Alaska Airlines tweaks award charts with HawaiianMiles

The integration of Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines is heating up. Alaska’s loyalty program — Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan — announced Thursday that it’s making some changes to its mileage award levels between Alaska Mileage Plan and HawaiianMiles.

Flyers will be happy to know the changes are fairly minor and don’t represent a big devaluation. In fact, there are some bright spots.

These changes come as the airlines continue to work toward combining the Mileage Plan and HawaiianMiles programs into a single loyalty program this summer.

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

“We are introducing two new award levels, allowing HawaiianMiles members to redeem on high-demand flights by booking the ‘last seat available,’ a popular Mileage Plan benefit that was previously not available for HawaiianMiles redemptions,” Alaska told TPG in an email. “As long as there is a seat available for sale, members will have an opportunity to redeem.”

There will be no changes to Main Cabin awards nor first-class entry-level awards, with award travel starting as low as 40,000 miles.

In fact, there’s good news here from Alaska.

“For a majority of the seats, award travel will either stay the same or be reduced by 10,000 miles across all routes, with more generous availability,” the airline said.

Alaska did note that a small portion of higher-end award ranges increased to align with Mileage Plan.

Here is a quick look at the new award rate ranges:

The changes will bring parity between the two award charts, and the changes only apply to Hawaiian-operated flights — like those between San Francisco International Airport (SFO) and Maui’s Kahului Airport (OGG) — that used to be operated by Alaska Airlines.

A quick search reveals that flights between Honolulu and Seattle on Hawaiian-operated planes cost 61,250 to 78,750 Hawaiian miles for Main Cabin and 265,000 for first class.

The news comes just a month after we learned that Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan members will soon be able to use their Alaska Airlines Companion Fare certificate on any Hawaiian Airlines flight within North America. The Companion Fare that comes with some Alaska cards lets you bring one travel companion on a round-trip Alaska Airlines flight (which will now include Hawaiian Airlines) for just $99 (plus taxes and fees from $23). Note that the certificate is only valid for travel in the economy cabin; however, Companion Fares are eligible for upgrades.

You can earn the Companion Fare each account anniversary (after spending $6,000 on purchases in your previous anniversary year) with the following cobranded credit cards: the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® credit card and the Alaska Airlines Visa® Business card.

Bottom line

I’m excited to see Hawaiian Airlines and Alaska Airlines continue to integrate, and I look forward to the program’s full implementation.

While it’s never fun to see higher award prices, these increases seem moderate by today’s standards. In fact, some redemptions will decrease in cost by 10,000 miles. Those with HawaiianMiles will also get the last seat availability, which is a true enhancement.

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• The best airline credit cards
• What exactly are airline miles, anyway?
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• Maximize your airfare: The best credit cards for booking flights
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• What are points and miles worth? TPG’s monthly valuations