Barclays’ Hawaiian Airlines Cards Will Go Away, Says Head of Alaska Loyalty

The merger between Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines is producing its first consequences for credit cards. The Hawaiian Airlines co-branded credit cards issued by Barclays will be discontinued, and cardholders will be transfered to Alaska Airlines’ own co-branded card issued by Bank of America.

That’s what the head of Alaska’s loyalty program told View From the Wing. The 2 airlines’ loyalty programs will be merged “pretty quickly,” Brett Catlin — the vice president of loyalty, alliances and sales at Alaska — told the blog.

Afer that happens, legacy Hawaiian Airlines cardholders will be moved to the Alaska card. Currently, there are 2 Hawaiian and 2 Alaska co-branded card: 1 personal and 1 business version of each. The interview did not specify how that may change. Catlin did say, however, that the credit card transition is not urgent and will “happen over a period of time.”

Here’s what travelers need to know about the upcoming changes.

Alaska and Hawaiian: Creating a New Giant

The news comes just after Alaska announced this week a raft of changes to its Mileage Plan loyalty program.

The recently approved merger will pair Alaska, the fifth biggest U.S. airline, with Hawaiian, the 10th. Only American, Delta, Southwest, and United will be bigger in terms of passengers carried.

The 2 will operate as separate brands with a single loyalty program.

Keeping 2 separate airline brands is unusual in the U.S., where airlines typically merge as 1 brand, like American Airlines after the merger with US Airways. It’s normal in Europe, where for example Air France and KLM are different airlines but have the same owner and loyalty program, Flying Blue.

The merged entity’s route map will be centered on the West Coast but span from Asia-Pacific to the Eastern seaboard, touching 3 continents.

Alaska and Hawaiian Credit Cards Today

Alaska currently offers 2 co-branded cards, the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature^® credit card, and the business version, the Alaska Airlines Visa^® Business Credit Card.

Hawaiian offers the Hawaiian Airlines^® World Elite Mastercard^® and the Hawaiian Airlines^® World Elite Business Mastercard^®.

Both sets of cards have annual fees: $95 for the Alaska cards ($70 for the company and $25 per card on the business version), and $99 for both the personal and business Hawaiian cards.

Neither airline offers a top-tier, co-branded credit card featuring perks like lounge access, but its competitors do. American, Delta, and United all have cards at the top of their co-branded range with annual fees running from $525 to $650, geared toward their most frequent flyers.

Some day, Alaska and Hawaiian might follow suit. Catlin said that the idea makes sense from Alaska Airlines’ perspective.

Points Transfers May Go Away, Too

The airlline will favor its co-branded cards, though, over the ability to transfer credit card points — which may, in fact, go away.

Alaska Mileage Plan currently has only 1 credit card transfer partner, Bilt Rewards, which transfer at a 1:1 rate. Hawaiian itself also has only 1 partner as well: American Express Membership Rewards transfer to the HawaiianMiles program at a 1:1 rate.  

Miles can now be transferred between Alaska and Hawaiian in both directions. Thus, the merger has effectively added the ability to transfer American Express points to Alaska by transfering them to Hawaiian first and then to Alaska — all at a 1:1 rate. That’s an especially enticing opportunity since Alaska miles are both very valuable and difficult to earn.

But that may not last much longer.

“Our intent is not to have a transferable currency where guests can earn across competitor cards, to be totally honest,” Catlin told The Points Guy, adding that the airline will “close that door” — without saying when that might happen. Instead, Alaska’s program will focus on encouraging spending on its own co-branded credit cards.

The new loyalty program should be established in the next year and a half, Catlin said.

He also added that the merged program will keep offering redemption prices based on a fixed award chart, which is popular among flyers. “We like what we have”, Catlin said. But he added that there might be some elements of dynamic pricing in the future, because there are “people that are willing to spend more to get on the flight on the day they want.”

Final Thoughts

The merger between Alaska and Hawaiian isn’t creating just another huge airline in the U.S.

It will result in a large, single loyalty program that promises to be interesting even for people who may not be frequent flyers on either airline, thanks to its many earning and redemption partners. That could make up for its lack of credit card transfer options.

The program’s exact design and the co-branded credit cards it will pair with are still under construction. Stay tuned for future and potentially exciting changes.