Report updated May 5, 2026
Alaska Hawaiian
For travelers flying with Alaska Airlines or Hawaiian Airlines who require mobile booking, check-in, and loyalty account management.
Alaska Hawaiian is a challenged travel app that is completely free. With a 4.8/5 rating from 1.6M reviews, it faces significant user friction. Users particularly appreciate reliable flight operations and on-time performance keep frequent travelers satisfied with the core service, though forced browser-based authentication loops prevent seamless access to boarding passes and account information remains a common concern.
What is Alaska Hawaiian?
Alaska Hawaiian is a travel utility app for Alaska and Hawaiian Airlines customers, providing booking, check-in, and loyalty management on iOS and Android.
Users hire the app to manage travel logistics and loyalty status, but the current authentication friction prevents the app from serving as a reliable single source of truth during travel days.
Current Momentum
v8.5 · today
Active- Integrated Hawaiian Airlines functionality.
- Added brand experience toggle.
Active Nemesis
United Airlines
By United Airlines
Other Rivals
7-Day Rank Pulse 🇺🇸
TravelRating Pulse 🇺🇸
Recent User Mood
What makes this app unique?
What Does It Look Like?
What Are The Key Features?
Allows users to toggle between Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines visual themes within the app settings
Tracks points activity and status progress directly within the user profile
Provides a discount on checked baggage fees when payment is processed through the app
How much does it cost?
- Free app for all users
The app functions as a free utility to drive direct bookings and ancillary revenue through baggage fees and seat upgrades.
Who Built It?
Providing end-to-end flight management and loyalty rewards integration for Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines passengers.
Portfolio
2
Apps
What other apps does Alaska Airlines make?
Fly for All - Alaska Airlines
Explore the full Alaska Airlines report
Portfolio breakdown, audience, momentum, and every app published by Alaska Airlines.
What do users think recently?
High confidence · 99 reviews analyzed · Based on 99 reviews. Signal may be noisy.
How did the latest release land?
What is the recent mood?
Recent user voice shows a frustrated sentiment. Users appreciate reliable flight operations and on-time performance keep frequent travelers satisfied with the core service, but report forced browser-based authentication loops prevent seamless access to boarding passes and account information.
What Users Love
What Frustrates Users
What Users Want
View the full user-sentiment analysis
Mood gauge, ratings & review-volume history, every praise / complaint / request, and sentiment over time.
What is the competitive landscape for Alaska Hawaiian?
Where is it available?
Localized markets (1)
How's The Travel Market?
How does it evolve in the Travel market?
Alaska Hawaiian holds the #25 Free position in the US Travel category, but the 8-spot gap between its Free and Grossing ranks suggests missed opportunities in ancillary revenue conversion.
Rank progression
14 active rankings tracked — 30-day window
The rivals identified
Nemeses(1)
With nearly 8 million ratings and a high-velocity release cadence of 19 updates in six months, United represents the primary benchmark for full-service airline digital experience.
Differentiators
- Maintains a massive, integrated loyalty ecosystem that drives daily engagement beyond simple flight booking transactions.
- High-frequency release cycle allows for rapid iteration on airport navigation and real-time flight status updates.
- Deeply entrenched digital infrastructure creates high switching costs for frequent flyers tied to their loyalty program.
Head to head
The target app must prioritize feature parity in post-booking services to prevent user churn to more comprehensive airline ecosystems.
Contenders(4)
Strong niche positioning with a high rating, focusing on a superior customer experience for the transcontinental traveler.
Differentiators
- Prioritizes a modern, visually-driven booking interface that differentiates itself from the more utilitarian legacy airline apps.
- Focuses on in-flight entertainment and connectivity management features that appeal to the modern, tech-savvy traveler.
High release velocity indicates a strong commitment to digital transformation and feature parity with other major carriers.
Differentiators
- Aggressively updates mobile boarding pass functionality to integrate with digital wallets and third-party travel management platforms.
- Provides robust in-app support for complex international travel requirements and document verification processes.
A dominant force in the domestic market with a distinct, simplified booking model that attracts a massive, loyal user base.
Differentiators
- Optimized for a unique 'no-hidden-fees' booking flow that simplifies the purchase path for price-sensitive leisure travelers.
- Features a streamlined check-in process specifically designed to manage their unique open-seating boarding group system.
Delta maintains a massive user base and consistent update cadence, serving as a direct competitor for the premium traveler segment.
Differentiators
- Integrates advanced baggage tracking and real-time airport wait time data directly into the primary user dashboard.
- Provides a highly polished, brand-consistent interface that reinforces premium service positioning for frequent business travelers.
Same space(3)
A global travel powerhouse that provides a comprehensive, all-in-one booking experience for international travelers.
Differentiators
- Offers deep integration for multi-modal travel bookings including trains, flights, and hotels in a single interface.
- Provides localized support and payment options that cater to a diverse, global user base.
A high-velocity competitor in the travel booking space that excels at conversion through aggressive pricing and bundling.
Differentiators
- Utilizes dynamic 'Express Deals' to drive high conversion rates among price-sensitive users looking for bundled travel.
- Maintains a high release cadence to optimize the checkout flow and reduce friction in multi-service bookings.
Provides a broad travel planning layer that influences airline choice through community-driven content and destination insights.
Differentiators
- Leverages a massive database of user-generated reviews to influence travel decisions at the top of the funnel.
- Offers integrated booking capabilities that keep users within their ecosystem for the entire duration of their trip.
Compare Alaska Hawaiian against every rival
All rivals in one side-by-side table — identity, store metrics, ratings & sentiment, and strategic intel — plus a head-to-head page for each.
The outtake for Alaska Hawaiian
Strengths to defend, gaps to attack
Core Strengths
- Dual-brand personalization retains legacy HawaiianMiles loyalty
- Atmos Rewards integration drives repeat booking loops
- Discounted baggage fees incentivize direct app conversion
Critical Frictions
- Forced web-based authentication loops
- Post-merger reservation sync failures
- High reliance on phone support
Growth Levers
- Biometric authentication integration
- Full reservation data unification
- Wearable companion app development
Market Threats
- United's high-velocity release cadence
- TripIt's superior itinerary consolidation
- Airalo's disruption of international connectivity
What are the next best moves?
Ship biometric authentication because login friction is the top-cited user complaint → increase daily active usage
User sentiment analysis identifies forced web-based login as the primary retention blocker.
Trade-off: Delay the wearable companion app sprint to Q3 — authentication is a higher-frequency pain point.
Unify reservation data logic because sync failures drive support-channel bottlenecks → reduce call center volume
High frequency of complaints regarding missing booking data post-merger.
Trade-off: Pause non-essential UI theme updates — reservation stability is critical for travel-day trust.
A counter-intuitive read
The app's #25 category rank is a liability, as maintenance-mode updates post-merger leave it vulnerable to agile competitors like TripIt that solve the travel-day friction the app currently creates.
Feature Gaps vs Competitors
- Real-time baggage tracking (available in Fly Delta but missing here)
- Automated itinerary consolidation (available in TripIt but missing here)
Key Takeaways
The app retains loyalty through brand-specific features but risks churn due to authentication friction, so the PM must prioritize biometric login to stabilize the user experience.
Where Is It Heading?
Declining
The travel app market is consolidating around high-utility, low-friction experiences that automate the travel day. Alaska Hawaiian is currently exposed due to post-merger technical debt, so the PM must stabilize the core reservation flow to prevent churn to competitors like United.
Technical regressions in the latest update cause reservation sync failures, which forces users into high-wait-time support channels and erodes trust.
The lack of biometric authentication forces repetitive manual logins, which creates a daily friction point that discourages frequent app engagement.