With the Alaskan Airlines acquisition of Hawaiian airlines there has been some uncertainty on what will happen to the Hawaiian Airline credit cards. VFTW got the opportunity to talk to Alaska’s Vice President of Loyalty, Alliances, and Sales Brett Catlin about the plan for these cards and it’s as follows:
- They will keep the two separate card issuers (Barclays for Hawaiian and Bank of America for Alaska Airlines) until the two programs merge into a single loyalty program. This is intended to happen pretty quickly
- Bank of America will purchase the back book from Barclays and those cardholders will transition over to the Bank of America Alaska card. There is “no immediacy for that to transition” and it will “happen over a period of time.”
- Rumor of a Premium Alaska Airlines card in the future
Separately Bank of Hawaii also has a Hawaiian airlines card that is issued and managed by Barclays, this card is only available to residents of Hawaii. It’s unclear what will happen with that arrangement as Bank of America do not operate any branches in Hawaii.
Source: doctorofcredit.com