Alaska Airways and Hawaiian Airways are making a giant change on their flights between Seattle and Tokyo.
Beginning in January, it’s going to be Hawaiian’s stunning new Boeing 787 Dreamliner working the route between Seattle Tacoma Worldwide Airport (SEA) and Narita Airport (NRT).
For vacationers flying between the 2 cities, it is a vital improve from Hawaiian’s older Airbus A330 presently flying between the Pacific Northwest and Japan: This shift will swap in a brand new, state-of-the-art cabin with business-class suites for the older product discovered on board Hawaiian’s legacy long-haul fleet of planes.
It’s going to additionally give Alaska Air Group (the guardian firm of Alaska and Hawaiian) a extra aggressive on-board product with chief Seattle rival, Delta Air Strains, on these transpacific flights.
It will not be excellent news for each Hawaiian route, although: a spokesperson confirmed the airline shall be shifting one in every of its present Dreamliners off one other path to improve SEA-NRT.
A transpacific improve
Alaska and Hawaiian merged late final yr, and promptly introduced plans to launch a world gateway at Seattle, Alaska’s residence base.
I tagged alongside in Could when the airways’ launched their long-haul period with Tokyo service operated by Hawaiian.
As thrilling a second because it was for the corporate, although, the A330 flying the route undoubtedly wasn’t the star of the present itself, with older seats and a 2x2x2 configuration up within the business-class cabin that is a far much less alluring product than the one Hawaiian debuted on its brand-new fleet of Dreamliners final yr.
However the issues will change proper off the bat in 2026, the corporate stated Tuesday.
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Between early January and mid-April, passengers flying between Seattle and Narita will get the Hawaiian Dreamliner full with 34 its Leihoku suites that includes sliding privateness doorways — to not point out an total up to date expertise in the primary cabin.
All-new expertise on the horizon
Alaska and Hawaiian did not share what the plane plans are for the Tokyo route past April.
Which may be by design.
Earlier this spring, I reported the corporate is planning to unveil an all-new flagship worldwide expertise for its long-haul routes.
The plan, Alaska CEO Ben Minicucci informed me, is for all long-haul worldwide routes out of Seattle (together with the Tokyo one) to be operated by Alaska — not Hawaiian.
It is not clear when Alaska would possibly take over the Tokyo flights from its new sister airline, however count on this route see extra change sooner or later, within the type of a brand new on-board expertise.
Alaska already introduced it is going to be working Dreamliner flights to Rome beginning in Could 2026.
Reserving Hawaiian’s Dreamliner to Tokyo
Within the meantime, if you happen to’re hoping to make use of factors and miles to e book Hawaiian-operated flights between Seattle and Tokyo for early subsequent yr, you could have a few choices:
Be mindful, it’s also possible to nonetheless transfer miles seamlessly between your Mileage Plan and HawaiianMiles accounts, for now.
New loyalty program subsequent month
However large modifications are approaching the loyalty entrance for these newly-merged airways, too. Within the coming weeks, Alaska Air Group is planning to announce an all-new joint loyalty program that can serve each airline manufacturers.
Suffice to say, it is a time of massive change at Alaska and Hawaiian, and plenty of extra developments are on the horizon.
Hawaiian provides extra wintertime flights
Hawaiian can also be including extra home and worldwide flights to and from its Honolulu base in the course of the peak winter season.
The modifications embody:
· Day by day service from Honolulu to Sydney, Australia between Dec. 18 and Jan. 31, 2026 — up from 5 weekly spherical journeys.
· A fifth every day flight between Honolulu and Los Angeles Worldwide Airport (LAX) in the course of the peak Thanksgiving (Nov. 21-Dec. 1) and winter vacation (Dec. 19-Jan. 6) journey rushes.
· A fourth every day Hawaiian-operated flight with a big, widebody jet between Honolulu and Seattle between late-November and mid-April. That is on high of two every day round-trips flown by Alaska.
“We’re excited to supply our company extra choices to attach with family members or take pleasure in a heat winter getaway,” Alaska vice chairman of income administration and community planning Kirsten Amrine stated in a press release Tuesday.
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