With a substantial welcome bonus for a reasonable spend requirement, the Hawaiian Airlines® World Elite Business Mastercard®
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The information for the Hawaiian Airlines® World Elite Business Mastercard® has been collected independently by Blueprint. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
can help you fly to the Aloha State, but offers little in the way of travel or business benefits.
Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Business Mastercard basics
- Annual fee: $99.
- Welcome bonus: 60,000 bonus HawaiianMiles after spending $2,000 on purchases, plus earn an additional 10,000 bonus HawaiianMiles after a purchase is made on an employee card, each within the first 90 days of account opening.
- Rewards: Earn 3 HawaiianMiles per $1 on eligible Hawaiian Airlines purchases, 2 miles per $1 on gas, dining and office supply store purchases and 1 mile per $1 on all other purchases.
- Regular APR: 20.99% or 29.99% variable.
- Other perks and benefits: One-time 50% off companion discount. Fee-free mile-sharing with family and friends.
- Does the issuer offer a preapproval tool? None.
- Recommended credit score: Good to excellent.
About the Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Business Mastercard
As one of the most desired and remote vacation spots in the country, Hawaii is also one of the most expensive to get to. But with the right airline, miles and planning, it doesn’t have to be. Enter the Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Business Mastercard.
The Barclays-issued card offers a welcome bonus of 60,000 bonus HawaiianMiles after spending $2,000 on purchases, plus earn an additional 10,000 bonus HawaiianMiles after a purchase is made on an employee card, each within the first 90 days of account opening.
With few category bonuses and low earning rates, even for business-related expenses, growing your HawaiianMiles is not so easy after the welcome bonus.
The $99-annual-fee card has an earning rate of 3 HawaiianMiles per $1 on eligible Hawaiian Airlines purchases, 2 miles per $1 on gas, dining and office supply store purchases and 1 mile per $1 on all other purchases. Cardholders also receive a one-time, 50% off companion discount for roundtrip coach travel between Hawaii and North America on Hawaiian Airlines — a cash-saving alternative to redeeming miles.
The Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Business Mastercard does offer a rare perk of allowing mile-pooling. With Share Miles you can send and receive miles from family and friends for no fee, which is helpful given how hard it can be to earn HawaiianMiles outside of the welcome bonus.
Pros
- Welcome bonus: You can earn a solid 60,000 bonus HawaiianMiles after spending $2,000 on purchases, plus earn an additional 10,000 bonus HawaiianMiles after a purchase is made on an employee card, each within the first 90 days of account opening.
- Share miles: Send and receive miles from family and friends through HawaiianAirlines.com without a fee.
- Companion discount: Cardholders get a one-time, 50% off companion discount for roundtrip coach travel between Hawaii and North America.
Cons
- Niche travel rewards: The highest earning rate is only earned for eligible purchases on Hawaiian Airlines.
- Annual fee: $99 is a high annual fee for a card with low miles rewards.
- High spend for annual bonus: You have to spend a minimum of $50,000 to receive 20,000 annual bonus miles.
- Low earning rate: There are few category bonuses and low mileage multipliers.
- No baggage fee waiver: You’ll have to pay for all your checked bags.
Welcome bonus
Hawaiian Airlines flies to and from four Hawaiian islands, over a dozen mainland cities and ten international airports. You’ll need a good chunk of miles if you want to fly to the 50th state while sipping a Mai Tai above the Pacific, but the substantial welcome bonus can certainly help.
The Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Business Mastercard’s earning rate of 3 HawaiianMiles per $1 on eligible Hawaiian Airlines purchases, 2 miles per $1 on gas, dining and office supply store purchases and 1 mile per $1 on all other purchases is average at best.
Anniversary miles
There is the opportunity to earn 20,000 bonus miles if you spend $50,000 to $99,999 in annual purchases or 40,000 bonus miles if you spend $100,000 or more, but that’s a significant amount of spend that you’d be better off putting on a card with more lucrative perks.
Miles redemption
While many airlines have moved away from award charts in favor of dynamic pricing, Hawaiian Airlines still has a set award chart organized by region, and Hawaiian Airlines cardholders have exclusive access to discounted main cabin flight awards. Point redemptions vary by region, season and flight class.
On the low end, you can redeem 7,500 miles for intra-Hawaii flights. Flights from mainland U.S. to Hawaii start at 17,500 miles for economy and 40,000 miles for first class.
A generous feature of the HawaiianMiles program is that miles never expire. And with the Share Miles program, Hawaiian Airlines Business Mastercard cardholders can send and receive miles from family and friends for free, making award redemptions more attainable.
Partner airlines
Hawaiian Airlines is not part of any airline alliance but it does have codeshare agreements with several major airlines, including JetBlue Airways and Korean Air. Partner flights have their own unique redemptions but can only be booked as roundtrip flights.
APR
The variable APR for the Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Business Mastercard is 20.99% or 29.99% variable APR on purchases and balance transfers. A balance transfer fee of either $5 or 3% of each transfer, whichever is greater, applies.
Other benefits
The Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Business Mastercard offers surprisingly few perks for a business card with an annual fee, but it does have some. For example, the card offers complimentary employee cards, which can help you earn rewards faster while controlling business spending.
But most of its additional benefits come from the World Elite Mastercard, including:
- Monthly $5 credit on Lyft when you use your card for three rides.
- DashPass from DoorDash.
- ID theft monitoring and alerts.
- Access to exclusive Priceless.com experiences.
- 24/7 concierge services.
- Luxury hotel and resort perks like complimentary breakfast and amenity credits up to $100.
Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Business Mastercard rewards potential
Using government data and other publicly available information, we estimate that a household in the U.S. that would be in the market for this card has an annual income of $84,352 and $25,087 in expenses they are likely to be able to charge to a credit card.
Assuming that the annual household spend on airlines is spent exclusively on Hawaiian Airlines, the Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Business Mastercard cardholder would earn:
- $1,188 in spending on eligible airlines x 3 = 3,564 miles
- $2,228 in spending on gas x 2 = 4,456 miles
- $3,526 in spending on dining x 2 = 7,052 miles
- $720 in spending on office supplies x 2 = 1,440 miles
- $17,425 in spending on all other purchases x1 = 17,425 miles
For a grand total of 33,937 in rewards miles annually.
How the Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Business Mastercard compares to other travel reward cards
Hawaiian Airlines Business Mastercard vs. Hawaiian Airlines® World Elite Mastercard®
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The information for the Hawaiian Airlines® World Elite Mastercard® has been collected independently by Blueprint. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
The Hawaiian Airlines Business Mastercard’s biggest competition is its sister card: the personal Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Mastercard. The personal card also has a $99-annual-fee and with a welcome bonus offer of 70,000 bonus HawaiianMiles after spending $2,000 on purchases within the first 90 days, but differentiates itself with its perks.
The Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Mastercard comes with two free checked bags for the primary cardholder when you use the card to purchase tickets, a $100 annual companion ticket discount, and the same one-time 50% off companion discount that the Business Mastercard has.
Similar to the business card, the personal card earns 3 HawaiianMiles per $1 on eligible purchases made directly from Hawaiian Airlines, 2 HawaiianMiles per $1 on gas, dining and grocery store purchases and 1 HawaiianMiles per $1 on all other purchases.
Hawaiian Airlines Business Mastercard vs. Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Premier Business Credit Card
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The information for the Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Premier Business Credit Card has been collected independently by Blueprint. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
Also a $99 annual-fee business card, the Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Business card offers a welcome bonus of 60,000 points after spending $3,000 on purchases in the first three months of account opening.
The card has an earning rate of 3 points per $1 at Southwest, 2 points per $1 on Rapid Rewards hotel and car rental purchases, local transit and commuting and 1 point per $1 on all other purchases. A 6,000 point bonus awaits you each year after your cardmember anniversary, unlike the Hawaiian Airlines Business card’s spend-based bonus.
One of the biggest perks of the card is the ability to use the welcome bonus points towards Companion Pass qualification. With 135,000 qualifying points, you can earn an unlimited companion pass for the remainder of the year plus the entire following calendar year. Not only does this far surpass the Hawaiian Airlines Business card’s one-time 50% companion discount, Southwest Airlines also flies to Hawaii.
Hawaiian Airlines Business Mastercard vs. The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express
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The information for the The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express has been collected independently by Blueprint. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express
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The information for the The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express has been collected independently by Blueprint. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
(terms apply) is an alternative to being tied to niche rewards.
Although this card does not currently offer a welcome bonus, it has no annual fee and a small-business-friendly 0% intro APR on purchases for the first 12 months, then a variable APR of 18.24% to 26.24% applies.
The Blue Business Plus card earns a flat 2 Membership Rewards points per $1 on everyday business purchases up to the first $50,000 spent per year, then 1 point per $1 on all other purchases. While not a big bonus rate, it’s a simple way to earn points across all categories. With nearly two dozen airline and hotel transfer partners, including HawaiianMiles, there are diverse redemption options to maximize your Blue Business Plus Membership Rewards points.
Should you get the Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Business Mastercard?
You should get the Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Business Mastercard if you want to quickly accrue a chunk of miles to fly on Hawaiian Airlines and already have the Hawaiian Airlines personal card. However, there’s little reason to use the card after successfully meeting the welcome bonus requirements and hardly any reason to keep it beyond the first year.
Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Business Mastercard summary
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
Is a Hawaiian Airlines credit card worth it?
The Hawaiian Airlines Business card can be worth it if you regularly fly Hawaiian Airlines and want to earn points to do so, however there are many other rewards credit cards for businesses that earn more travel rewards for spending.
How much is 60,000 HawaiianMiles worth?
We’ve determined the value of HawaiianMiles to be roughly $0.012 cents per point, which makes 60,000 HawaiianMiles worth roughly $720. But your exact value will depend on your specific redemption.
What bank issues the Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Business Mastercard?
The Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Business Mastercard is issued by Barclays.
Can my HawaiianMiles expire?
Your HawaiianMiles will never expire.