What to Know About Hawaiian Airlines Partners - NerdWallet (2024)

You may have the spirit of Aloha and more Hawaiian shirts than work shirts, but that doesn’t mean your only destination on Hawaiian Airlines needs to be the white sand beaches of Waikiki or the gorgeous coastline of Wailea.

Maybe you've accumulated a bunch of the airline's loyalty points — HawaiianMiles — for flights to the Aloha state, but now want to redeem them to fly someplace new. With Hawaiian Airlines' partner airlines, it's possible. Alternatively, you might be flying on another airline for a trip to, say, Asia or Australia, but you really want to earn HawaiianMiles so you can get a free flight to Hawaii. Either way, it's possible due to Hawaiian Airlines partnerships.

And while Hawaiian Airlines isn’t a part of any major airline alliance (e.g. Oneworld or Star Alliance), Hawaiian Airlines has several partner airlines that can help you earn and redeem HawaiianMiles for flights to Asian, Australia, Europe and elsewhere in North America.

This is your complete guide to understanding how to fly with Hawaiian Airlines’ partners.

Hawaiian Airlines has a codeshare partnerships with the following airlines:

This means you can book tickets through Hawaiian Airlines on planes operated by these carriers. You can also earn and redeem Hawaiian Miles on most of these flights.

It should also be noted that while Virgin Atlantic is not technically considered a partner airline with Hawaiian Airlines, you can both earn and redeem Hawaiian Airlines miles on their flights.

Earning miles with airline partners

Taking advantage of Hawaiian’s partner airlines means that you don’t have to fly on a Hawaiian Airlines flight or even to Hawaii in order to earn HawaiianMiles.

To earn miles while flying on a partner airline, you’ll need to go through a number of steps to make sure you’re getting all of the miles that you’re entitled to. Here's what you need to do:

Hawaiian Airlines provides a chart for each partner airline to help you sort through the airline-specific rules, as well as understand which fare classes are eligible to earn miles. Typically, flying in a higher fare class helps you accrue miles at a faster rate than had you booked the cheap seats. But sometimes you don't always earn miles at a faster rate just because you booked a fancier fare. If you booked the fancy fare for the frills of first class then go for it, but if earning miles is a priority, just understand how many miles you'll actually fly away with.

Take, for example, international flights on Japan Airlines. Booking in class W or E, which are premium economy classes, will earn you the same number of miles as if you took that flight on Hawaiian Airlines, but so will classes Y and B, which are simply economy classes. And then watch out: in the Japan Airlines example, fares in classes U, P and T don't earn any miles.

2. Once you’ve determined that you’re booking an eligible flight, you’ll need to provide your HawaiianMiles number both when you make your reservation and again when you check in for your flight.

3. If you do everything right, you should see miles in your account within two weeks of your travel date. And just a pro-tip: keep your travel receipts until you can verify the credits on your HawaiianMiles account.

Redeeming your miles with airline partners

Just as you can earn HawaiianMiles with partner airlines, you can redeem your HawaiianMiles with them as well. This means you can use your miles to fly almost anywhere in the world beyond just Hawaii. As with most airlines, the best mileage redemption opportunities are found on flights within Hawaiian. But maybe you have all these HawaiianMiles that you won't use again. Maybe you have a flight planned elsewhere, and you'd rather use your miles to pay for it than dig into your savings account.

In that case, use your HawaiianMiles to book on a partner airline.

Hawaiian makes things pretty easy by publishing an award chart, spelling out exactly how many HawaiiianMiles you need to book a flight on a partner airline, which you can find here.

Some redemptions are better or worse than others, so ensure you understand what a Hawaiian Airlines mile is worth (NerdWallet values one HawaiianMile at 1 cent each.

If you're not sure if it's better to spend your HawaiianMiles or perhaps save them and pay with cash, you can use this calculator to convert your stash of Hawaiian miles to dollars.

Sometimes booking with partners can be a bit funky, and partner airlines often have a number of different rules and regulations that you’ll need to navigate in order to successfully book your flight with miles. Here are some notes to be aware of:

While partner airlines do greatly expand the number of mile earning and redemption opportunities using HawaiianMiles, it’s important to familiarize yourself with all of the various rules and regulations so that you can get the most out of your miles.

Flying on partner airlines isn't the only way to earn HawaiianMiles. Hawaiian Airlines also has a handful of partnerships with local and international hotel chains, as well as some car rental companies and retailers. Consider it an easy ways to net some extra HawaiianMiles for other costs incurred during your Hawaiian vacation — or for travels anywhere else in the world.

Partnerships and earnings rates vary, but examples include (or have included):

See current offers from Hawaiian Miles hotel partners here.

Depending on your level of elite status, you'll earn up to 750 miles per car rental, when you add your HawaiianMiles number to your reservation at the time of booking with the below companies:

Some of the car rental companies offer additional discounts and opportunities to score upgrades. Find all the deals on Hawaiian's car rental partnerships page.

Hawaiian allows you to earn miles when shopping and dining at its selection of merchants nationwide. A list of merchants can be found on the HawaiianMiles Marketplace. There are some national brands like Teleflora and Vinesse, as well as speciality gift shops — many of which are located in Hawaii.

The HawaiianMiles Marketplace also has a mobile app that makes it even easier to find merchants near you.