Alaska Airlines makeover: Asia flights coming to Seattle hub, premium credit card and more

10.12.2024 - 13:27 / thepointsguy.com / Andrew Harrison

The integration of Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines has officially commenced, and with it comes some serious changes to how the two carriers have historically operated.

It starts with combining and expanding the two networks, which will soon see Seattle turned into an international gateway, among other changes. The merger will also bring about some big upgrades to the premium experience offered by the carriers, along with other changes to loyalty, fleeting and more.

Now that the integration is underway, Alaska Airlines is hosting an investor day in New York to share more about its vision for how the combined airlines will operate.

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Here's everything you need to know about the so-called "Alaska Accelerate" growth strategy.

Headlining the announcement is that Alaska will turn its hub at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) into an international gateway.

That means the airline will launch long-haul flights from Seattle. Its inaugural destination, Tokyo's Narita Internatrional Airport, will take off on May 12, and seats will be available for purchase on Tuesday.

The airline will then follow up with another long-haul route to Seoul's Incheon International Airport (ICN) beginning in October. This route will go on sale early next year.

Alaska will deploy Hawaiian Airlines' Airbus A330-200s on its inaugural transpacific routes from Seattle. The flights will operate using Hawaiian flight numbers until the two carriers get a single operating certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration. Both flights will be bookable via Alaska and Hawaiian channels.

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Note that the aircraft used for these flights may change as Hawaiian adds more widebodies to its fleet, a carrier spokesperson told TPG.

Speaking about this expansion, Alaska Airlines chief commercial officer Andrew Harrison told TPG in an interview that Seattle is the sixth-largest domestic gateway for flights to Asia and Oceania, while Europe is the tenth. Plus, "the beauty of it is that both Narita and Seoul are already served by Hawaiian, so all the infrastructure, the airports, all of that stuff is already plug and play."

He added that "Seattle is the largest West Coast hub of any U.S. carrier. We're two times Delta's North American seats, we have 28% more seats than United in San Francisco. And then the other thing is that the fastest way to Asia is over Seattle. Not San Francisco and Los Angeles."

As part of this announcement, Alaska will move Hawaiian's existing flights from Hawaii to Narita to Tokyo Haneda Airport (HND) instead. This will operate on a twice-daily basis.

"We're going