Currently Hawaiian Airlines has two credit cards that are issued by Barclays, while Alaska’s duo belongs to Bank of America. When Alaska purchased Hawaiian and subsequently announced that both loyalty programs would be folded into one in late-2025, it left us with some questions about the credit cards. Would there continue to be two issuers? Would there be separate Hawaiian and Alaska products? What would happen to Hawaiian credit cardholders ability to transfer miles in-between members?
Now we have some answers, courtesy of a View from the Wing interview with Alaska’s VP of Loyalty, Alliances and Sales.
What we’ve learned about Alaska’s credit card plans
Gary’s interview confirmed several things that we suspected would happen, including:
- Once the airline loyalty programs merge, all credit cards will move to one issuer – presumably BOA.
- This probably marks the end of Membership Rewards transfers to Hawaiian and thus, to Alaska.
- Current Hawaiian cardholders will be transitioned to the Alaska card (although it may take some time).
- Once the merger happens, the ability to transfer miles to other members that current Hawaiian cardholders have will go away.
- However, evidently Alaska “likes” that benefit and may re-add it eventually.
- It looks like a premium Alaska credit card is on the way.
If Alaska’s target date of late-2025 for the integration of the two programs ends up being on schedule, I’d expect that we’ll see the Hawaiian cards go away around that time.
Quick Thoughts
None of this is terribly surprising, although it’s nice to have some clarity on what’s going to be happening with the Hawaiian / Alaska credit card portfolio. Like we suspected, all cardholders will be migrated to Alaska credit cards, most likely under the BOA umbrella (although that’s not stated explicitly).
It’s nice to see that Alaska is looking favorably on the ability of cardholders to transfer points to other members. Although you can currently use multiple Alaska accounts to book one reservation, it would make it even easier if we could transfer points, even if it just as a family pooling option.
For those folks interested in getting Hawaiian cards as a way to additional Alaska miles, or as a means to consolidate miles between accounts, it’s good to know that there’s going to be at least several months to jump on the boat (or plane).
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That article doesn’t explicitly say that Barclays is going away. It could be that they keep two issuers similar to what American Airlines has done.
The premium Alaska card sounds intriguing. I presume it will be a lounge access card, though Alaska lounges are nothing special. Hopefully it will have some accelerators to status as well.
Now we have some answers?
Tim , can you explain
“ Once the airline loyalty programs merge, all credit cards will move to one issuer – presumably BOA.
This probably marks the end of Membership Rewards transfers to Hawaiian and thus, to Alaska.”
Why would having all credit cards with BofA eliminate the ability to transfer MR points to Hawaiian? Is that something Barclays allows It’s cobranded airlines to do, but BofA doesn’t?
It’s something that Barclays allows Hawaiian to do, but it’s not part of the BOA/Alaska relationship. Once there’s no more HawaiianMiles and everything is under BOA, there won’t be any more MR transfers. While that’s not confirmed as such, I’d bet a good deal of Alaska miles on it. 🙂
“Once the merger happens, the ability to transfer miles that current Hawaiian cardholders have will go away.” So after the merger, we won’t be able to transfer Hawaiian miles to Alaska? If that’s the case, isn’t it already kind of too late to jump on the Hawaiian card(s)?
There will never be a point at which HawaiianMiles are orphaned. You can transfer them now but, in the end, they’ll all be the same thing once the loyalty programs merge.
This refers to the ability of Hawaiian cardholders to transfer miles to other member’s accounts. That’s something that Alaska (and many programs) don’t allow. In the interim, you can do it by converting Alaska miles to Hawaiian, transferring those miles to another Hawaiian member, then converting them back to Alaska.
Got it, thank you!
I was approved for both Hawaiian cards (personal & biz) about 1.5 months ago when news broke out. Do you when I can cancel those cards without a clawback? Can I get these cards again by say June?
If the Hawaiian cards are converted to the new Alaska cards after merge, then I wouldn’t be able to sign up for the new Alaska products for the sign up bonus?
Hawaiian makes it a 2 year period before you can get the card again.