Hawaii travelers lost one airport perk that still felt useful when Priority Pass access ended at Honolulu’s Plumeria Lounge last year. Now Alaska has reopened Priority Pass access at its San Francisco lounge, but only with a $15 co-pay, a requirement to be flying Alaska, Hawaiian, or a partner airline, and a four-hour limit.

Priority Pass access to Plumeria ended on April 1, 2025, during the Hawaiian-Alaska integration into Atmos Rewards. BOH covered that change when Priority Pass cardholders lost access to Honolulu’s Plumeria Lounge. Travelers using cards like AmEx Platinum and Chase Sapphire Reserve lost access to the better Honolulu lounge tied to those memberships, and when Priority Pass later returned at HNL, it was through a different lounge.

Hawaii travelers lost the best lounge.

When Plumeria dropped out of Priority Pass, cardholders lost a lounge with some real value at Honolulu. It offered a quieter place to sit upstairs, a better break from the terminal, and a more useful airport benefit than many card-linked options in Hawaii. Once that access ended, the lounge became less crowded for the smaller group still allowed in because other travelers had been shut out.

Our own Plumeria lounge review after the change showed exactly that. The room felt calmer and less packed, not because the lounge improved, but because fewer travelers were allowed through the door after Priority Pass access ended.

San Francisco is important to Hawaii travelers because it is one of the main gateways for Hawaii flights and a common connection point. Many Hawaii itineraries already run through SFO, which makes a $15 co-pay there directly relevant to Hawaii travel.

Alaska reopened Priority Pass at SFO, but now there’s a fee.

Travelers with a qualifying card and Priority Pass membership can still use Alaska’s SFO lounge, but now they must also pay $15, fly Alaska, Hawaiian, or a partner airline, and enter the lounge within four hours of departure. The lounge still participates in Priority Pass, but the value of that participation changes once travelers pay extra at the door.

The card issuer can still advertise lounge access, and the airline can still say the lounge is in the network, but the traveler who already pays a high annual fee now has to decide whether the benefit is worth paying for again.

This is showing up elsewhere, too.

The SFO move is not standing alone in such changes. The Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse at LAX returned to Priority Pass with a $35 co-pay. The airports and lounges are different, but the result is still familiar. The benefit remains in the network, but travelers pay extra to use it.

People keep cards like the AmEx Platinum and the Chase Sapphire Reserve in part because lounge access helps justify their high annual fees. When that access weakens or is only partially paid on arrival, the value declines while the annual fee remains unchanged.

Honolulu got Priority Pass back, but only at the Premier Club.

Priority Pass did return to Honolulu, but not through Plumeria. It came back through the Premier Club in Terminal 1. So Hawaii did get lounge access back in a technical sense, but travelers did not have the old benefit restored; instead, they got a lower-tier substitute in a different room.

BOH already covered the massive Hawaiian-Alaska lounge upgrade planned for Honolulu, including the new Mauka Concourse lounge expected by late 2027. That future space is supposed to serve both airlines and be about five times larger than Plumeria, which makes the current HNL setup look transitional. But for travelers flying now, they are still dealing with the downgraded version instead of the larger shared lounge being promised for later.

Hawaii travelers have a reason to ask where this is headed.

SFO may be a one-off situation, and Honolulu may keep its current setup for now. But Hawaii travelers have already watched this benefit get reduced once. First, Plumeria disappeared from Priority Pass. Then, Premier Club became the replacement. Now, Alaska has shown at SFO that access can return with a fee attached. So this is a work in process.

Lead Photo of Plumeria Lounge at HNL. All photos © Beat of Hawaii.

Alaska Airlines – a Corporate Partner of the FTE Digital, Innovation & Startup Hub – and Hawaiian Airlines have launched a single, unified Alaska Hawaiian mobile app. Built to support travel across both airlines, the new app brings everything travellers need into one streamlined experience – from booking and check-in to day-of travel updates – with improved performance and expanded features, particularly for legacy Hawaiian Airlines app users. This app redesign also represents an important step in bringing the two airlines closer together, while preserving their distinct identities and experiences.

The new Alaska Hawaiian app is designed around one goal: making travel easier. Instead of switching between apps or navigating different experiences, travellers will be able to manage their entire journey in one place – whether flying Alaska Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines or connecting across both.

As part of the transition to one mobile platform, the current Alaska Airlines app will update automatically for most travellers, while the legacy Hawaiian Airlines app will remain available through 21 April 2026.

While the platform is unified, the experience is still personal. Travellers can choose between an Alaska Airlines or Hawaiian Airlines-themed experience, aligning the look and feel with the airline they fly most.

“Guests get a single, seamless app experience – while still seeing the airline they know and trust – making it easier to book, manage and travel with confidence,” said Natalie Bowman, Vice President of Digital Experience, Alaska Airlines.

The unified app is a key milestone in Alaska and Hawaiian’s ongoing investments to deliver a seamless experience across their combined global network. Today, travellers benefit from shared lobby spaces, reduced lobby lines with modern bag-tag stations and a comprehensive loyalty programme.

The aim by bringing both airlines into one app and the same passenger service system on 22 April is that travellers will enjoy simplified trip management and self-service features across Alaska and Hawaiian, and consistent performance improvements to technology.

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JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — For years, a popular part of many cruises in southeast Alaska has been sailing up Tracy Arm, a long, narrow fjord marked by steep mountains, glittering waterfalls and calving glaciers.

But this season, major cruise lines are skipping it. A massive landslide last summer sent parts of a glacier crashing into the water, generated a tsunami and pushed a wave high up the opposite mountain wall. Several companies opting out cited safety concerns with the still-hazardous slopes.

“Tracy Arm is the majestic princess, you know, she is the queen of fjords,” said travel agent Nate Vallier.

The destination cruise and tour companies have chosen as an alternative — nearby Endicott Arm and Dawes Glacier — is “still beautiful by any means, but it’s just not the same,” he said.

Tracy Arm, southeast of Juneau, is a roughly 30-mile (50-kilometer) fjord that features two tidewater glaciers — the North and South Sawyer — and wildlife, including seals and bears.

Early on Aug. 10, 2025, a landslide originating high on a slope above the toe of the South Sawyer, near the head of the fjord, sent water surging more than a quarter mile (more than half a kilometer) up the mountain wall opposite the slide and out Tracy Arm.

No ships were in the fjord, officials said, and no deaths or injuries were reported. But kayakers camped on an island near where Tracy and Endicott arms meet had much of their gear swept away by the rushing water.

Southeast Alaska, largely encompassed by a temperate rainforest, is no stranger to landslides. And while it’s long been known the fjord network in the Tracy Arm region has been susceptible, the slope that failed had not been identified as an active hazard before last summer’s collapse, said Gabriel Wolken, manager of the state’s climate and ice hazards program.

Scientists are working to understand not only what caused the slope to collapse but to understand what other hazards might exist in the fjord, he said.

The area remains unstable, said Steven Sobieszczyk, a U.S. Geological Survey spokesperson. Steep landslide areas continue to change for years after an initial slide, he said by email.

“Continued rockfall and small-scale sliding from the exposed landslide scar are expected and could impact the water, potentially causing a future localized tsunami,” he said.

Major cruise companies, including Holland America, Carnival Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean said in response to inquiries from The Associated Press that they are replacing a Tracy Arm visit with Endicott Arm. MSC Cruises, Virgin Voyages and regional tour company Allen Marine also are doing Endicott and Dawes Glacier instead. Norwegian Cruise Line said it does not have voyages sailing by Tracy Arm.

Endicott already has been a stop for some ships previously and an alternative when conditions in Tracy Arm, such as excess ice, have been unsafe.

Vallier, who owns the Alaska Travel Desk, said he would have liked cruise companies to give travelers more advance notice about itinerary changes.

After leaving Seattle, the first ships of the season are due April 21 in Ketchikan and in Juneau the following week.

Seeing a glacier — particularly a dynamic, calving glacier — is a bucket-list item for many tourists, and that’s what has made Tracy Arm so popular, he said. While the Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau is a major attraction for the capital city and cruise port, many visitors view it from across a large lake, and it has diminished or entirely retreated from view from some hiking overlooks.

Kimberly Lebeda of Wichita, Kansas, was excited when she booked tickets for a Tracy Arm excursion for her family last year. Lebeda, who researches areas she visits, said she was sold on the scenery.

But the night before the stop, they were told that due to ice in Tracy Arm, they would go up Endicott instead. Her family and others who’d booked the excursion got off the ship and onto a smaller boat with glass windows, abundant seating and snacks. They saw seals on ice floes, waterfalls and “a wall of ice” calve from Dawes Glacier, she said.

She called it “an amazing thing to witness.”

“Was it worth it? Yes, because I don’t know if I’ll ever get to do that trip again,” she said. “Again, I haven’t ever been to Tracy Arm so I can’t really compare. But to me, was it worth it and was it exciting? Absolutely.”