Southwest Flights to Hawaii Are Already Causing Other Airlines to Compete – Here’s One More Way It Will Benefit You
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We’re already seeing positive fruit from the upcoming Southwest service to the Hawaiian Islands.
Southwest expects to begin flying to Hawaii in just a few short months. And you can bet they’ll have competitive prices, along with incredibly customer friendly policies, like 2 free checked bags per passenger and generous change and cancellation policies. Not to mention the holy grail of all travel deals, the Southwest Companion Pass, where you can bring a travel buddy for free whenever you fly Southwest!
All this has other airlines wringing their hands over their own routes to Hawaii. JetBlue and Hawaiian Airlines are already preparing for the competition by expanding their codeshare agreement, which makes reaching Hawaii more convenient for you and me. Here’s how!
The Competition Southwest Is Creating Will Make Hawaii Even Easier to Visit
When Southwest begins its service to Hawaii, most folks will be able to book a flight from just about anywhere Southwest serves to reach Hawaii with a single connection. Awesome!
And now, thanks to this expanded partnership between JetBlue and Hawaiian Airlines, you can book a flight from a whole bunch of cities JetBlue serves and reach Hawaii with just 1 connection. JetBlue will fly from these cities to its hub in Boston, and then transfer passengers to a nonstop flight to Honolulu.
You can now use these cities to reach Hawaii on JetBlue and Hawaiian Airlines with this new codeshare:
- Atlanta
- Buffalo
- Charlotte
- Charleston
- Chicago
- Detroit
- Fort Lauderdale
- Fort Myers
- Jacksonville
- Minneapolis
- Nashville
- New York (both LGA and JFK)
- Newark
- Orlando
- Palm Beach
- Raleigh-Durham
- Savannah
- Syracuse
- Tampa
- Washington, DC (DCA)
Basically, you can buy tickets to Honolulu from these cities with 1 ticket instead of 2, and you can have your bags checked all the way to Hawaii. And you’ll of course be able to earn JetBlue points for all flights.
But if JetBlue and Hawaiian Airlines want to actually compete with Southwest, they’d better publish some amazing deals to boot! Most of us are stocking up on Southwest points by opening Chase Southwest cards, because ALL 4 cards currently have increased limited-time bonuses. Or you could collect Chase Ultimate Rewards points with cards like the Ink Business Preferred Credit Card and Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, and transfer them instantly to Southwest for free flights to Hawaii.
Let us know your Hawaii vacation strategy! Do you plan to use your points to the Aloha State, or do you think competition will drive down prices and make your points more valuable for other destinations?
Hat Tip: Simple Flying
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