When Alaska Airlines announced its acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines, it promised that elite members of each program could receive status matching.

This status match is now live, as first viewed by Gary Leff on View from the Wing.

The airlines will eventually have a single loyalty program, but in the meantime, reciprocal elite status is pretty cool.

It’s pretty simple. All you need to do is go to this special Status Match landing page, log in to your Alaska Mileage Plan account, and then log in to your HawaiianMiles account.

If you have status with Alaska Mileage Plan or HawaiianMiles, you can compare it to elite status with the other airline.

Even if you don’t have status with either airline, you still have the option of combining your income from both programs into one status level. For example, if you earned 20,000 miles with Alaska and 20,000 miles with Hawaiian, you would have a combined 40,000 miles in your account. That’s enough to earn you Alaska Airlines MVP Gold status.

Remember, members will retain their current miles and can now also transfer them between accounts at a 1:1 ratio.

Alaska says members will soon have the opportunity to earn HawaiianMiles miles on Alaska flights and Mileage Plan miles on Hawaiian Airlines flights. There will also eventually be additional redemption options and the ability to enjoy select elite benefits on both airlines.

This will be helpful when airlines start operating flights for each other. For example, I noticed that there was a schedule change on my upcoming Alaska Airlines flight to Hawaii in April. When I called Alaska to find out what was going on with the flight, the agent told me that the Bay Area flights currently flown from Alaska would soon be operated by Hawaiian Airlines.

I currently do not have elite status with either airline. But if I had, I would have been happy to get Hawaiian Airlines status so I could get better seats on the flights now operated by Hawaiian.

Because of my American Airlines status, I was able to choose seats with more legroom on Alaska flights. Alaska’s partnership with American Airlines means that the airline will honor my top-tier American Airlines AAdvantage status when flying to Alaska. This won’t work with Hawaiian.

Related: Last-Minute Strategies for Achieving Alaska Mileage Plan Elite Status

You can still status match from other airlines to Alaska

Something else to note: Alaska still offers a status challenge if you have elite status with another airline. Get instant status for 90 days by matching your current elite status with an airline. There is an opportunity to extend this status until the end of 2025 if you travel just 5,000 miles on Alaska-operated flights (20,000 miles for MVP Gold 75K). Since I have top-tier Delta Air Lines Diamond Medallion status, I might consider it.

More reasons why the Alaska Mileage Plan now looks interesting

In fact, I’m thinking about applying for Alaska status next year. There are many attractive developments from Alaska Mileage Plan and the merger.

Alaska is now the only major U.S. airline that allows you to earn elite status by flying based on actual air miles. This makes it easier to earn premium mileage plan status if you don’t buy a lot of expensive airline tickets. Alaska has also made some positive changes in terms of gaining status. Alaska Mileage Plan members now earn miles when redeeming awards, and there are also new ways to redeem them for status.

From January 1, 2025, cardholders with the current Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® Credit Card Earn 1 Elite Qualifying Mile for every $3 spent, up to a total of 30,000 EQMs per year on qualifying purchases. This could put you well on the way to top 100K status, which requires 100,000 EQMs.

Related: Why I applied for two Hawaiian Airlines cards in the same day

Also note that Alaska is offering waitlist access for a new premium card that it says will help holders accelerate their path to status.

One more thing to keep in mind for now: Hawaiian Airlines remains a transfer partner with American Express Membership Rewards. I’m thinking about transferring some points to Hawaiian that would convert to Alaska miles.

In the meantime, if you have a status in one of the programs, it probably makes sense for you to perform a status comparison.

Related reading: