Transfer Hawaiian miles to the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan

There has been a major development in the merger of Hawaiian Airlines and Alaska Airlines, as the two carriers recently introduced the ability to transfer miles between their loyalty programs. While post-merger programs require a single, unified loyalty program, this is an important first step — and it opens up a new, more profitable way for those with American Express Membership Rewards points.

That’s because Amex points transfer to Hawaiian miles at a 1:1 ratio (though they’re subject to a federal tax fee of 120 points or 60 cents per 1,000 points transferred). So, now you can transfer Amex points to Hawaiian and transfer them to Alaska miles, one of the most valuable airline currencies out there.

Related: Transfer partners American Express Membership Rewards: Maximize your points

Even better? These transfers process quickly, although the FAQs indicate that it can take up to 72 hours.

Here’s what you need to know about this new option.

How to transfer miles between Alaska and Hawaiian

If you’re sitting on a balance of Hawaiian miles (or have just transferred Amex points to an airline) and want to convert them to Alaska miles, start by visiting this Points.com page. Start by selecting the program you want to transfer miles to, in my case it was the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan.

From there, follow the instructions to sign in to both your Alaska and Hawaiian accounts.

You will be taken to a screen to confirm the number of miles you want to transfer. There is a handy slider you can use, but note that the relay must be 50 miles.

I chose to transfer my entire balance of 1,200 Hawaiian miles, and after clicking Continue, I was asked to confirm the transfer amount.

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You will see a confirmation page, indicating that the transfer was successful.

As noted above, these transfer processes work quickly, as I was able to quickly see 1,200 miles in my Alaska Mileage Plan account.

Just be aware that your profile information on your two accounts should be the same, so double check if you run into any problems.

This is an exciting new development for members, and it comes on the heels of the US Department of Transportation’s inclusion of important consumer protections as a merger condition. The Alaska Mileage Plan has a lot of great perks, and before this, the only transfer that offered transfers on Alaska Airlines was Bilt Rewards. Now, select American Express cardholders have the ability to successfully earn Alaska miles by transferring them to Hawaiian Airlines and transferring them to the Mileage Plan.

This makes Hawaiian’s cobranded cards even more attractive, as the welcome offer on those cards is now Alaska miles. In addition, card members can transfer (and receive) Hawaiian miles from any other member of the program, without restrictions and without fees. This provides significant flexibility in sharing miles between friends and family members.

Read more: Gambling on Alaska miles — why I applied for 2 Hawaiian Airlines cards on the same day

Bottom line

You can now transfer miles between Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines, which means you can convert American Express Membership Rewards points to Alaska Mileage Plan miles. As a full member of the Oneworld alliance, Alaska offers great redemptions at attractive prices – especially thanks to the recent changes in award rates for British Airways (a long-time Amex transfer partner).

While we generally don’t recommend making speculative transfers from credit card programs to airline funds, this new development may be enough to do so.