HUGE news about two U.S. points programs

Good morning, and happy Friday! You’re almost at the end of your week, and I have some treats for you to help you make it to the finish line:

• ✈️ Alaska and Hawaii unveil new program details

• 🔄 25% transfer bonus to Avianca

• 💳 Current Transfer Bonuses

✈️ Alaska and Hawaii unveil new program details

Earlier this year, Alaska and Hawaiian Airlines announced that they’d be merging programs, pending approval from the FAA.

Well, the merger is moving forward, and the airlines have just announced a TON of information about what the future looks like, including some benefits that are available already!

The press release was broken down into the following categories:

• Changes that are effective immediately

• Changes in the coming weeks

• Changes in the coming months

• Long-term changes

So let’s go through these because I think they’re pretty exciting.

Changes that are effective immediately

There isn’t much to report here, but the basic gist of things is that miles earned in either program are retaining their full value (what a relief 😅), and Alaska Lounge members will be allowed to access lounges even when flying on Hawaiian (rather than just Alaska).

But here’s where the fun part starts…

Changes in the coming weeks

When this merger was announced, the big question was about the loyalty programs.

We didn’t know if miles would be combined, if they would become transferrable between programs, if there would be a NEW loyalty program, or anything.

By the end of the month, miles in both programs will be transferrable to one another at a 1:1 ratio, which is AWESOME.

Given that MR Points are transferrable to Hawaiian Airlines, they are now essentially transferrable to Alaska. 🎉

Make no mistake, folks; this is a gamechanger.

Alaska has one of the best programs out there, but earning miles with them has been difficult - which has been the only real drawback of the program.

Since it’s already September 20th, this means that within ten days, this major change will take effect.

Hell yeah.

Furthermore, flights with both airlines will soon become bookable on each others’ websites.

Given the pretty massive route network between the two airlines, it is going to be really nice for travelers to places like Asia and Australia to fly both airlines on a single ticket.

Speaking of that…

One of the big benefits of this merger is that frequent fliers of Hawaiian Airlines will have the opportunity to use miles to book OneWorld flights around the world.

And while we don’t have many details, they did announce that this reciprocal mileage usage will become available sometime in 2025.

Around the same time, the following two other major changes will be taking effect:

1. Reciprocal Mileage Earnings: Earn Hawaiian miles when flying Alaska or vice versa.

2. Reciprocal Elite Benefits: Use elite benefits from either program when using flying on either airline.

Long-term, I suspect the loyalty programs will merge into one larger one.

For now, however, they’ve made this a VERY enticing duo of airlines and have answered many of the larger questions with these shorter-term fixes.

There’s actually a lot more from this press release that we could talk about that many of you might be interested in, so I encourage you to check it out here.

Overall, I think there’s a new big boy loyalty program that we can all start to play around with more! Yay! 😁

🔄 25% transfer bonus to Avianca

Speaking of good airline programs…

There’s a new 25% transfer bonus from ThankYou Points to Avianca LifeMiles.

This transfer bonus is valid for the next month, until October 19th, and could offer some excellent value for the right redemption.

LifeMiles tragically devalued their program just a short while ago while offering some silver linings…

One of those silver linings is that they decreased pricing on some popular routes like the U.S. to the U.K. and Ireland, which only cost 45,000 LifeMiles in business class.

That’s one of the better deals out there already, but with this transfer bonus, you’d only need to shell out 36,000 ThankYou Points.

Getting to Europe in business class on an airline like United for just 36,000 points is excellent.

Since the Star Alliance network is so vast, this transfer bonus could help you book some dirt-cheap flights almost anywhere in the world.

For example, after you get to Europe with the flight above, you can use LifeMiles to fly between European countries, too.

These flights from Frankfurt to Zurich on Lufthansa only cost 5,000 miles when booked with Avianca miles, or just 4,000 ThankYou Points.

As you can see, there’s no shortage of ways to get excellent value from this new transfer bonus if you can find some of these more palatable award prices.

That’s gonna do it for this week, folks!

I love that list of transfer bonuses above. It’s always amazing to see eight different bonuses going on at once!

Anyway, take care and have a wonderful weekend!

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