Alaska, Hawaiian swap in Boeing 787 Dreamliner for...

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 beautiful 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 important improve from Hawaiian’s older Airbus A330 at present 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 mother or father firm of Alaska and Hawaiian) a extra aggressive on-board product with chief Seattle rival, Delta Air Traces, on these transpacific flights.

It was not instantly clear whether or not this modification would result in the 787’s removing from different present Hawaiian-operated routes.

Alaska and Hawaiian merged late final 12 months, and promptly introduced plans to launch a global gateway at Seattle, Alaska’s dwelling base.

I tagged along in May 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 positively 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 12 months.

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.

Earlier this spring, I reported the corporate is planning to unveil an all-new flagship international experience for its long-haul routes.

The plan, Alaska CEO Ben Minicucci instructed 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 will likely be operating Dreamliner flights to Rome beginning in Could 2026.

Reserving Hawaiian’s Dreamliner to Tokyo

Within the meantime, when you’re hoping to make use of factors and miles to e book Hawaiian-operated flights between Seattle and Tokyo for early subsequent 12 months, you’ve gotten a few choices:

Consider, you may also nonetheless transfer miles seamlessly between your Mileage Plan and HawaiianMiles accounts, for now.

New loyalty program subsequent month

However massive adjustments 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 huge change at Alaska and Hawaiian, and plenty of extra developments are on the horizon.