I'm a long time Pualani Platinum. Will be Million Miler when the programs merge on Oct 1.
I've kept my Plat status primarily to increase my priority when standing by for earlier interisland flights.
The free first come, first served first class upgrades was also a nice.
I usually qualified from an even mix of interisland (15-20 rt/year) and transpac/West Coast flying (4-6 rt/year).
I've also been qualifying for Silver on UA and DL based on 1 trip in J to Europe.

So with the new Atmos Rewards, I'm trying to figure out what is the best strategy.
I'm leaning towards choosing mileage based. What do other HA/Pualani elites think?

Mahalo!

PS: Started a new thread in this forum because I think HA elites are outnumbered by AS MVPs in the AS thread and have a perspective that is unique to being based in Hawaii.

I'm struggling with the same thing. I'm going to have to run the numbers a lot more carefully as we get closer, but for starters I just tried roughing out how many base miles I'd lose with each option. With this year's travel, it looks like segment-based earning wouldn't hurt me as badly as miles-based earning, but both are big hits. Also note that the Crankyflier blog confirmed with AS that the mileage option will exclude class of service bonuses as well as 500-mile minimums, which reduces the value of the mileage option if you ever buy premium cabins or expensive last minute fares. My suspicion is that revenue-based earning may end up being the least worst option overall, which is what AS management presumably wants, and which is pretty disgusting after they assured us over and over again that mileage based earning was here to stay without mentioning the HUGE UGLY CAVEAT that they didn't mean actual, existing mileage based earning but a devalued mileage based earning that takes away key elements of the earning structure as it previously existed.

Still noodling on this. A rough/simplified model of my current travel patterns is something like 60 interisland round trips and 8 west coast per year. Interisland is mix of ITO, KOA, and OGG, with ITO substantially the most frequent destination. West coast is mostly PNW and occasional CA, and I'll ignore longer hauls for the sake of simplicity. In the current program, that's 100K EQM (actually a little higher thanks to the occasional COS bonus) and between 200K and 250K RDM (HA 100% plat bonus on trips credited there vs. AS 150% 100K bonus; would be 250K plus a little for COS bonuses if you applied the AS bonus to all miles earned). In the new program, assuming $150 interisland RT base fare and 350 average actual miles round trip (ITO ~ 430, OGG ~ 200, KOA in between, ITO-heavy blend), earnings would be 60K EQM on the segment option, 21K on the mileage option, or 45K on the revenue option. West coast, assuming 5K BIS round trips and $600 fares, earning would be 8K on the segment option, 40K on the mileage option, and 24K on the revenue option. So total EQM would be 68K on segments, 61K on miles, and 69K on revenue; RDM with Titanium bonus would be 170K on segments, 152.5K on miles, and 172.5K on revenue. So the bottom line is I lose between 30K and 40K EQM whatever I do, and the options are close enough that whatever I pick at the beginning could easily turn out to be the wrong choice depending on actual fares and my actual mix of short and long haul. I suspect I'll end up just letting it default to revenue, since they're pretty clearly headed there sooner or later anyway.

I'd appreciate a take on my scenario: My wife and I only fly F/J, and typically 3-4 West Coast trips a year and maybe 1-2 to Japan. Rarely interisland now that I'm retired. I'm thinking the revenue-based program would be better than the mileage-based program?

Revenue sounds like the way to go, unless they keep the CoS bonuses for F/J which they are apparently not.

I'm leaning towards revenue-based too.
I just feel misled. This new program is a total devaluation for Hawaii based fliers which they supossedly agreed not to do w/ the DOJ.
I'm gonna be a MM/lifetime Gold once the programs merge so gonna try Atmos for 1 year and then might jump ship to DL or UA (I know the grass isn't always greener, but I rarely have a bad experience w/ DL and UA has better partners).

Agree with all of this, except that I like AS and HA for most of my flying and don�t see DL or UA as a better alternative. I jumped on the premium card and want to see what I can get with the companion awards, and Titanium requalification next year will be pretty easy, so I�m probably on the hamster wheel through 2027. After that the question will be whether Titanium and the premium card are worth the hassle. If not, I can drop down a level, move CC spend back to MR/UR, and go free agent for long haul.

So with no COS bonus, let's say you did 4 West Coast R/Ts a year. That puts you at 20,800 flown miles (at give or take 2,600 x 8 segments). Add to that 2 R/Ts to Japan - use Haneda at 3850 x 4 - you're now at 36,200 total.

Comparatively, let's say you're spending $1,500 on each West Coast R/T up front and another $4,000 on the Japan R/Ts in business, you're netting 70,000 status points ($14,000 x 5).

When will you ever burn the miles though?

Interesting analysis. I'm a HNL based United 1K that mostly buys opportunistic F/J tickets but also main cabin. I've wanted to give my loyalty to HA but UA's breadth of schedule and partners has kept be going back for more. I've already requalified for 1k in 2026. Combining HA with AS make their value proposition so much better. I'm considering the Summit credit card and canceling my United Club card, focussing 2026 travel on HA/AS and trying for a status match. Thoughts?

Well, I just booked mileage F tickets RT to SEA for 40K each way per person on the 787. I'll find a way to burn the miles

Am a MM on UA and 1K for over a decade before fully switching over to HA once UA dropped HNL-NRT. I�d see if you can get the match via Hawaiian if at all possible. That might save you the once per lifetime match on the AS side. Generally happier on the HA side apart from the lack of upgrades. But I was also dying at #1 and 2 on the UA upgrade list out of HNL countless times to count as a 1K.

I hear you about just missing upgrades out of HNL, PP's have often been useless. Good call on the status match.

If the route network works, the loyalty program should at least be better than United's. It will be a couple of years until HA/AS has a proper lounge at HNL, but springing for the Lounge+ membership gets access to the JAL/AA lounge, which is pleasant enough if not ideally located for most HA flights. HA/AS has much more nonstop coverage to the west coast, including more widebody options, and generally multiple connecting options to major destinations farther east, but it doesn't match the majors for smaller destinations. I'm hoping we might see HA on HNL-ORD (or even HNL-DFW) for access to more AA connections in the eastern half of the country, but that would probably have to wait for the expiration of restrictions from their last merger, among other things.

Only negative is the schedule on HA/AS isn't that great when things go sideways; especially HA's side of operations.

Lounges in HNL aren't that great for HA either, if that is important.

That's an excellent point. I do miss UA's IRROPs handling, although not too many issues on the HA side other than a relatively minor delay here and there.

I'm encouraged by the impending lounge plans at HA, which were being pursued prior to the AS acquisition. With the new lounge opening in 2027 and AS's push to double down on the premium experience, it all adds to the value for me. IROPS are not fun at any airline and I suspect AS will bering their "running a hub airline" experience to the operation at HA, which IMO struggles as a hub airline at times. It's also difficult for HA due to geography and size when IROPS happen. It's difficult to reset when flights are so long and far away. Inter-island IROPS, while rare, are much easier to recover.