With the clock about to strike midnight on Amex to Hawaiian transfers and the clock is surely ticking on being able to get the Barclays Hawaiian Airlines cards, we will soon have no good way to earn new Hawaiian miles. The real value in earning Hawaiian miles is transferring to Alaska for partner redemptions, but how do you do it?
While a bit counterintuitive because you don’t do it from either the Hawaiian or Alaska websites, it is very easy. These transfers are processed through points.com and are quick and easy. Here is the link to initiate the transfer: https://storefront.points.com/mileage-plan/en-US/exchange/lps?lpId=2053
The first step is to select which program you want to transfer points into; in this case it will be Alaska Mileage Plan.
Next, click “Sign in to your account” and it will redirect you to the login page for each program, first Alaska, then Hawaiian. After you complete the logins, you will automatically be redirected back to the points.com transfer page.
From there it is a simple slider to select how many miles you want to transfer to Alaska.
Click through to confirm and then you get to the confirmation page which looks like this:
The points.com site says that it can take up to 72 hours to complete the transfer, but in my experience the miles show up instantly in your Alaska account, which looks like this:
TL;DR: With the best ways to earn Hawaiian miles going away, now is the time to transfer those miles to Alaska to be able to redeem for maximum value. This process is quick and easy through points.com
A couple of questions:
Will transfers between the two frequent flyer programs still work after June 30?
Will family pooling still work after June 30 for Hawaiian miles?
Thanks for any insight.
Yes, there is no published end date for the transfers between the 2 programs so that should continue as is. The June 30th end date is just Amex to Hawaiian. I expect family pooling will still work and you can still apply for the Barclays Hawaiian credit card products. I would expect at some point in time, later this year, all Hawaiian miles will automatically convert to Alaska miles but the timing and mechanics are not clear.