Alaska Airlines mulls Honolulu lounge, iffy on credit card transfers for new joint loyalty program with Hawaiian Airlines

18.10.2024 - 14:13 / thepointsguy.com / Brett Catlin

This week, Alaska Airlines announced sweeping changes to its Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan program. The overhaul will make it easier for customers to earn elite status and loyalty perks in 2025. Plus, the carrier revealed that customers should soon be able to book international itineraries aboard multiple Alaska partners through its website.

Yet executives make clear that these moves are only the beginning

In the coming months, Alaska expects to announce a wide range of additional frequent flyer changes as it plots a joint loyalty program in conjunction with newly acquired Hawaiian Airlines.

At this point, it's too early to speculate on what a blended Alaska-Hawaiian loyalty program might ultimately look like. After all, whether it'll even be called Mileage Plan remains in flux.

"That's something we're wrestling with," said Brett Catlin, Alaska Airlines' vice president of loyalty, sales and alliances.

However, Catlin is offering clues about how Alaska is thinking about the future frequent flyer program. Speaking to TPG this week, he touched upon the possibility of a new Alaska lounge in Honolulu, the long-term future of the carrier's often-hailed award charts for mileage redemptions and its stance on letting customers transfer credit card rewards to the airline.

Since announcing plans to acquire Hawaiian Airlines last December, Alaska Airlines executives have been steadfast: The two airlines will operate as separate brands, with the loyalty program serving as the self-described "connective tissue" between Alaska and Hawaiian.

Building a program like that is an unusual task for a U.S. airline. It's far more common in Europe, where ongoing airline industry consolidation often sees one parent company (such as Lufthansa Group) control a slew of airlines that maintain their unique regional brands (like Swiss, Brussels Airlines and Austrian Airlines).

Might a program like Flying Blue, the joint loyalty program for sister brands Air France and KLM, be a model for Alaska's plans?

"I think you could take that and apply it to what we want to do," Catlin replied.

"I think there's others that are maybe even better that are outside of airlines, to be honest," he countered, pointing instead to a high-profile, late-2010s hotels merger.

"If you think about [Starwood Preferred Guest] and Marriott, what they did with Bonvoy," Catlin continued, "... the construct of bringing them together, having that 'house of brands,' is really interesting."

One of the biggest questions Mileage Plan loyalists will undoubtedly have as the program continues to evolve concerns the future of Alaska's award charts.

Today, Alaska Airlines sticks to fixed, predictable redemptions for Alaska-operated award flights and also sets benchmarks for