Hawaiian-Alaska Mileage Transfers Are Live

Updated: September 27, 2024, 2:39pm CDT

Edited by:

Transfer Miles Between Alaska and Hawaiian
Is It Worth It?
Final Thoughts

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Well, that escalated quickly. Just a few days after Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airways announced that they’d officially closed their deal, mileage transfers between the 2 have gone live. Let’s take a look at the details.

Transfer Miles Between Alaska and Hawaiian

Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines announced last week that you’d soon be able to move your miles between Alaska Mileage Plan and HawaiianMiles seamlessly. And not only that, you’d be able to do so at a 1:1 ratio.

Why is this such a big deal? Well, because historically Alaska miles have been some of the most valuable around. They’re also extraordinarily difficult to acquire since the program’s only transfer partner is Bilt Rewards.

With the ability to transfer HawaiianMiles to Alaska, American Express Membership Rewards have been added to this mix. This is due to the partnership between Hawaiian and Amex, which also sees a 1:1 transfer ratio.

All week, folks have been speculatively transferring their points in the hopes of being the first to book flights when the ability to transfer went live — and now you can do that here.

Alaska Hawaiian transfer — Image Credit: Points.com

Note, however, that HawaiianMiles’ terms state that “miles transferred from another program may not be transferred to another loyalty program.” Transfers seem to still be working at the moment, but there’s no guarantee transfers won’t be reversed due to this rule.

Hot Tip:

You need to transfer in increments of 50, with a minimum transfer of 50 miles. Many programs have a minimum transfer of 1,000 miles, so this means even small balances can be transferred.

Is It Worth It?

It looks like the gamble may have paid off for those waiting to pounce on transfers. They can load up their Alaska Airlines accounts (unless it errors out, which it seems to be doing for quite a few folks).

That being said, award availability seems to be dropping at the same rate. Here’s a look at a one-way trip from Los Angeles (LAX) to Honolulu (HNL) for next June:

LAX HNL Alaska fare calendar — Image Credit: Alaska Airlines

30,000 miles one-way is ridiculously expensive for a flight that only costs a couple of hundred dollars. And that 17,500-mile rate? It’s on American Airlines:

LAX HNL Alaska award rate — Image Credit: Alaska Airlines

That being said, not all availability seems to have evaporated. For example, we published a deal alert to Europe earlier today, noting widespread business class space with Alaska’s partner Condor. As of now, those dates seem to be just as open.

JFK FRA Alaska Condor fare calendar — Image Credit: Alaska Airline

Final Thoughts

Transfers between Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines are now live, which means you can convert your miles between programs at a 1:1 ratio. This makes Alaska miles exponentially easier to earn, as you can now transfer from Amex over to Hawaiian and then to Alaska.

Although award availability is decreasing with the influx of miles, there still seem to be some decent options on partner airlines. If you have a newfound stash of Alaska miles, poke around and see if you can find a deal that works for you.