Here’s a welcome surprise, Barclays is making the Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Mastercard [slightly] more valuable!
Positive Changes Coming To The Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Mastercard
I received the following notice in the mail recently from Barclays.
As of July 17, 2018, you will now earn 3x HawaiianMiles on purchases directly from Hawaiian Airlines. Not only that, you will now earn 2x HawaiianMiles on gas, dining, and grocery store purchases. The 1x earning rate on everything else remains the same.
There Is A Significant Negative Change As Well
The negative change (as of July 11, 2018) is the loss of the annual 5,000 bonus HawaiianMiles benefit when you spend $10,000 on this card in a cardmember year.
However, you will have one final chance at the bonus for this current cardmember year if you go for the $10,000 spend.
The Bottom Line: Positive Changes Coming To The Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Mastercard
In reality, these changes will only make this card ever slightly more valuable for the vast majority of card holders. Although I do hold this card, I actually consider it a sock-drawer card as I’d rather put spending on my Chase, American Express, or Citi cards.
Why? Remember, not all points and miles are created equal. I [generously] consider HawaiianMiles to be worth abut .05 cents each, while I consider most bank points to be worth a minimum of 1.25 cents each.
This card is valuable to me because I do collect HawaiianMiles and I have used the companion pass $100 discount and free checked bag benefits and consider them worthwhile to me (because I love Hawaii).
But unless you travel frequently to Hawaii or use this card for a “churn and burn”, I wouldn’t recommending putting too much annual spending on this card as the are many other ways to get better bang for your buck (even with these increased bonus point earning rates).
Cheers!
