The Alaska/Hawaiian Airlines merger was completed in September. Here are some things you should know about the merger that may help you make even better redemptions.

While I have never gotten over-the-top value with my Hawaiian miles like I have with several other programs, I have gotten good value with Alaska miles.  I have had the Hawaiian personal card before, and more recently both my husband and I received the welcome offer on the Hawaiian business card, too.  Before the merger, I had planned to use those miles to fly from LAX to Hawaii in business class the next time we traveled. But there aren’t a lot of hours to enjoy business class on that flight, though, so it’s not a particularly satisfying redemption.

Once the merger was announced, I changed my plan and transferred those Hawaiian miles to Alaska’s program because I can get more value out of my redemptions with Alaska’s program than with Hawaiian’s.  So those Hawaiian miles are Alaska miles now!

 

Transferring between Alaska and Hawaiian Airlines

Any Hawaiian or Alaska airlines miles you have can be transferred between the programs and are protected from devaluation as part of the terms of the airlines’ merger.  I wouldn’t hesitate to do this transfer if it would be valuable to you. It’s a 1:1 transfer between programs, so one Alaska mile will turn into one Hawaiian mile, and vice versa. Here is how to do it:

I chose the Alaska Mileage Plan™ option from this page (pictured below) to initiate my transfer from Hawaiian Airlines. You can also transfer in the other direction by highlighting Hawaiian Airlines. 

 

I am only showing this screenshot below as an example so you can see what it would look like to transfer Alaska miles to Hawaiian. So imagine that we’re walking through a transfer from Hawaiian to Alaska here. Truthfully, I believe it is more valuable to transfer from Hawaiian to Alaska in most cases.

This is what you’ll see once you’re logged in to both airlines’ accounts.  Here, I picked transferring 100K Alaska miles to Hawaiian:

Once I hit “continue,” this screen showed up. When you agree to the terms, the miles will transfer. Mine transferred instantly.

 

 

 

Hawaiian Airlines and American Express

The ability to transfer points between the two airlines is intriguing even if you don’t already have Hawaiian miles to transfer to Alaska, because Hawaiian Airlines is a transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards®. That means that while this transfer is available between Hawaiian and Alaska, you can effectively transfer your American Express Membership Rewards® to Alaska Mileage Plan™ as long as you transfer to Hawaiian Airlines first. Alaska is not a transfer partner of any of the major banks’ points currencies, so this really is a unique opportunity to turn transferable points into Alaska miles.  We don’t expect American Express Membership Rewards® to be transferable to Hawaiian Airlines indefinitely, so if this is something you’re contemplating, you may not want to wait long to decide.

 

 

 

Great Alaska Mileage Plan™ Redemptions

I have made some outstanding redemptions with the Alaska Mileage Plan™ program. Consider my flight home after my Italian Dolomites trip. From London to JFK, I only paid 55K Alaska miles for a business-class flight. Granted, it also included the usual high taxes and fees you’ll find on any long-haul ticket in a premium cabin departing from LHR (around $754), but I’m actually fine with that for a business-class flight.

 

 

Another great Alaska Airlines redemption is a flight from LAX to Fiji. I hope to take this one sometime in the next couple of years.

 

 

Flights to Hawaii

Flights to Hawaii for 20K miles are another great redemption option with Alaska miles. I have often flown Alaska Airlines on this route.

 

 

Bottom Line

These are just a few of the Alaska/Hawaiian Airlines merger opportunities that I’ve found interesting and have taken advantage of.  If this interests you and you can take advantage of some good redemptions, think about whether transferring your miles from one program to the other could be advantageous.