Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Mastercard | Bankrate (2024)

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• Rewards

  • 3X HawaiianMiles on eligible Hawaiian Airlines purchases
  • 2X HawaiianMiles on gas, dining purchases and eligible grocery stores
  • 1X HawaiianMiles on all other purchases

  Expert Appraisal: Typical
  See our expert analysis

• Welcome offer

  • 70,000 HawaiianMiles after spending $2,000 on purchases in the first 90 days

  Expert Appraisal: Good
  See our expert analysis

• Rates and fees

  • Annual fee: $99
  • Foreign transaction fee: $0
  • Regular APR: 21.24 percent to 29.99 percent variable APR
  • Balance transfer fee: Either $5 or 5 percent, whichever is greater
  • Cash advance fee: Either $10 or 5 percent, whichever is greater
  • Late payment fees: Up to $40
  • Returned payment fees: Up to $40

  Expert Appraisal: Typical
  See our expert analysis

• Other cardholder perks

  • Two free checked bags for the primary cardmember on eligible flights purchased with Hawaiian Airlines directly
  • $100 annual companion discount for a roundtrip ticket between Hawaii and North America on Hawaiian Airlines on your account anniversary
  • One-time 50 percent companion discount for a roundtrip ticket between Hawaii and North America on Hawaiian Airlines
  • Up to $10/day InFlight purchase credit for Pualani Platinum and Gold members (up to $100 annually)

  Expert Appraisal: Good
  See our expert analysis

The Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Mastercard can quickly boost your HawaiianMiles balance while offering valuable perks and discounts on travel.

Welcome offer: Valuable for a Hawaiian trip

New Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Mastercard cardholders can earn 70,000 bonus miles after spending $2,000 in purchases in the first 90 days. According to Bankrate’s latest point valuations, HawaiianMiles are worth around 0.7 cents per point. At that valuation, the welcome bonus would be worth approximately $490 — a return of 24.5 percent.

With this welcome offer, you’ll get excellent value for a manageable amount of spending. For an example of how far this bonus may take you, Saver awards with Hawaiian start at 7,500 for inter-island flights and 20,000 miles one-way between Hawaii and the mainland. Partner airlines could also help you get more value from your miles via higher transferred point values.

Perks: Solid flight benefits

The best feature of the Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Mastercard is the flight-related perks with Hawaiian Airlines. You’ll get two checked bags free when you use the card to purchase domestic Hawaiian Airlines flights directly through the airline, which can save as much as $85. You’ll also be eligible for discounted award flights on Hawaiian Airlines and can send and receive miles from friends and family without a fee. Miles don’t expire as long as your card is active and in good standing.

When you sign up for the card, you’ll get a one-time, 50 percent-off companion discount for round-trip travel between North America and Hawaii on Hawaiian Airlines. Every year, you’ll also get a $100 companion discount for round-trip travel between North America and Hawaii on Hawaiian Airlines on your account anniversary. Using just these two perks is more than enough to offset the card’s annual fee.

Finally, Pualani Platinum and Gold members can get even more value with an annual credit of up to $100 of InFlight credits on eligible flight purchases for up to $10 per day.

The Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Mastercard might not be for you if you need an intro APR offer or want to earn points with more flexibility. You can also earn more HawaiianMiles with other cards.

Rewards: Earn more with Amex cards

The Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Mastercard earns 3X miles on eligible purchases with Hawaiian Airlines and 2X miles on grocery store, gas and dining transactions. All other transactions earn 1X miles. You can also earn additional bonus points by shopping with participating partners through the HawaiianMiles Marketplace, flying partner airline flights, and staying at partner hotels.

You can redeem miles for flights on Hawaiian Airlines or Hawaiian’s partner airlines (JetBlue, Japan Airlines, Korean Air, China Airlines and Virgin Australia). You may also redeem HawaiianMiles with partners for car rental gift certificates, magazines and more, but these don’t provide good value.

However, you can earn more HawaiianMiles in many categories with an eligible American Express Membership Rewards card. One of the best ways to spend Membership Rewards points is to transfer to Amex’s travel partners, which includes Hawaiian Airlines. So, any card that outearns the Hawaiian card in any particular category will effectively earn more HawaiianMiles than this card. You’ll also have the superior redemption flexibility that Amex provides.

Bankrate’s take:Hawaiian Airlines purchases with The Platinum Card® from American Express earn 5X points versus 3X miles on the Hawaiian card. You’ll forgo benefits like free checked baggage by not using the Hawaiian card, but you’ll earn more points with more flexibility. Many other Amex cards also earn more than the 2X miles earned in the Hawaiian card’s bonus categories or the 1X miles on other purchases. So, if you want to accrue significant miles, you may be better off using a different card in the Amex family to boost your balance.

Rates and fees: Fairly typical

The card carries a $99 annual fee, comparable to other co-branded airline cards. The remaining costs are also fairly typical and don’t do much to prop up the card’s value. You’ll want to ensure you get enough value from the airline-specific perks to justify the annual fee.

On the bright side, this card does not charge foreign transaction fees. Barclays cards can also be helpful while traveling abroad if you need chip and pin technology, which you might use at places like a kiosk at a train station.

The Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Mastercard provides solid value if you fly Hawaiian Airlines at least once a year. Since it charges an annual fee, you’ll only see a return if you consistently use the checked bag credit and companion discount or redeem enough flights to benefit from this card’s miles rewards structure.

But if you don’t fly with Hawaiian Airlines, can’t use the companion discounts or want more reward flexibility, you may be better off with a different general travel credit card.

We rate credit cards using a proprietary card scoring system that ranks each card’s estimated average rewards rate, estimated annual earnings, welcome bonus value, APR, fees, perks and more against those of other cards in its primary category.

Each card feature is assigned a weighting based on how important it is to people looking for a card in a given category. These features are then scored based on how they rank relative to the features on other cards in the category. Based on these calculations, each card receives an overall rating of 1-5 stars (with 5 being the highest possible score and 1 being the lowest).

We analyzed over 150 of the most popular rewards and cash back cards to determine where each stacked up based on their value, cost, benefits and more. Here are some of the key factors that influenced this card’s overall score and how the score influenced our review:

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