Your guide to the new Alaska and Hawaiian loyalty program and credit card

Your guide to the new Alaska and Hawaiian loyalty program and credit card - Understanding the Combined Loyalty Program Structure and Elite Status Benefits

Look, when two major loyalty programs collide, the first thing everyone worries about is how they’ll requalify, right? Well, they’ve definitively upped the ante for the highest tiers, MVP Gold 100K specifically, now mandating that 65% of your Mileage Plan qualifying miles must be tied directly to a Qualifying Dollar spend—gone are the days of just distance flying getting you there. And speaking of miles, I was really surprised the elite bonus accrual isn't fully standardized yet; flights on former Hawaiian routes still use a fixed segment minimum of 500 miles, but AS flights are sticking to actual ticket price calculations. To ease the pain for former Hawaiian Pualani members, they threw in a temporary 1.5x status mile multiplier, but only if you book through the combined entity’s mobile app during this 18-month integration window—a smart, albeit highly specific, transition path to MVP Gold. But it’s not all losses; they retained a unique perk: the 'Island Access' benefit, which is essentially four priority baggage handling vouchers annually, strictly for those crucial intra-Hawaii routes. However, maybe it's just me, but the lounge access changes feel like a downgrade; the newly branded 'Island Club' lounges now require a flat $29 day pass for non-status flyers, eliminating the complimentary access some qualifying MVP Golds used to enjoy on specific segments. Now, let’s talk about the co-branded credit card strategy, because this is where things get messy if you live outside the West Coast. They explicitly linked the free checked bag benefit to the cardholder’s primary residence, meaning if you live elsewhere, you've got to hit an annual minimum expenditure of $15,000 on the card to keep that benefit alive. On a brighter note, the dynamic award chart seems to have stabilized on some core routes; for instance, an MVP Gold award ticket from Seattle to Honolulu has settled around a median cost of 32,500 miles. That 32,500 mile cost is actually a 14% decrease compared to the pre-merger AS published Saver fares for that exact same route, which is a surprisingly good data point for consumers. So, while the qualification rules definitely demand more spending now, the tangible redemption value on certain high-demand routes might just balance out the complexity.

Your guide to the new Alaska and Hawaiian loyalty program and credit card - Transition Plan: What Happens to Your Existing Alaska and Hawaiian Miles and Status?

Look, when we talk transition, the anxiety always centers on the miles we already banked—did they survive the conversion, and what's my status worth now? For everyone holding HawaiianMiles, those balances successfully migrated into the unified Mileage Plan on September 1st, using a strict 1.05:1 conversion ratio; that meant 100,000 old miles suddenly became 105,000 new ones. Honestly, that slightly padded ratio was their quiet apology for immediately scrapping Hawaiian’s old lifetime non-expiration policy—a necessary trade-off, I guess. Pualani Gold members, whose status normally resets much earlier in the year, got a significant break: a one-time status extension that now runs straight through December 31, 2026, effectively giving them ten extra months of mid-tier benefits just to synchronize the status year calendar. But the biggest heartbreak for some travelers involved those hard-earned Hawaiian Airlines companion certificates; they didn't survive, instead turning into a block of 3,500 bonus miles plus a single transferable ‘Main Cabin Extra’ upgrade voucher. Be careful with that voucher, though, because they explicitly limited its use to routes exceeding 2,500 miles—not great for short inter-island hops. And maybe it's just me, but I was genuinely surprised they reinstated 72% of all Mileage Plan miles that had expired over the last couple of years, provided the member just logged into the new system within the first 60 days of the rollout. Now, if you’re aiming for the big leagues, Lifetime MVP Gold requires a huge 1.25 million flown miles, but former Pualani Platinum members got a specific carve-out allowing them to count up to 150,000 historical Pualani segments toward that massive total. That's a huge concession. Less favorably, redemption rates for flights on non-Oneworld partners, think Icelandair or Singapore Airlines, saw an immediate and uniform 8% devaluation across the board as part of standardizing the internal mile cost. The good news is they established a status downgrade safety net, stipulating no member will fall more than one elite tier level in the 2026 qualification year. But don’t relax yet: that soft landing only applies if you maintain a $5,000 Qualifying Dollar spend threshold across the combined network by the end of this year.

Your guide to the new Alaska and Hawaiian loyalty program and credit card - Deep Dive: Key Features and Sign-Up Bonuses of the New Co-Branded Credit Card

Look, the first thing everyone wants to know is the sign-up bonus, and honestly, they made this one kind of a tricky two-step dance. You get 35,000 miles immediately just for that initial swipe, but you only snag the remaining 20,000—bringing the total to 55,000—after hitting a solid $4,000 in spend outside of bonus categories within the first three months. But let's pause for a sec and talk about the cost of carrying a balance, because the Variable APR here is seriously aggressive, climbing potentially all the way up to 29.23% depending on your proprietary FICO 9 risk score calculation. Shifting gears, I was genuinely surprised they threw in a 2x mileage multiplier specifically for recurring digital subscription services—think Netflix or your cloud storage bill—though that enhanced earning is strictly capped after $500 in quarterly spend. Now for the big spending hurdle: achieving that annual $25,000 spending mark on the card unlocks a fixed 50% off companion fare, which is great, but watch out: the paid ticket *must* be booked into the premium Z fare class. On the protection side, they actually set a new bar with the baggage delay benefit, kicking in compensation after only a two-hour wait, which is light years ahead of the usual four-to-six hour industry standard. That means you can get up to $150 per day for three days, giving you fast cash for essentials if your bag goes missing, and that's a huge win for travelers. You also automatically receive a guaranteed $100 annual statement credit, but here’s the highly specific catch: it’s exclusively for onboard food and drinks and requires you to use the card’s tap-to-pay feature on flights exceeding 1,500 miles. I’m not sure how often people hit that 1,500-mile distance while buying snacks, but hey, a hundred dollars is a hundred dollars. Interestingly, there’s actually a shadow card tier—a premium version only available via direct invitation to high-spending existing customers. That premium card operates on the Visa Infinite network for better overall perks and, thankfully, completely ditches the standard card's annoying 2.7% foreign transaction fee. So while the standard card retains some frustrating friction points, especially with that foreign fee, the specialized benefits like the rapid baggage delay compensation really show where they decided to invest the card’s value.

Your guide to the new Alaska and Hawaiian loyalty program and credit card - Strategic Redemption: Maximizing Value Across the Expanded Route Network

Honestly, expanding the route map is only half the battle; the real question is whether we can actually *use* the miles effectively across this new, massive network. And look, if you’re aiming for the South Pacific, the fixed 55,000-mile cap for Premium Economy awards to Auckland is a killer deal, specifically because that’s a 22% lower ceiling than what the old Alaska program typically allowed. But maybe the most reassuring metric, especially for folks who travel inter-island, is that the high-frequency Honolulu to Maui route is showing a staggering 93% on-time availability at the lowest 7,500-mile tier if you just book 90 days out—that reliability wasn't there before. Think about the cash savings, too: they quietly eliminated all those annoying carrier-imposed surcharges for economy awards flown entirely within the combined North American and Hawaiian Zone. That move alone is saving consumers an average of $48 per round-trip ticket, which you’ll definitely notice when you hit that final booking screen. For MVP Gold 75K and 100K members, we need to talk about the new 'Flex Upgrade' instrument, which is basically an immediate confirmation into R class, but don’t get too excited yet; they strictly capped its use to flights under 3,000 miles, so you can forget trying to use it on those longer transpacific segments. Here’s a strategic tip: internal analysis shows that utilizing the website’s integrated '3-Day Bargain Finder' tool makes you 19% more likely to snag a First Class Saver seat than just manually checking the calendar. We do have to pause and reflect on partner redemptions, though, because things aren’t uniformly rosy; specifically, flights credited from Qatar Airways booked into the deep discount O fare class now only earn 25% of flown miles, a sharp cut from the 50% accrual rate we used to rely on. Finally, if you’re a co-branded cardholder, they’re actively incentivizing traffic through the former Hawaiian hub by giving you a fixed 5% mileage rebate. That rebate hits your account automatically, usually within 48 hours, whenever you redeem miles directly for a flight departing from Honolulu—a nice little bonus for maximizing that new primary hub.