Hawaiian Airlines eyes codeshare deal with Qantas

EXCLUSIVE | Qantas and Hawaiian Airlines will kick off the first phase of a new partnership from later this year. That’s when members of Qantas Frequent Flyer will be able to book Hawaiian Airlines reward flights using Qantas Points. But that’s just the beginning. The airlines also plan to unleash reciprocal codesharing, as Hawaiian Airlines makes a move for oneworld Alliance membership in 2026.

The goal? To allow travellers to book eligible Hawaiian Airlines flights on a QF code. This paves the way to earning Qantas Points and Status Credits just like flying with Qantas itself. Equally, eligible Qantas flights would be bookable on an HA flight number, affording similar privileges to members of Hawaiian Airlines’ HawaiianMiles program.

To learn more, I catch up with Andrew Stanbury. He’s now Hawaiian Airlines’ Managing Director of International and North America Sales.

Qantas Premier Platinum

Apply Now Read the guide

• Sign-up Bonus: Up to 90,000 bonus Qantas Points
• Rewards Earn Rate: 1 Qantas Point per whole AU$1 on Domestic Spend up to $10,000 per statement period and 0.5 thereafter. 1.5 Qantas Points per whole AU$1 equivalent on international spend plus 1 additional Qantas Point per whole AU$1 on selected Qantas spend. 
• Annual Fee: $349 for the first year and $399 p.a. ongoing

The Qantas Premier Platinum card offers 50,000 bonus Qantas Points for new cardholders who spend $5,000 or more on eligible purchases within 3 months from approval, and an additional 40,000 bonus Qantas Points for those who haven’t earned Qantas Points with a credit or charge card in the last 12 months. The card also includes a discounted first-year annual fee, two complimentary airport lounge passes, and 0% p.a. interest for 6 months on Balance Transfers (a 2% Balance Transfer fee applies).

Qantas to codeshare on Hawaiian Airlines

There are two key benefits for Qantas Frequent Flyer members who book flights on a QF code. The first is that it allows Qantas Points and Status Credits to be accrued on any participating airline. Even if those rewards wouldn’t be available when reserving a flight with that airline directly. Secondly, on a QF code, rewards are provided at the highest possible rate for each flight – as though Qantas were operating the flight itself.

Outside of oneworld, we’re used to seeing this with airlines like Emirates. Book Emirates directly on an EK code and you can earn Qantas Points, but not any Status Credits. Book the same flight as a QF codeshare and you’ll not just earn more points, but you’d earn Status Credits as well.

Stanbury advises that Qantas and Hawaiian Airlines won’t codeshare on flights between Australia and Honolulu. After all, the two airlines are competitors in that space. Both carriers offer direct flights between Sydney and Honolulu, with Qantas also launching services from Melbourne as of May 2025. The codeshare deal will instead focus on connecting passengers.

This means Qantas is expected to codeshare on Hawaiian Airlines’ flights beyond Honolulu to other destinations. That’d be bookable in conjunction with a Qantas-operated flight from Australia. For instance, flying Qantas from Sydney to Honolulu and then Hawaiian Airlines from Honolulu to an eligible codeshare destination. Phoenix, perhaps.

Stanbury shares that Hawaiian Airlines plans to codeshare ‘behind Sydney as well’. This would allow passengers jetting from Honolulu to Sydney to book onward Qantas flights on an HA code. For instance, to Brisbane, if included in the codeshare deal.

Hawaiian Airlines is shifting to AS flight numbers

Hawaiian Airlines is currently in the midst of a merger with Alaska Airlines. This will see the two carriers adopt common systems, and eventually, continue flying as two airline brands to the customer but as one airline on paper.

‘Down the track, when we come under a single operating certificate, it will in fact be an AS operated service but doing business as Hawaiian Airlines for Alaska Airlines,’ says Stanbury. This means that eventually, Hawaiian Airlines will switch to using the AS flight code rather than HA.

Marissa Villegas, Senior Specialist of External Communications at Hawaiian Airlines, helps to explain. ‘So HA451,’ which is Hawaiian’s Honolulu-Sydney flight, ‘just the nature of it being under one operating certificate, it’ll transition to an AS’ flight code.

In the interim – and perhaps, making things a little confusing – the change to AS flight numbers begins as a codeshare. That is, Alaska Airlines will codeshare on Hawaiian’s flights to Australia, while Hawaiian continues flying with its HA code. But later on, the HA number will be removed, and the AS flight number becomes the default.

In effect, it’ll mean that travelling with Hawaiian Airlines will mirror the earn and burn of Alaska Airlines. As such, we can expect Hawaiian Airlines’ flights to be priced at the ‘partner’ rates in Qantas Frequent Flyer. Not at the more generous ‘Qantas’ rates which only cover a small number of partners: namely, American Airlines.

Still, it’s too early to get into the technicalities. We can explore earning and redemption rates once the ball gets rolling. Asked whether Stanbury has a start date for integration with Qantas, ‘I don’t actually,’ he says honestly. ‘I think I don’t want to get excited,’ he says while indicating that such partnerships take time to develop and get off the ground.

Booking Hawaiian Airlines flights using Qantas Points

One of the biggest struggles that travellers face is securing reward seats on international flights from Australia. Qantas has numerous international partners with volumes of flights on far away overseas routes. But snagging a points seat on a direct flight from Australia can be tough. Doubly so if chasing something more comfortable than standard Economy.

When it comes to Hawaiian Airlines, many Aussie travellers will already have some experience through Velocity. In that sense, it’s relatively tough – while not entirely impossible – to find Business Class reward seats on Hawaiian Airlines from Sydney. Unless, that is, for members of Hawaiian Airlines’ own program who choose to pay double the usual mileage to secure a seat.

I ask Stanbury whether Hawaiian Airlines would adjust the number of premium cabin reward seats it makes available to Qantas members, compared to what Velocity members have been seeing. ‘I think we will be releasing around the same number of seats that we do on the current program,’ he says. Sorry, I tried!

But ‘one thing that will happen in the medium-term future would be a review of the entire loyalty program and how that works.’ Of course, Hawaiian Airlines and Alaska Airlines already plan to operate under one combined program in future. Members can already convert miles between HawaiianMiles and Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan at a 1:1 rate.

‘We are considering changes to the program that would make more availability on any given flight,’ Stanbury tips. But it’s too early to say whether that would be an increase in traditional reward seats, or a move that continues with the mantra of paying more miles to secure a seat on popular flights.

‘So yeah, that’s one area to keep an eye. As it stands now, no, you (will) probably see the same sort of availability (with Qantas). But as the program evolves and gets reviewed, new ways of delivering those reward seats to customers could come.’

Find and discuss the best itineraries to maximise your Qantas status credits

Join our members-only community for free and discover how 65,000+ frequent flyers are making the most of their points.

• Learn from fellow travellers and share your journey
• Get insider knowledge you won’t find elsewhere
• Access resources to master points and travel hacks

JOIN FOR FREEVISIT FORUM

Would Hawaiian Airlines return to Brisbane?

Hawaiian Airlines previously served two destinations in Australia: Sydney and Brisbane. But Hawaiian’s direct Brisbane-Honolulu flights have been shelved. The company regularly cites economics and demand as key drivers for its focus on Sydney.

But a new codeshare deal could change things a little bit. With the ability to market Australian connecting flights on Qantas, the potential Hawaiian Airlines customer base could increase. Might this incentivise Hawaiian Airlines to resume its Honolulu-Brisbane flights, given it could codeshare beyond Brisbane on Qantas?

‘No, I don’t think they’re directly related,’ Stanbury says of Hawaiian’s Qantas codeshare plans and the prospect of Brisbane as a destination. ‘That decision,’ suspending Brisbane flights, ‘was really about the demand from that market and vice versa. So that’s the real driver for it. That would have to change.’

Could there be enough of a shift though to swing the balance back into Brisbane’s favour? ‘I don’t directly see changes to our loyalty partnerships or anything else affecting that,’ Stanbury says. Instead, metrics like passenger volumes and yield are more significant factors. On those fronts, for Brisbane to have any prospect of returning to Hawaiian’s own network, ‘we’d have to see improvement.’

Also read: Hawaiian Airlines plans wind down of Velocity partnership

Featured image by Chris Chamberlin for Point Hacks.