Credit Card Review: Barclays Hawaiian Airlines Business
Hawaiian Airlines is the largest airline in Hawaii, and it first started its aviation journey as Inter-Island Airways, flying between Hawaiian islands. Now, Hawaiian Airlines offers long-haul international flights and established its brand with its signature Aloha spirit. Crew members wear Aloha shirts, and Hawaiian music plays when boarding airplanes. Hawaiian Airlines serves macadamia nuts as a snack, and you can sip on Mai Tai as you fly to the Aloha State. If you’ve been dreaming of having a vacation in Hawaii, you may want to sign up for a Hawaiian Airlines credit card. Both personal and business versions of the credit card offer lucrative sign-up bonuses, and the business version, the Hawaiian Airlines business card, is waiving its annual fee for a limited time. Here’s my review of the Barclays Hawaiian Airlines Business card:
Dreaming of exploring the Aloha State? The Hawaiian Airlines Business card can earn you a free trip to Hawaii. Photo by Braden Jarvis on Unsplash.
Do I Need to Own a Business to Be Approved for a Business Credit Card?
When I suggest opening a business credit card to my friends and colleagues, most of them respond, “Well, I don’t own a business.” The real question boils down to, “Do you need to own a business to be approved for a business credit card?” Yes, you need to have a business, but no, you don’t need an established corporation or LLC to qualify as a business owner to most institutions. In reality, sole proprietorship qualifies for many business credit card applications, and most side gigs or hustles certainly count. For instance, if you were to sell old clothes on eBay or Craigslist, you would qualify for a business line of credit. Do you tutor students after school or over the summer? Sole proprietorship right there. What if you were to, say, write blogs for fun? Once again, sole proprietorship. If you want to learn more about applying for small business credit cards, check out my article about the topic!
Sign-Up Bonus & Multipliers
The Hawaiian Airlines business card currently offers a sign-up bonus of 80,000 HawaiianMiles and a $99 statement credit after spending $2,000 in the first 90 days. This is a limited-time offer, and with a 0.9 cents per mile valuation, the sign-up bonus is worth $720. Before you hit the apply button, be aware of Barclays' credit card application rules. You won't be eligible for this elevated offer if you’ve received a sign-up bonus for the Hawaiian Business card within the last 24 months.
The Barclays Hawaiian Airlines Business card currently offers an elevated sign-up bonus for a limited time. Apply before it’s gone!
The Hawaiian Business card earns 3X HawaiianMiles on eligible Hawaiian Airlines purchases and 2X HawaiianMiles on gas, dining, and office supply store purchases. All other purchases will earn 1X HawaiianMiles. The multipliers are the weakest parts of the card. Even if you are a frequent Hawaiian Airlines flyer, getting 2.7% back on airline tickets is not as good as earning 3X ThankYou points back using the Citi Premier card, which equals earning 6% back. However, I still argue that the card is worth it for its sign-up offer.
Annual Fee & Benefits
The annual fee of the Hawaiian Business card is $99, but with the limited-time offer, you can get the card practically for free. While getting the annual fee “waiver” is great, the benefits are not strong.
50% Companion Travel Discount
When you book a roundtrip coach ticket between Hawaii and North America using the Hawaiian Business card, you can receive a one-time 50% discount for a companion. Remember that taxes and fees are not included in the discount, and the coupon is valid for 13 months from account opening. The discount certificate could potentially save you hundreds of dollars, especially if you live on the East Coast.
Traveling with a companion is double the fun! Lower the trip cost by using the 50% companion travel discount certificate by the Hawaiian Airlines Business card. Photo by Caleb George on Unsplash.
Annual Spend Bonus
Cardmembers can earn 20,000 bonus HawaiianMiles after spending between $50,000 and $99,999 on the Hawaiian Business card within each cardmember year, and they can double the bonus miles and earn 40,000 bonus HawaiianMiles after spending $100,000 or more within each cardmember year. Earning bonus miles is great and all, but I don’t recommend spending a lot on the card specifically for the bonus since 20,000 and 40,000 HawaiianMiles are worth about $180 and $360, respectively. I don’t think the return rate is significant, and there are other credit cards with better earning rates than the Hawaiian Business card. If you would like to learn more about what credit cards you should sign up for next, please utilize our complimentary consultation service!
The Biggest Drawback of the Hawaiian Business Card—Baggage Fees
The biggest drawback of the Hawaiian Business card is that even though it is an airline credit card, it does not waive baggage fees. However, cardmembers of the personal Hawaiian Airline credit card—Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Mastercard—will get their first checked bag free. I thought it was extremely odd that only the personal credit card receives the baggage fee benefit. Without holding the personal version of the Hawaiian Airlines credit card or having frequent flyer status, you will pay $30 for the first checked bag and $40 for the second checked bag if your flight originates from North America. Every time I went to Hawaii, I at least brought one checked bag, and you can imagine how quickly baggage fees Being able to check the first baggage for free is arguably one of the best benefits of airline credit cards. I hope Hawaiian Airlines enhances the Hawaiian Business card by incorporating the baggage fee benefit to the card in the near future.
An airline co-branded credit card without the first checked baggage fee waiver doesn’t make sense to me. Photo by Dimitri Karastelev on Unsplash.
Redeeming HawaiianMiles
The easiest use case of HawaiianMiles is to book Hawaiian Airlines award flights. 80,000 HawaiianMiles can yield a main cabin roundtrip ticket and still have some leftover miles. If you are lucky, you could score a first-class roundtrip ticket, but expect to see first-class one-way tickets in the 40,000-80,000 Hawaiian Miles range.
You can easily find a roundtrip award flight costing 60,000 HawaiianMiles originating from the East Coast. Photo by Hawaiian Airlines.
Although Hawaiian Airlines is not part of the three major aviation alliances (SkyTeam, Star Alliance, and Oneworld), it partners with five airlines:
Japan Airlines
JetBlue
Korean Air
Virgin Atlantic
Virgin Australia
Except for JetBlue, the other four partner airlines publish award charts, and you can score some fantastic deals, especially traveling between Asian countries.
Summary
The Hawaiian Business card by Barclays currently offers a generous sign-up bonus of 80,000 HawaiianMiles and a statement credit of $99 after spending $2,000 in the first 90 days. The card’s annual fee is $99, so if you can meet the spending requirement, you will get the card for free for your first year of card ownership. The Hawaiian Business card doesn’t have significant benefits, and its multipliers are weaker than other travel credit cards. However, the elevated sign-up offer could yield great award tickets to Hawaii if you’ve been dreaming of vacationing in the Aloha State.
