As Alaska, Delta battle for airfare, you reap benefits all the way to Hawaii

If you’re planning your summer vacation there’s good news: Alaska Airlines and Delta Airlines are in a competition for your money.

For a long time, the two airlines have been in a blissful partnership: Delta would fly passengers into Sea-Tac and Alaska would pick them up for international flights.

Recently though, Delta decided it wanted a slice of the international-flight pie and added non-stop flights to places like Tokyo, London and Paris.

Airline expert Steve Danishek says moves like this will benefit your wallet.

“Alaska is starting to respond. We’ve seen most recently that Alaska came up with a double-mile promotion, if you fly to Alaska destinations from Seattle between now and the end of the year, you’ll be earning double miles.,” says Danishek.

With Alaska a mile flown is a mile earned. Or now, a mile flown is two miles earned.

Danishek wants to point out that Delta is changing its mileage program. The miles you earn with Delta now depends on how much you spent on the ticket. So, it’s more of a points system now.

Alaska and Delta aren’t just competing in their mileage programs. The Hawaii destination has become a target for the two airlines.

“In the Hawaii market we’re just seeing a flat-out fare-war. Alaska was flying non-stop as one of only two carriers non-stop from Seattle to Honolulu. Delta has now added one flight now, and they’ll add a second flight seasonally – in the fall,” says Danishek.

That means cheaper prices for you.

Non-stop trips to Hawaii now run as low as $550. You might wonder if you should hold off on buying tickets to Hawaii, maybe waiting to see if this Alaska and Delta competition will continue to lower prices.

“Once you firm your dates up you should go shopping because we’re going to run into the same problems we have this summer as we’ve had in the past provide too few seats at low fares,” he says.

And what’s with mileage rewards programs anyway? A mile flown is a mile earned, but when it comes to cashing them in Danishek says they’re only worth about a penny on the dollar.

He says save the mileage rewards for long-distance, or last minute trips.