it is possible to get approved for both.

Making this a particularly appealing move in the moment is the fact that we expect these cards to cease being available at some point. Nobody knows for sure whether or when they will stop taking applications, but the combined Alaska and Hawaiian program is expected to be announced sometime this summer and Alaska has been clear that they intend to stick with Bank of America as their credit card partner, so one has to think that the window of opportunity on the Barclays-issued cards is closing. It’s anybody’s guess as to how quickly it will close. Given that we just saw reports of a targeted 85K email offer this week, I assume that these cards aren’t likely to disappear within the next couple of weeks, but I wouldn’t make bets on them being around at the end of the year.

I am certainly going to consider these cards as they are very appealing in two-player mode. Hawaiian Airlines Mastercard cardholders can send or receive miles from anyone without a fee, so it would be really easy to combine the miles earned from these cards into a single account. Given the fact that Hawaiian Miles transfer to Alaska Mileage Plan at a rate of 1:1 and the fact that Mileage Plan miles have a number of highly valuable uses, this could be a really easy way to quickly juice up one’s Alaska mileage balance.

All that said, both cards would add to one’s 5/24 count, so if you’re concerned about that, be aware that applying for both would add two to your count. It is also worth mentioning that Amex Membership Rewards points still transfer 1:1 to Hawaiian at the time of writing, so it is possible to earn even more points that could be transferred to Hawaiian with the right card/cards from the Membership Rewards lineup. However, the appeal on these Hawaiian cards is the fact that they are expected to disappear at some point, so if you wanted both the miles from these and Membership Rewards points, it might make sense to prioritize these. Keep in mind though that the offers were for 70K miles on both cards up until a few days ago, so maybe we’ll see another elevated offer before they disappear.

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