Alaska, Hawaiian swap in Boeing 787 Dreamliner for Seattle-Tokyo route

Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines are making a big change on their flights between Seattle and Tokyo.

Starting in January, it’ll be Hawaiian’s beautiful new Boeing 787 Dreamliner operating the route between Seattle Tacoma International Airport (SEA) and Narita Airport (NRT).

For travelers flying between the two cities, it’s a significant upgrade from Hawaiian’s older Airbus A330 currently flying between the Pacific Northwest and Japan: This shift will swap in a new, state-of-the-art cabin with business-class suites for the older product found on board Hawaiian’s legacy long-haul fleet of planes.

It’ll also give Alaska Air Group (the parent company of Alaska and Hawaiian) a more competitive on-board product with chief Seattle rival, Delta Air Lines, on these transpacific flights.

It won’t be good news for every Hawaiian route, though: a spokesperson confirmed the airline will be shifting one of its existing Dreamliners off another route to upgrade SEA-NRT.

Alaska and Hawaiian merged late last year, and promptly announced plans to launch a global gateway at Seattle, Alaska’s home base.

I tagged along in May when the airlines’ launched their long-haul era with Tokyo service operated by Hawaiian.

As exciting a moment as it was for the company, though, the A330 flying the route definitely wasn’t the star of the show itself, with older seats and a 2x2x2 configuration up in the business-class cabin that’s a far less alluring product than the one Hawaiian debuted on its brand-new fleet of Dreamliners last year.

But the things will change right off the bat in 2026, the company said Tuesday.

Daily Newsletter

Reward your inbox with the TPG Daily newsletter

Join over 700,000 readers for breaking news, in-depth guides and exclusive deals from TPG’s experts

By signing up, you will receive newsletters and promotional content and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time.

Between early January and mid-April, passengers flying between Seattle and Narita will get the Hawaiian Dreamliner complete with 34 its Leihoku suites featuring sliding privacy doors — not to mention an overall updated experience in the main cabin.

Earlier this spring, I reported the company is planning to unveil an all-new flagship international experience for its long-haul routes.

The plan, Alaska CEO Ben Minicucci told me, is for all long-haul international routes out of Seattle (including the Tokyo one) to be operated by Alaska — not Hawaiian.

It’s not clear when Alaska might take over the Tokyo flights from its new sister airline, but expect this route see more change in the future, in the form of a new on-board experience.

Alaska already announced it will be operating Dreamliner flights to Rome starting in May 2026.

Booking Hawaiian’s Dreamliner to Tokyo

In the meantime, if you’re hoping to use points and miles to book Hawaiian-operated flights between Seattle and Tokyo for early next year, you have a couple of options:

Keep in mind, you can also still move miles seamlessly between your Mileage Plan and HawaiianMiles accounts, for now.

New loyalty program next month

But big changes are coming on the loyalty front for these newly-merged airlines, too. In the coming weeks, Alaska Air Group is planning to announce an all-new joint loyalty program that will serve both airline brands.

Suffice to say, it’s a time of big change at Alaska and Hawaiian, and many more developments are on the horizon.