I’m sure many of you have read on other blogs that people are speculatively transferring American Express Membership Rewards points to Hawaiian Airlines. Leana did it earlier this year (see this post). After hemming and hawing about it for a while, I finally pulled the trigger on this speculative transfer myself.
Why Transfer Amex to Hawaiian Airlines Now
It’s relatively hard to accumulate Alaska Airlines miles. Aside from the Bank of America credit cards, Bilt is the only flexible points transfer partner to Alaska.
However, due to the merger between Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines, you can accumulate Hawaiian miles that will transfer to Alaska. Barclays has Hawaiian Airlines credit cards, and American Express is a transfer partner to Hawaiian.
Soon, Hawaiian credit cards will be discontinued, and presumably the ability to transfer Amex points to Hawaiian Airlines will disappear. Nobody knows the exact date this will happen. The online rumor is June or sooner.
Normally, I don’t transfer flexible points unless I see award availability I can book now. But, this is an exception. I’ve spent all of my American Airlines miles for trips this year and next year’s spring break. Alaska is a partner of American, so many of the flights I need I can use Alaska miles. In addition, I might use Alaska miles to fly on partner Starlux to Asia next year.
So even though I’m not using Alaska miles today to book award flights, I have no doubt that I will be able to use them in the near future. If the ability to transfer from Amex to Hawaiian went away tomorrow and I didn’t transfer points in time, I’d kick myself.
The Process from Amex Points to Alaska Miles
First, I transferred my husband’s Amex points to Hawaiian miles through his online Amex account. Then, in his Hawaiian Airlines account under the My Account menu, I clicked on Share Miles.
Since we are both Hawaiian Airlines credit card holders, he can transfer his Hawaiian miles to me with no fees.
Once his miles moved to my account, I clicked on Redeem Miles from the My Account menu of my Hawaiian Airlines account:
And from there, I scrolled down to click on the section to move miles to Alaska Airlines:
We still have more Amex points coming our way from the Amex credit card upgrade offer. If we get those points before this loophole is closed, I may consider transferring more points.
Are you planning to transfer any Amex points to Hawaiian Airlines soon?
Author: Nancy
Nancy lives near Dallas, Texas, with her husband and three kids. Her favorite vacations include the beach, cruising and everything Disney.
Thx! I haven’t used Alaska miles (barring a trip to Santiago a couple of years ago) since before the pandemic. As I perused close up and far away availability to Asia and Europe it looks pretty grim. Mainly Hawaiian to Asia at 250-300k to Asia or mixed carriage to Europe or Qatar at 240k. Maybe an Alaska up to date sweet spot article might be useful.
@Gina Great idea! I’ll work on that.
If you have a plan for AS miles – then transfer Amex MRs to it. They charge a fee for it, but AS miles’ value a bit higher vs other programs one can transfer to.
Also what other use you typically get from MRs? I moved mine to Avios past year with 30% bonus for various redemptions – decent value in my book. I would move ’em to HA/AS if I had more, as it’s a good opportunity (backed by most travel bloggers).
Alaska Air miles does have several good uses, like AA & Starlux flights you mentioned, and some Asia routes (if you can find availability which is hard how). So far they have been keeping their value, although with so many new people jumping on Hawaiian deal – we’ll have to see if they hold after the merger is completed. Maybe Amex will make a deal and issue an Alaska Card in the future? Also the multi-partner awards are yet to materialize, for now it’s just 1-partner limitation.
Happy travels!!
@Aleks I may move our future Amex miles to Avios to fly on Iberia next year. Unfortunately, our travel dates are peak, so we won’t get the cheapest off-peak fares. I wish Amex would offer an Alaska card! But I’m not holding my breath.
What are your thoughts for someone who does not have the credit card-should I spend the $ to transfer amex to Hawaiian to Alaska? So far I have opted no, but maybe that is short sighted?
@Gina Just wanted to clarify that the only reason the Hawaiian credit card came in handy was to save money on the transfer of Hawaiian miles from my husband to myself. But that’s not really necessary for most people. I just wanted to combine his miles with mine in one account. So if you don’t need to transfer Hawaiian miles to another person, there is just the Amex domestic airline transfer fee that applies to all domestic airlines points transfers. But back to your question….it really depends on your location and your travel plans. Do you live near an AA hub? If so, those Alaska miles can be very valuable and I would consider it. But if you don’t, you may as well save your Amex points for a different transfer that will be more useful to you.