I know everyone is up in arms over Southwest’s most recent devaluation, and I get it – any reduction in value SUCKS. But how do Southwest’s new redemption rates compare to Hawaiian for intra-Hawaii award travel? Let’s take a look.
Beginning on January 1, 2024, Southwest Rapid Rewards will be worth 4% less than they are today. Naturally, that means you’ll have to spend more Rapid Reward miles for award flights. As I covered in my last post, that means spending, for example, 4,337 points when the cash rate is at $65 for intra-Hawaii travel versus 4,170 points. That’s not a huge difference, but it is still a difference nonetheless. But how does that compare?
Intra-Hawaii Award Travel
It’s really difficult to make an apples-to-apples comparison between the two major carriers in Hawaii, as Southwest has a revenue-based system, while Hawaiian uses a fixed but tiered award chart. As such, the example I used above for Southwest might not be the cheapest rate available – especially if they drop prices to $39 or even less. But looking at 2024, the lowest price I’m seeing is $50, with a points rate of 3,012, which will increase to 3,133 points.
On the other end of the spectrum, the highest price I’m seeing with Southwest for intra-Hawaii award travel is 5,714 points, which will increase to 5,943 points. That, by the way, corresponds to a cash rate of $85. Can prices go higher? Sure. But even last-minute fares for this month aren’t going higher than that, so that’s what I’m going with for now.
Hawaiian’s award prices for intra-Hawaii award travel are much easier to predict because, as I mentioned before, they use a fixed award chart. The problem is that they now have different redemption tiers for a specific class of service, which gives them a quasi-revenue-based award chart. I guess?
As you can see, the cheapest award rate you’ll pay is 7,500 HawaiianMiles – 6,375 HawaiianMiles if you’re a Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Mastercard cardholder. Notice something there? That’s right, Hawaiian’s lowest redemption rate is still higher than the highest Southwest redemption rate I could find. Of course, that means the price disparity only gets worse from there.
Earning Rates
Award redemptions are only half the equation. If it’s substantially more challenging to earn one currency over the other, then that can change the value substantially. But earning points can be complicated, so I will try to keep things as simple as possible. That means I’m going into this assuming that we all have no status and typically purchase base fares (Wanna Get Away for Southwest).
Southwest Airlines
Earning points with Southwest is a bit complicated, as your earning rate depends on your status and fare class. But at the most basic level, this is what earnings look like:
- Flights: 6 points per $100, which equates to 300 points to 510 points for the above examples
- Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus Visa
- Southwest purchases: 2x – 100 points to 170 points based on the above examples
- Doubles points on rental cars and hotels purchased through the Rapid Rewards portal, local transit/commuting, internet, cable, phone, and select streaming services
- One point per dollar spent on everything else
- Southwest Rapid Rewards Priority Visa
- Southwest purchases: 3x – 150 points to 255 points based on the above examples
- Doubles points on rental cars and hotels purchased through the Rapid Rewards portal, local transit/commuting, internet, cable, phone, and select streaming services
- One point per dollar spent on everything else
With Southwest, if you’re spending cash on your inter-island travel to save up for intra-Hawaii award travel, you can expect to earn a minimum of 400 to 450 points per one-way flight, so long as you’re paying with a Southwest co-brand credit card or a Chase Sapphire card, and 765 points on the high side.
Hawaiian Airlines
Unlike most other airlines nowadays, Hawaiian Airlines still awards HawaiianMiles based on miles flown. So if you’re a standard HawaiianMiles member, that means earning one mile per mile flown. So for inter-island travel, that means your earnings will look like this:
- Honolulu – Kahului: 100 miles
- Honolulu – Lihue: 102 miles
- Honolulu – Kona: 163 miles
- Honolulu – Hilo: 216 miles
- Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Mastercard:
- Hawaiian purchases: 3x miles – 150 miles to 255 miles
- Double miles: gas, dining, groceries
- One mile per dollar on everything else
Hawaiian’s prices track similarly to Southwest’s, but even just looking at the rest of this month, there are several dates that are higher. But to make things simpler for comparison’s sake, I’m going to assume the prices are the same. That means for a one-way inter-island ticket, you can expect to earn anywhere from 250 miles between Honolulu and Kahului all the way up to 471 miles for Honolulu to Hilo.
Intra-Hawaii Award Travel, Final Thoughts
Despite Southwest’s upcoming devaluation, they’re still the reigning king of intra-Hawaii award travel. As you can see above, you’ll earn WAY more points buying flights on Southwest than with Hawaiian while simultaneously spending far fewer points when redeeming for intra-Hawaii award travel.
While this is true for EVERYONE, it’s even more pronounced for those that don’t have the Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Mastercard, not only because you have to spend more miles, but because you then have to pay Hawaiian $15 (or $25 if you’re not a HawaiianMiles member) per person for your first checked bag. Remember, Southwest gives everyone two free checked bags.