International airline offers free domestic flights to U.S. travelers

In the latest air travel news, Alaska Airlines has closed its acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines, subject to conditions imposed by the Transportation Department, and described the immediate and longer-term impacts on passengers; JetBlue unveiled plans to open lounges for premium passengers in two airports; Mexico’s Volaris is slated to introduce a new route from Oakland next spring, and international route news comes from American, SAS, United and Air Canada; Japan Airlines offers free domestic flights to its international passengers; Hawaiian Airlines schedules extra flights to Honolulu from the West Coast for the holidays; United begins a new Utah route from LAX this month, and Breeze Airways plans to add one from Washington Dulles in October; American drops even more routes from Austin; JetBlue adds an East Coast carrier to its TrueBlue loyalty program; and Orange County-Santa Ana ranked No. 1 among large airports in the latest J.D. Power survey, but other California airports didn’t fare as well. 

Less than 24 hours after the Transportation Department approved Alaska Airlines’ acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines this week — with conditions attached — Alaska said the transaction had been completed, with Hawaiian’s stock delisted from the Nasdaq exchange. Last month, the Justice Department’s antitrust regulators declined to challenge the merger, apparently finding no significant concerns about its impact on competition within the airline industry.

But DOT said it cleared the deal subject to “binding, enforceable public-interest protections” aimed at “preventing harms to the traveling public, rural communities, and smaller airline competitors.” Some of those protections are aimed at members of both airlines’ loyalty programs, specifically: (1) All miles earned in either carrier’s loyalty program before their conversion into a combined program must not expire; (2) rewards members must be able to transfer miles between loyalty programs at a 1-to-1 ratio before the programs are combined; (3) the combined companies must not do anything to devalue miles in the HawaiianMiles program; (4) the combined loyalty program must match or increase the elite status levels currently held by HawaiianMiles members; and (5) the combined carrier cannot impose change or cancellation fees on reward tickets. 

Additional conditions imposed by DOT require the combined carrier to maintain “robust levels of service” for interisland transportation and on key routes between Hawaii and the mainland; to continue supporting essential air service to smaller communities in Hawaii and Alaska; to take no actions that would discriminate against new airline entrants or smaller carriers gaining access to Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye International Airport; to guarantee no fees will be charged for family members to sit together; and to provide frequent flyer miles or travel credits when a passenger has to wait three hours or more past the scheduled departure time due to a flight delay or cancellation within the airline’s control. DOT said the Alaska-Hawaiian approval marks a new, “more proactive approach” in its merger reviews: “For the first time, DOT is requiring airlines to agree to binding, enforceable public interest protections in order to permit the airlines to close their merger.”

So what happens next? For now, Alaska said, the two airlines “will continue to operate as separate carriers with no immediate changes to operations,” maintaining their own websites, reservation systems and loyalty programs “until later in the integration process.” One immediate change: Members of Alaska’s airport lounge program can now access Alaska Lounges when they fly on Hawaiian. In the weeks ahead, members of each airline’s loyalty program will be able to transfer miles between them at a 1-to-1 ratio, with no fee; and starting later this month, customers can buy tickets for Hawaiian flights on the Alaska website and for Alaska flights on the Hawaiian Airlines website.

Alaska said it will also introduce a new program of discounts and benefits for Hawaii residents, who will be invited by email to sign up. In the “coming months,” Alaska said, loyalty members will be able to earn Mileage Plan miles or HawaiianMiles when flying on either airline, and elite members will be able to link their accounts automatically, maintaining their status on either airline. Early next year, Alaska members will be able to redeem Mileage Plan miles on all Hawaiian flights, including international ones. Behind the scenes, Alaska said, it will work to secure a single operating certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration, “which will allow the two airlines to operate as a single carrier with an integrated passenger service system” — leading some observers to wonder how long Alaska will continue to maintain Hawaiian as a separate brand over the long term. 

JetBlue has slowly been adding its premium Mint cabins to more routes in recent years, and now it is set to introduce another high-end product for passengers: airport lounges. The airline said it plans to open airport lounges in New York JFK’s Terminal 5 late next year and in Boston Logan’s Terminal C soon after that. JetBlue said it also plans to roll out a new premium credit card, and access to the new lounges will be available to holders of that card, as well as to Mosaic 4 members of its TrueBlue loyalty program and Mint passengers on its transatlantic flights. Details of the new credit card will be announced soon, JetBlue said. The cardholders and Mosaic 4 members will be allowed to bring a guest into the lounges for no fee, and the airline will also sell day passes and guest passes based on availability, along with an annual pass.

In international route news, the Mexican carrier Volaris is slated to add new service from Oakland next spring. The carrier plans to start flying once a day from OAK to Los Cabos in Baja California on March 20. Depending on the day, flights go for as low as $99. Volaris is also slated to add new U.S. routes from Miami to Monterrey beginning March 30 and from Denver to Monterrey effective April 1. American Airlines announced it will also introduce a new route to Mexico next year, launching daily nonstop American Eagle/Envoy Air flights from its Dallas-Fort Worth hub to Tampico on Mexico’s east coast starting March 5 with an Embraer E170 regional jet. Scandinavian Airlines, which recently left United’s global Star Alliance and joined Delta’s SkyTeam, said it will begin flying to Seattle next year as its 11th North American gateway. SAS plans to operate Seattle-Copenhagen flights five days a week beginning May 21, with onward connections available to 39 European cities. United is making some tweaks to its 2025 transatlantic schedules: It is slated to suspend service from its Newark hub to Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands effective April 30, with plans to resume it for the winter season later next year. United is also pushing back the start date for its seasonal Newark-Reykjavik, Iceland, route from May 22 to June 26. When Air Canada’s summer 2025 transborder schedule begins May 1, it is due to increase service between San Francisco International and Montreal from 13 flights a week to 20.

Japan Airlines has a new offer for international travelers: free domestic flights. Effective immediately, JAL said, the offer is available to passengers from select countries (including the U.S.) when they book their international and domestic flights on JAL in a single reservation. It applies to any destination within Japan served by JAL. Passengers who stay in their arrival city (e.g., Tokyo) more than 24 hours before taking the domestic flight are subject to a $100 stopover fee. “No additional charges apply for travelers from other countries for the domestic segments,” JAL said. 

In other Japan news, Alaska Airlines is expanding its code-share partnership with Japan Airlines starting Oct. 27 by putting its code onto a number of JAL domestic routes. Newly code-shared Alaska flights will include JAL service from Tokyo Haneda to Aomori, Asahikawa, Fukuoka, Hiroshima, Matsuyama, Miyazaki, Nagoya, Okinawa and Osaka Kansai, and from Tokyo Narita to Nagoya and Osaka Itami. 

On the domestic side, Hawaiian Airlines plans to lay on extra flights between Honolulu and the West Coast for the year-end holidays, adding a daily San Francisco departure Nov. 23-26, Dec. 1-2 and Dec. 16-Jan. 7. The airline is also slated to operate extra Seattle-Honolulu flights Nov. 23-26, Dec. 1-2 and Dec. 16-Jan. 7, as well as an additional Los Angeles-Honolulu flight Dec. 19-21, Dec. 26-28 and Jan. 2-6.

United Airlines is due to bring back service from Los Angeles International to St. George, Utah, on Sept. 26 after a four-year suspension. United Express/Skywest plans to fly the route once a day with a CRJ200 regional jet. Like other airlines, American had big expansion plans for Austin Bergstrom Airport in Texas during the pandemic, adding 24 new routes there in 2021. But American has since been shrinking its AUS presence, according to the Points Guy, cutting 21 routes there last year and five more this summer — and now another round of cuts is coming. The carrier is discontinuing its California route from Austin to Orange County effective Jan. 5, but first, it’s terminating its service from Austin to Boston, Nashville and Raleigh-Durham in early November. Breeze Airways is set to open a new route from Washington Dulles to Provo, Utah, Oct. 1 with three flights a week. On the East Coast, JetBlue has had a code-sharing arrangement with the New England regional carrier Cape Air since 2007, but now it is expanding that partnership. JetBlue said customers can now earn and spend TrueBlue loyalty program points on select Cape Air flights when they book them through the JetBlue website or mobile app. Cape Air, based in Hyannis, Massachusetts, serves 32 cities in the U.S. and Caribbean with a fleet of 98 aircraft.

Despite the increasing crowds as travel continues to boom, 60% of airline passengers are still pretty happy with their airport experience, according to the new J.D. Power 2024 North America Airport Satisfaction Study that came out this week. However, “we are starting to see a breaking point in consumer spending, with the average spend per person in the terminal declining significantly from a year ago,” said J.D. Power’s Michael Taylor. Spending at airports dropped by $3.53 per person overall in 2024 and by $6.31 at the largest airports. Only 5% of the respondents to the 2024 survey said they found airports to be “severely crowded,” but their satisfaction score drops dramatically when they do. 

Orange County’s John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana won the highest satisfaction rating among large airports in the 2024 survey, J.D. Power said, with Sacramento’s airport ranking seventh in that category and San Jose Mineta coming in 10th. Oakland finished 19th and San Diego was 21st among the 27 entrants in the large airport category. Among the 20 “mega airports” in the survey, traveler satisfaction at San Francisco International ranked sixth, and Los Angeles International finished in 12th place with a below-average score. The top-ranked mega airport was Minneapolis-St. Paul, followed in order by Detroit, Phoenix, New York JFK, and Dallas-Fort Worth. The study also had a category for 15 medium-sized airports, where Hollywood Burbank finished in 13th place and Indianapolis ranked first. The lowest-rated airports were Newark in the mega category, Philadelphia among large airports, and Cleveland in the medium airport category.