September 25 marks the final day for Hawaiian Airlines loyalty members to link their HawaiianMiles accounts to Atmos Rewards before the program transitions on October 1. Hawaiian has promised a seamless process, but some members are already encountering problems, raising concerns about the migration that are worth noting.
What members lose after today.
Today is the last time to link HawaiianMiles and Atmos Rewards for a clean handoff before the blackout window. Hawaiian has said that online access to HawaiianMiles will be unavailable from September 26 through September 30. If you still need to position miles for use during that period, you should complete it now. After the migration, sharing or moving points the way members are accustomed to will change, and free transfers will generally require the new Atmos Summit Visa Infinite card, which costs $395, or otherwise incur restrictions and fees.
Functions are already failing.
Even before the official blackout window was set to begin on September 26, some functions began failing early on September 25. We were able to combine miles between two HawaiianMiles accounts, but when attempting to move miles from a linked Alaska to Hawaiian account, the process stalled and never completed. Thereafter it was updated to reflect no further miles transfer are available.
This is particularly frustrating because Hawaiian had said members would have until today to finish those transactions. The airline’s own advisory lists September 26 to 30 as the period when accounts will be unavailable, yet certain functions clearly stopped earlier than promised.
The blackout also covers other basic features. Members cannot access their profile or settings, change email preferences, request a password or account recovery, or see updates to Pualani Elite status. Redeeming Huakai or Hawaiian Airlines credit card discount codes will not work online during the blackout and must instead be handled by phone.
What is not affected.
Flight check-in through the website and app remains operational. Pualani Elite benefits remain in effect through September 30, including the ability to redeem Platinum upgrade certificates by phone. Discount codes tied to Huakai and the credit card can still be handled with Reservations at 1-800-367-5320, and cardholder baggage benefits are being honored. These are the items Hawaiian says will not be impacted during the outage.
What changes when Atmos Rewards launches.
On October 1, HawaiianMiles will migrate to Atmos Rewards at a one-to-one ratio, and members will receive an Atmos account for future logins and redemptions. Going forward, sharing or gifting points within Atmos will be possible but may include transfer fees unless you hold the new Atmos Summit Visa Infinite, which allows free point sharing within a network you set up. Otherwise, standard transfers are priced at ten dollars per thousand points. Hawaiian promises broader earning and redemption opportunities with more than thirty partners, including oneworld, and access to a thousand destinations.
Why this matters now.
Members were told to act by September 25, yet key functions are already unreliable for some, which undermines confidence at the very moment Hawaiian and Alaska are asking for patience. For long-time Hawaiian flyers, today’s hiccups add to the sense that loyalty is getting harder, not easier, during the changeover. If you need to redeem during the September 26 to 30 outage, be aware that your HawaiianMiles login will not be available, and account functions will be suspended until October 1.
Your turn to sound off.
Have you linked your HawaiianMiles and Atmos Rewards accounts yet? Have you tried to complete last minute transactions today. If so, does it work for you, or are you also finding roadblocks? Please share your experience below to help others.
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Glad I did my HA transfer a few days ago so I could do it without any issues. As a surprise, I didn’t realize I had an Alaska account with 30K+ points!
Tried to log into my Hawaiian account on the 25th, couldn’t get in all day long. What a crock to have to pay $395 for a special credit card inorder to transfer miles or have to pay $10 per 1,000 miles transferred. This all appears to be just a way for Alaska to take advantage of the Hawaiian faithful and reduce options, not increase them. I use Hawaiian for my Hawaii travel, not international travel, if traveling international, I use airlines like Delta, United or American.
Not a comment, but a question…. Any idea what is to become of Hawaiian Airlines Mastercard accounts? Will miles earned automatically be linked to the Atmos Awards account? Thank you in advance.
I closed my Hawaiian cedars account and opened an Alaska one—no sense in paying 2 annual fees. Alaska was/is offering an extra 60,000 miles (points?) if you charge $3K in the first 90 days.
P.S. Here is the official policy from Alaska. “Watch what they do, not what they say.” They will cut HA loyalty benefits wherever they can. Sad.
“So yes, you can still qualify after October 1, as long as you reach the required miles or segments before December 31, 2025. However, you must earn the status before October 1, 2025, to receive these certificates. After that date, HawaiianMiles transitions to the new Atmos Rewards program, and upgrade certificates will no longer be issued.”
Related to the October 1 deadline, this is not a technical difficulty but sadly an intentional and sneaky “jerk” move by Alaska Airlines. For those flyers who will achieve Pualani Platinum status (now Atmos Gold) by year-end (40,000 miles) but haven’t reached it by September 30, Alaska has an unpleasant surprise for you. They are deleting the award of the two first-class upgrade certificates, which we should be entitled to having gone through 9 months of the year under the HA miles program! If you achieved Platinum by 9/30, then you get them. However, for everyone else, you are out of luck. I am a 10+ year Platinum flyer and am 88% of the way there (my spouse is 92%) for this year. Alaska is purposely sunsetting the first-class certificates 3 months early, so that they don’t have to further accrue and honor this hard-earned benefit. This Alaska policy shows you what they think of HA’s most loyal and frequent flyers. Accordingly, I have zero loyalty to Alaska going forward.
Yep, same error saying I couldnt sent my miles over – took a screenshot hoping they do it right.
I tried to migrate and it was awful. The system did not recognize my number from Hawaiian, nor my email address. I tried the online chat and it took forever. I got a message ” it looks like you were gone for awhile”. I was not. I finally gave up.
I was just able to transfer miles to my husband’s HA account. My efforts to link my HA and Alaska accounts has been more difficult. I had to get my Alaska account number via text because the account was inactive. I then had to reset my password. My attempt to then sign into my account was unsuccessful and after 2 attempts my Alaska account was locked due to “too many sign in attempts.” I am now awaiting a phone callback. Was told it will be at least a half hour. None of this is inspiring any confidence in Alaska.
Update: I was called back by a reservations agent who admitted he could not help me. He transferred me to the mileage program, where I was told I would be on hold for 2 (!) hours. He did tell me that there has been significant fraud involving theft of miles, which explains why my account was locked.
I made my Alaska Airlines and Atmos account. I transferred the Hawaiian miles in in Hawaiian account to Atmos and that went fine. I earned more miles on my Hawaiian Card after the initial merging on miles, so now I’m waiting for those new miles to transfer over in Oct. I’m not using the Hawaiian card until I know the newer points are in Atmos account.
I wonder if Southwest will see an uptick in inter-island flight reservations.
I recently opened an Alaska credit card account and called Hawaiian today to cancel their credit card, as I didn’t see the need to pay 2 annual fees, which is exactly what I told them. The man I spoke to asked if I would keep the account open if they waived the fee. Of course, I said “of course!” I was transferred to 2 more people and was eventually told they wouldn’t waive the fee, and they tried to talk me into keeping the card anyway. Very strange. I realize this is Barclays. not Hawaiian Airlines, but it really seemed weird. When I went on the HA website to move my miles to Atmos, I was told that option was no longer available even though it was supposed to be allowed through today.
When I called Barclays to cancel my card they asked me the same question and I said Yes. I didn’t get transferred around and it went smoothly.
I am confused. I thought the miles would just automatically transfer on the one to one you mention. what was I supposed to do before today? will we still be able to use our Hawaiian miles?
I too thought that, if I didn’t get the accounts linked by today, it would happen automatically over the next 4 days. No, the reservations agent (who could not help me) told me that I had to link the accounts myself, but now not until after Oct. 1st.
I actually linked my Hawaiian and Alaskan mileage accounts last night, 24 September and made reservations for next Thursday, all before midnight HST. It was seamless only because a little voice told me to do it right now as to avoid any hippcups. After reading this I’m glad I did!
I have received no notification from Hawaiian or Alaska Airlines about a new Atmos number. And I have both. What gives?
Aloha I will miss Hawaiian Airlines.
Mahalo
I used up the last of my miles today (9/25 @ 1:15 pm) for a death rattle non-stop flight to Boston with no technical problems. After this, other than for inter-island travel, it’s “Adios, Hawaiian Airlines!”