Transfer Hawaii miles to the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan

There is a big development in merger of Hawaiian Airlines and Alaska Airlinesas the two carriers just launched the ability to transfer miles between their respective loyalty programs. While post-merger plans call for a Unique, combined loyalty programThis is an important first step — and opens up a new path to profitability for those who have American Express membership rewards points.

That’s because Amex points transfer to Hawaii miles at a 1:1 ratio (although they are subject to a federal excise tax offset fee of 120 points, or 60 cents per 1,000 points transferred). So now you can transfer Amex points to Hawaii and then transfer them to Alaska miles, one of the points airline currency has value out there.

Related: American Express Membership Rewards transfer partner: Maximize your points

Even better? These transfers are processed instantly, although the FAQ says they can take up to 72 hours.

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

If you’re considering Hawaii miles (or recently transferred Amex points to an airline) and want to convert them to Alaska miles, start by visiting This Points.com site. Start by selecting the program you want to transfer miles to, in my case Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan.

From there, follow the prompts to sign in to both your Alaska and Hawaii accounts.

You will then be taken to a screen to confirm the miles you want to transfer. There’s a handy slider to use, but note that transfers must be in 50-mile increments.

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

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

As noted above, these transfers were processed immediately, as I could immediately see the 1,200 miles in my Alaska Mileage Plan account.

Just note that the profile information in your two accounts must match, so double-check that you don’t run into any issues.

This is an exciting new development for members and it comes on the heels of the U.S. Department of Transportation drafting important consumer protection as a condition of the merger. Alaska mileage plans are numerous Great sweet spotsand before that, only transferable currency providing transit services for Alaska Airlines is Bilt Rewards. Now, option holders American Express have the ability to effectively accumulate Alaska miles by first transferring to Hawaiian Airlines and then transferring them to the Mileage Plan.

This also makes Hawaiian co-branded card even more attractive, since the welcome offers on those cards are now valid for Alaska miles. Additionally, cardholders can transfer (and receive) Hawaii miles from any other program member without limitation and without fee. This provides valuable flexibility in sharing miles between friends and family members.

Read more: A gamble on Alaska miles – why I applied for 2 Hawaiian Airlines cards on the same day

You can now transfer miles between Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines, which means you can convert American Express Membership rewards points into Alaska Mileage Plan miles. As a full member of the Oneworld alliance, Alaska offers some great deals at great prices—especially in the Recent changes to British Airways award prices (long-time transfer partner of Amex).

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