Hawaiian flights since 4/22/26

[PaulaC]

Has anyone flown from the mainland to the islands this week since the Alaska airlines finalization? How have the flights changed? We have flown premium economy for the past several years and each year food and service gets worse. Our flights are daytime, so we don't need lay down seats, but I'm wondering if we should upgrade?

 

[easyrider]

Has anyone flown from the mainland to the islands this week since the Alaska airlines finalization? How have the flights changed? We have flown premium economy for the past several years and each year food and service gets worse. Our flights are daytime, so we don't need lay down seats, but I'm wondering if we should upgrade?

Off the Alaska Airlines website we reserved Hawaiian Airlines and booked a two seat row configuration for I think 30,000 points x 4. I just looked and our flights are no longer showing our seats and one of the flights is Alaska instead of Hawaiian.

I just fixed it. They did email us the changes to confirm. I ended up changing to better seats on the return flight.

Bill

 

[davidvel]

I think you mean Hawaiian Airlines (HA) now a part of Alaska Airlines (AS). There have been, and nothing has been announced about any, service changes with a few exceptions. On HA metal as they call it, which are still branded as HA flights it is exactly the same. Still on an Airbus, either single aisle A320 or widebody A330. Same sections, same service as it has been for years. Only minor change I know of is you now get free drinks in premium class on HA, which you did not before. You still get free meal only on HA, but still cannot preorder (maybe in 1st class).

AS flights also remain the same, on 737 Max planes. No free meal, but lots of small meal preorder options around $10. There may be (but I don't think so) some 787 widebodies out of SEA, but I don't fly out of there to HNL so am not sure.
For me I always get upgraded to premium, so can't comment on the value proposition. The extra legroom does make go to bathroom, etc a lot easier but if the A330, they have regular main seats that have only 2 on a side. I am not sure what/who flies from TX if that is where you are coming from. That's a longer flight than us on the west coast.

Flying there in about a week from west coast (on HA both ways as of now), so will update if real life experience differs, or if I hear anything different.

 

[easyrider]

AS flights also remain the same, on 737 Max planes.

That is what I thought but when I looked today the return flight is Alaska Airlines and is a 787-9. Before the changes both flights were Hawaiian Airline.

Bill

 

[davidvel]

That is what I thought but when I looked today the return flight is Alaska Airlines and is a 787-9. Before the changes both flights were Hawaiian Airline.

Bill

I advised I was talking about from where we travel and there may be 787s from SEA or other places. If you are talking about AS 124, that 787 is an incredible and gigantic aircraft. Of course they change times and aircraft, and will be updating the schedules and which brand flies a route as they move forward. They are focusing the 787 in and through SEA as they expand their international routes.

My point was other than free drinks on HA metal, I haven't seen any meaningful changes in service on the aircraft. It your flight is branded as HA it will be basically be the same experience including the free meal as it was, and same for AS. I am sure there will be changes but this is the status quo and current officially available info.

 

[davidvel]

Here is a link to an explanation of the (non) changes if anyone is interested:

https://www.hawaiianairlines.com/content/hawaiian-is-here-to-stay?int=HA_WEB_Home_borealis-grid5_CARD1||20251022_ha-segment-huakai-by-hawaiian_v8

 

[easyrider]

Here is a link to an explanation of the (non) changes if anyone is interested:

https://www.hawaiianairlines.com/content/hawaiian-is-here-to-stay?int=HA_WEB_Home_borealis-grid5_CARD1||20251022_ha-segment-huakai-by-hawaiian_v8

This was helpful. I went to your link and was at Hawaiian Airline. I decided to log on even though I'm not set up with Hawaiian and I was signed in. Here is where things changed. I checked our flights and they take 22,500 per ticket x 4 instead of 30,000 per ticket x 4. If I can swing it, I'm going to try to replace our Alaska Airlines tickets and save 30,000 air miles.

Bill

 

[davidvel]

This was helpful. I went to your link and was at Hawaiian Airline. I decided to log on even though I'm not set up with Hawaiian and I was signed in. Here is where things changed. I checked our flights and they take 22,500 per ticket x 4 instead of 30,000 per ticket x 4. If I can swing it, I'm going to try to replace our Alaska Airlines tickets and save 30,000 air miles.

Bill

I'd double check that. I've never seen a difference in miles depending on which url you are using. Or maybe they just dropped. As they say, without the screenshots it didn't happen, .

 

[easyrider]

I'd double check that. I've never seen a difference in miles depending on which url you are using. Or maybe they just dropped. As they say, without the screenshots it didn't happen, .

I did check both and both have added the flights. I was able to change the departure flight which is actually quicker and saved 15,000 air miles. Thought about doing the first class upgrade but will wait for the boss to weigh in. There is no one in first class yet.

Bill

 

[PaulaC]

Thank you for the responses. For several years we flew nonstop from Austin to Honolulu on Hawaiian, but that ended in 2025. This year we flew nonstop on American out of Dallas and it was abysmal. We have reservations for 2027 with one stop in San Diego on a Hawaiian plane, then returning on an Alaskan plane. We haven't flown Alaska before with one exception, a first class flight to Hawaii, but it was several years ago. We are not familiar with pre-ordering food for flights, so that will be a new experience for us.

 

[easyrider]

We are not familiar with pre-ordering food for flights, so that will be a new experience for us.

Unless we are flying first class we never order airline food. For a long flight we usually bring snacks, wraps or sandwiches. After getting busted for food violations in Hawaii and Mexico we now make sure to throw away any food with meat or produce in it and any fruit or vegetable.

Bill

 

[davidvel]

I did check both and both have added the flights. I was able to change the departure flight which is actually quicker and saved 15,000 air miles. Thought about doing the first class upgrade but will wait for the boss to weigh in. There is no one in first class yet.

Bill

I don't really know what you are saying here. "both have added the flights"?

Yes, different flights have different mileage requirements. It has been like that for ages. If you picked a flight with lower mileage that makes sense you saved miles.

Again, I have never seen different prices ($ or miles) for the same flight depending on if you access the search from the HA site vs. AS site, and I search for these flights literally on a daily basis for years. I'd bet you didn't either.

 

[lynne]

I don't really know what you are saying here. "both have added the flights"?

Yes, different flights have different mileage requirements. It has been like that for ages. If you picked a flight with lower mileage that makes sense you saved miles.

Again, I have never seen different prices ($ or miles) for the same flight depending on if you access the search from the HA site vs. AS site, and I search for these flights literally on a daily basis for years. I'd bet you didn't either.

The 'cost' between HA and AS are the same, but booking AS flights with miles on AA are usually less. We booked a 2-stop First Class flight on AS through AA costing 64,500 miles where AS has the same flight for 80,000 miles.

 

[easyrider]

I don't really know what you are saying here. "both have added the flights"?

Your link sent me to Hawaiian. I opened up the flights from there. The Hawaiian flights had better point values than what I used at Alaska. I went to Alaska and the fights I wanted at Hawaiian were the same at Alaska so I switched flights. Both Hawaiian and Alaska look the same with the exception of logos and color. Both have the same flights to Hawaii. Both have the same point values.

I'm not sure if Hawaiian actually added flights but Alaska did and these match Hawaiian. Our departure tickets are one way and I changed them for a better arrival time and less points. Our return flight is a month out from departure and might change if we stay longer. I do have a return flight but so far I'm not seeing anything better regarding time or points.

So thanks for the heads up I guess. Even if it were unintentional it did help.

Bill

 

[Monkeyboy]

The 'cost' between HA and AS are the same, but booking AS flights with miles on AA are usually less. We booked a 2-stop First Class flight on AS through AA costing 64,500 miles where AS has the same flight for 80,000 miles.

You using AA or Atmos miles?

 

[lynne]

You using AA or Atmos miles?

AA miles and needed to book on AA. Once booked, AA provides both the AA Record Locator and the AS Record Locator in case you want to switch loyalty programs. You will need the AS record locator to pick your seats.

Wanted to add that AA only displays AS reward seats and not $$ seats if they have a presence in the same city.

 

[Monkeyboy]

AA miles and needed to book on AA. Once booked, AA provides both the AA Record Locator and the AS Record Locator in case you want to switch loyalty programs. You will need the AS record locator to pick your seats.

Wanted to add that AA only displays AS reward seats and not $$ seats if they have a presence in the same city.

have to pay for bags right?

 

[lynne]

Not for first class in either airline when flying in first

have to pay for bags right?

 

[mountainboy]

have to pay for bags right?

Also no checked bag fee stateside, if you have AA Credit Card

 

[davidvel]

Your link sent me to Hawaiian. I opened up the flights from there. The Hawaiian flights had better point values than what I used at Alaska. I went to Alaska and the fights I wanted at Hawaiian were the same at Alaska so I switched flights. Both Hawaiian and Alaska look the same with the exception of logos and color. Both have the same flights to Hawaii. Both have the same point values.

I'm not sure if Hawaiian actually added flights but Alaska did and these match Hawaiian. Our departure tickets are one way and I changed them for a better arrival time and less points. Our return flight is a month out from departure and might change if we stay longer. I do have a return flight but so far I'm not seeing anything better regarding time or points.

So thanks for the heads up I guess. Even if it were unintentional it did help.

Bill

My original understanding of your post was that you were saying that the exact same flight (HA or AS) had different point values depending on what URL you used to search (HA's or AS's). "Here is where things changed. I checked our flights and they take 22,500 per ticket x 4 instead of 30,000 per ticket x 4. "

Now I understand you found a different flight that had a different miles requirement. Maybe they added flights for the summer season, I'm not sure.

 

[bevans]

Alaska seems to have adopted the Hawaiian model of routing west coast flights (Bay Area) through Honolulu instead of direct flights to the other islands.

 

[mjm1]

Alaska seems to have adopted the Hawaiian model of routing west coast flights (Bay Area) through Honolulu instead of direct flights to the other islands.

We are flying directly from Vegas to Maui in August. They use a 3x3 configured seating plan rather than a 2x4x2. We prefer the later, but don’t want to fly through HNL to get to Maui.

 

[easyrider]

We are flying directly from Vegas to Maui in August. They use a 3x3 configured seating plan rather than a 2x4x2. We prefer the later, but don’t want to fly through HNL to get to Maui.

With the 3x3 configeration we reserve window and isle seats. Often times no one reserves the seat inbetween. If someone does take the middle they so far have been fine taking the isle or window instead.

Bill

 

[mjm1]

With the 3x3 configeration we reserve window and isle seats. Often times no one reserves the seat inbetween. If someone does take the middle they so far have been fine taking the isle or window instead.

Bill

We use the same strategy and it has worked reasonably well. I believe it hasn’t worked out for us most of the time, but there have definitely been occasions where we have an open middle seat.

 

[davidvel]

With the 3x3 configeration we reserve window and isle seats. Often times no one reserves the seat inbetween. If someone does take the middle they so far have been fine taking the isle or window instead.

Bill

What ISLE do you fly to?