We’ve known that Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines would be eliminating some arbitrage opportunities that stem from their merger.
- American Express points transfer to Hawaiian
- If you have a Hawaiian Airlines credit card you can transfer points to and from other members free
- HawaiianMiles transfer 1:1 to/from Alaska
This means that (1) you can transfer Amex points to Alaska, and (2) with a HawaiianMiles credit card you can transfer from other peoples’ Amex accounts into your Alaska account.
Similarly, you can get both the Alaska and Hawaiian credit cards, and pool the points in your Alaska account. In fact, other people can get the Alaska and Hawaiian credit cards and pool the points into your Alaska account.
We’ve been told this all ends by the time the two programs are combined. Their CEO says the programs combine in August. However, some partnerships are terminating June 30th. American Express transfers to Hawaiian will end June 30 as well.
Effective June 30th, 2025, the ability to transfer Membership Rewards® points to Hawaiian Airlines’ HawaiianMiles will no longer be available.
You have about 45 days to make these transfers, but I wouldn’t wait until the last day to do it.
Warning that Alaska, otherwise a good airline, shows a shitton of phantom awards. I got burned by this after transferring Amex points. This was so frustrating I gave up all points. I’m worth over $200MM anyway I don’t need to be playing the points game
@Unintimidated — You poor thing. Thanks again for reminding us. Why bother with Alaska; just take your G550. Sadly, you’ll have to park it at SXM, then take the Cessna to SBH. Woe is you.
@ Unintimidated. $200 MM the old fashioned way? Congratulations on winning the birth lotto
question. I pooled my united points and they have been very complicated to use. is Alaska any better?
Margie,
Unknown if Alaska will allow pooling like Hawaiian does…but yah, the UA pooling doesn’t let you use the miles towards *A flights…just UA ones. That’s incredibly frustrating.