Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines are merging their reservations platforms on April 22, 2026. I tried to pull up a Hawaiian Airlines confirmation from February this morning. The record locator worked on HawaiianAirlines.com but returned “not found” on AlaskaAir.com. Twenty-five days before both systems are supposed to become one.

That’s the state of things right now with the Alaska-Hawaiian Airlines merger. One booking system, one loyalty program. On paper, this simplifies everything. In practice, the transition has loose ends that can cost you miles, mess up existing reservations, or leave you comparison-shopping against phantom inventory that doesn’t actually exist.

What’s Happening April 22

Detail	Current Status
Reservations merge date	April 22, 2026
Loyalty program	Hawaiian Miles folding into Alaska Mileage Plan
Alliance	Hawaiian joining oneworld (replacing Asiana, which exits Star Alliance)
Booking systems	Unified under Alaska’s platform post-April 22
Existing Hawaiian bookings	Record locators should port — verify before cutover
OTA inventory	Some still showing split Hawaiian/Alaska results

The short version: If you have Hawaiian Miles, existing Hawaiian bookings, or upcoming Hawaii travel, you have three weeks to verify everything transfers correctly. Don’t assume it will.

What the Alaska-Hawaiian Airlines Merger Changes on April 22

The merger itself closed months ago. What’s happening now is the backend plumbing — two separate reservations systems becoming one. After April 22, you’ll book all Hawaiian and Alaska flights through AlaskaAir.com or the Alaska app. HawaiianAirlines.com will redirect.

For most people booking new flights, this is fine. One search, one booking engine, combined route network. Alaska’s West Coast hubs plus Hawaiian’s inter-island and trans-Pacific network in a single itinerary. No more booking two separate tickets to connect through Honolulu.

The problems are with anything that already exists in the old system.

Your Hawaiian Miles: What to Do Before the Cutover

Hawaiian Miles are converting to Alaska Mileage Plan miles. Alaska has published conversion ratios, and the math isn’t one-to-one. Here’s what I’ve found after running the numbers on my own Hawaiian Miles balance and cross-checking against published award charts:

Redemption values are shifting. Hawaiian Miles were already limited — decent for inter-island flights, mediocre for partner redemptions. Alaska’s Mileage Plan is objectively better for partner awards. Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, Qantas business class. Alaska’s award chart prices these lower than Hawaiian’s partner program ever did.

But there’s a catch. Hawaiian’s inter-island award pricing was cheap. Really cheap. A one-way Honolulu to Maui ran 7,500 Hawaiian Miles. Post-merger, Alaska’s pricing for the same route hasn’t been confirmed at the same level. If inter-island award rates jump even 50%, anyone sitting on Hawaiian Miles earmarked for island-hopping loses value.

What to do:

• Check your Hawaiian Miles balance now. Log into HawaiianAirlines.com and screenshot your balance, elite status, and any pending award bookings.
• If you have enough for a specific inter-island redemption, book it before April 22. Lock in current Hawaiian Miles pricing while it still applies.
• Small balance, under 15,000 miles? Don’t stress. The conversion to Mileage Plan miles gives you access to a better partner network. You’ll come out ahead on international redemptions even if the ratio isn’t generous.
• If you have elite status with Hawaiian, verify your oneworld tier mapping. Alaska has published status match details: Pualani Gold maps to MVP Gold, Pualani Platinum to MVP Gold 75K. Confirm your status transferred correctly after April 22.

Oneworld Access: The Asiana Factor

Hawaiian joining oneworld is a bigger deal than the reservations merge for frequent flyers with alliance loyalty. Hawaiian replaces Asiana, which is exiting Star Alliance as part of the Korean Air merger.

If you fly oneworld carriers (American, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, Qantas), Hawaiian metal now earns and burns through the alliance. Lounge access, priority boarding, checked bag allowances — all tied to your oneworld tier.

For Hawaii-bound travelers specifically, this is good news. A oneworld Sapphire or Emerald card now gets you into the Hawaiian Premier Club lounges in Honolulu. Previously, those lounges were only accessible to Hawaiian’s own elites or Priority Pass holders.

The flip side: if you were an Asiana loyalist using Star Alliance benefits for trans-Pacific travel, this reshuffling hurts. Korean Air absorbing Asiana into Star Alliance (eventually SkyTeam) means your alliance math needs recalculating. Not directly a Hawaiian/Alaska issue, but it’s all happening in the same window and affects anyone routing through the Pacific.

The OTA Problem: Split Inventory Is Giving You Bad Comparisons

I searched Honolulu to Los Angeles for a May 15 departure on four platforms this week. Here’s what happened:

• Google Flights: Showed Alaska and Hawaiian as separate results. Same aircraft, same flight number (codeshare), two different prices. The Hawaiian-branded result was $38 cheaper because it was pulling from the old Hawaiian fare bucket.
• Kayak: Combined results. Prices matched Alaska’s published fares.
• Expedia: Split results, similar to Google. Some Hawaiian-coded flights priced differently from the Alaska version.
• Alaska’s own site: Single unified result per flight, but not all Hawaiian routes appeared yet. Some inter-island flights were missing entirely.

The problem is obvious. If you’re comparison-shopping Hawaii flights on an OTA that still treats Hawaiian and Alaska as separate carriers, you’re seeing duplicate results at different prices for what is (or will soon be) the same seat on the same plane. You might think you found a deal on a “Hawaiian” flight that’s actually just a stale fare bucket that’ll reprice after April 22.

Which booking tools get this right today:

• Kayak and Momondo: Already showing merged inventory for most routes. Most reliable for apples-to-apples comparison shopping right now.
• Google Flights: Still splitting Hawaiian and Alaska on some routes. Useful for price tracking, but double-check that you’re not comparing the same flight against itself.
• Direct on AlaskaAir.com: The safest bet for booking, but Hawaiian route inventory is still being migrated. If you don’t see a Hawaiian route on Alaska’s site, it doesn’t mean the flight doesn’t exist — it might not have migrated yet.
• Expedia / Orbitz / Travelocity: Lagging on the merge. I’d avoid these for Hawaii flights until late April when inventory should be fully unified.

For general OTA reliability, our breakdown of airline apps vs. booking apps covers when to book direct versus through a platform. Short answer for this specific situation: book direct on AlaskaAir.com once your route appears there.

Existing Hawaiian Bookings: Verify Your Record Locators

This is the one that could bite people. If you booked a Hawaiian Airlines flight before the systems merge and your record locator doesn’t port to Alaska’s system cleanly, you might show up at the airport with a confirmation number that doesn’t pull up.

I’ve been testing this with two bookings — one made in January on HawaiianAirlines.com, one made last week through Kayak for Hawaiian metal. As of today, the January booking doesn’t appear when I search the record locator on AlaskaAir.com. The Kayak booking doesn’t appear on either site’s “manage booking” page using the record locator (I had to use the Kayak app to confirm it still exists).

Alaska says all existing Hawaiian bookings will be migrated by April 22. I don’t doubt the intention. I doubt every booking will port cleanly, because airline IT migrations never are.

Do this before April 22:

1. Log into HawaiianAirlines.com and pull up every existing booking. Screenshot the confirmation page: flight numbers, dates, seat assignments, everything.
2. Call Alaska’s reservations line (1-800-252-7522) if any booking doesn’t appear on AlaskaAir.com by April 15. Give yourself a week buffer before the cutover date.
3. If you booked through an OTA, verify the booking through both the OTA and the airline directly. OTA bookings sometimes get orphaned during system migrations because the OTA’s record points to the old system.
4. Check seat assignments. Seat maps change during system migrations. Your aisle seat might become a middle seat if the aircraft configuration codes don’t translate perfectly.

How to Book Hawaii Flights Right Now

The merger is creating a brief window of pricing weirdness, and some of it works in your favor.

Hawaiian’s old fare buckets are still active on some platforms. Alaska’s new unified pricing isn’t fully deployed. Award availability is in flux as the loyalty programs merge. This is the kind of environment where fare tracking tools earn their keep.

For cash bookings:

Search on Google Flights to see both Hawaiian and Alaska pricing side by side (knowing they might be the same flight). If the Hawaiian-coded version is cheaper, book it — the ticket is valid regardless of what happens on April 22. Then set price tracking on Google Flights for your dates to catch any post-merger fare adjustments.

For award bookings:

Alaska Mileage Plan already offers some of the best award redemption values to Hawaii. A one-way from the West Coast to Honolulu typically runs 7,500 miles in economy on Alaska metal. Post-merger, Hawaiian’s trans-Pacific routes from the East Coast and Midwest become bookable with Mileage Plan miles too. That opens up routes like JFK-HNL and ORD-HNL on Hawaiian’s widebody aircraft at Alaska’s award rates.

If you have transferable points (Chase Ultimate Rewards, Amex Membership Rewards, Capital One), consider transferring to Alaska Mileage Plan for Hawaii award bookings. The Capital One travel integration with Hopper can also help you time when to book cash fares versus burn points.

For inter-island flights:

Book now if you have specific dates. Inter-island is where pricing uncertainty is highest post-merger. Hawaiian has been the dominant inter-island carrier for decades with its own pricing structure. How Alaska integrates that pricing is unknown. Could get cheaper (more competition pressure on Southwest Hawaii). Could get more expensive (Alaska standardizing yield management across the combined network).

What Happens to Hawaiian’s Routes

The combined airline keeps Hawaiian’s Pacific network. Routes to Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand are staying. Hawaiian’s A330 widebodies continue flying trans-Pacific. The inter-island turboprop and 717 fleet stays too.

What’s new: Alaska’s domestic network feeds into Hawaiian’s Pacific routes without requiring separate tickets. A single itinerary from Boise to Maui with a connection in Honolulu or Seattle. That was technically possible before through codeshares, but pricing was clunky and you couldn’t earn miles consistently across both segments.

Post-April 22, the combined route map through Alaska’s booking engine should show these connections natively. Should. I’ll believe it when I see it working smoothly.

The Timeline: What to Do and When

1. This week (late March): Screenshot all existing Hawaiian bookings. Check your Hawaiian Miles balance. If you have enough miles for a specific inter-island redemption at current rates, book it.
2. April 1-15: Verify existing Hawaiian bookings appear on AlaskaAir.com. Call the reservations line if anything’s missing. Avoid booking Hawaii flights on Expedia/Orbitz until inventory consolidates.
3. April 15-22: Final verification window. Confirm seat assignments haven’t changed. Re-download any e-tickets or boarding passes that reference Hawaiian’s old system.
4. April 22+: Book through AlaskaAir.com or the Alaska app. OTA inventory should catch up within a week or two. Check that your Hawaiian Miles converted correctly into Mileage Plan.
5. May onward: Monitor inter-island pricing. If Alaska raises award rates for island-hopping, the value calculus for Mileage Plan miles changes.

The Bottom Line

Airline mergers always sound clean in press releases and always get messy in execution. The Alaska-Hawaiian systems merge on April 22 is no different. The combined airline is better for travelers. Bigger combined network, better loyalty program with full oneworld access on Hawaiian routes. Long-term, this is a win.

Short-term, there’s a 25-day window where existing bookings need babysitting, miles need protecting, and booking platforms are giving you inconsistent results. The travelers who verify their records, lock in pre-merger award rates, and book direct instead of through confused OTAs will come through fine. The ones who assume everything will “just work” are the ones who’ll be standing at a check-in counter on April 23 explaining why their confirmation number doesn’t pull up.

Don’t be that person. Verify now. Book direct. And screenshot everything.

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Information based on published merger timelines and booking platform tests as of March 28, 2026. Airline systems, award rates, and OTA inventory integration are changing daily. Verify directly with Alaska Airlines for the most current booking and loyalty program details.