25% Transfer Bonus AMEX to Hawaiian Miles; Cheap Partner Awards

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Until December 21, 2015, there is a 25% transfer bonus from American Express Membership Rewards to Hawaiian Miles. One thousand Membership Rewards transfer to 1,250 Hawaiian Miles.

This is actually the third ongoing offer at the moment, with transfer bonuses to Iberia (and indirectly British Airways) Avios and Virgin America points that I have already covered.

Good Deals with Hawaiian Miles

Hawaiian Airlines is not a member of any alliance, but it has a number of partners. You can use Hawaiian miles on:

• Hawaiian Airlines
• ANA
• American Airlines
• China Airlines
• JetBlue
• Korean Airlines
• Virgin America
• Virgin Atlantic
• Virgin Australia

Check out the award charts for all partners here and for Hawaiian Airlines flights here.

Here are some deals I like.

Flying Hawaiian

20,000 MILES (16k Membership Rewards)

Economy, one-way, Hawaii to:

• New York City

• Las Vegas

British Airways offer excellent deals from most West Coast cities to Hawaii, but they do not have any partner flights directly from Las Vegas. Thus, Hawaiian miles are the best miles to use for award flights from Las Vegas to Hawaii.

The Hawaiian Airlines award chart states that flights from Hawaii to the mainland cost 20,000 miles. However, for holders of the Hawaiian Airlines credit card the price is discounted to 17,500 miles.

27,500 MILES (22k Membership Rewards)

Economy class, one-way, Hawaii to:

• Pago Pago, Samoa
• Papeete, Tahiti

40,000 MILES (32k Membership Rewards)

Economy class, one-way, Hawaii to:

• Brisbane
• Sydney
• Auckland

First class, one-way, Hawaii to:

• Seattle
• Portland
• Sacramento
• Oakland
• San Francisco
• San Jose
• Los Angeles
• San Diego
• Las Vegas
• Phoenix
• New York City

Here is a trip report of Hawaiian Airlines First Class.

47,500 MILES (38k Membership Rewards)

First class, one-way, Hawaii to:

• Pago Pago, Samoa
• Papeete, Tahiti

65,000 MILES (52,000 Membership Rewards)

First class, one-way, Hawaii to:

• Brisbane
• Sydney
• Auckland
• Taipei
• Beijing

Flying Partners

30,000 MILES (24k Membership Rewards)

Economy class, round-trip, Korean Air, Seoul to all its destinations in Asia:

• Akita
• Aomori
• Fukuoka
• Hakodate
• Kagoshima
• Komatsu
• Nagasaki
• Nagoya
• Niigata
• Oita
• Okayama
• Osaka
• Sapporo
• Shizuoka
• Tokyo (Narita, Haneda)
• Beijing
• Changsha
• Dalian
• Guangzhou
• Hong Kong
• Jinan
• Kunming
• Mudanjiang
• Qingdao
• Shanghai (Hongqiao)
• Shenyang
• Shenzhen
• Tianjin
• Tunxi
• Weihai
• Wuhan
• Ximen
• Xian
• Yanji
• Zhengzhou
• Irukutsk
• Taipei
• Ulaanbaatar
• Vladivostok
• Bangkok
• Cebu
• Chiang Mai
• Da Nang
• Denpasar Bali
• Hanoi
• Ho Chi Minh City
• Jakarta
• Kota Kinabalu
• Kuala Lumpur
• Manila
• Palau
• Phnom Penh
• Phuket
• Siem Reap
• Singapore
• Yangon
• Guam
• Colombo
• Malé
• Mumbai
• Kathmandu
• Tashkent

Korean Air, a transfer partner of Ultimate Rewards and SPG, charges 30,000 to 75,000 miles for the above itineraries.

30,000 Hawaiian miles could also be used for a round-trip ticket departing from any of the Asian cities listed above and going to Seoul.

35,000, 45,000, 60,000 MILES (28k, 36k, 48k Membership Rewards)

The chart to fly American Airlines with Hawaiian Miles is similar to what American charges for its own flights. With the 25% transfer bonuses, some of the deals get very good indeed.

Roundtrips to the Caribbean, Central America, Southern South America, and Europe are good deals in economy.

How to Book Partner Awards

You need to find Saver availability on the partner, which you cannot do on hawaiianair.com. For American Airlines space, I’d search aa.com; for Korean space, I’d search delta.com; for other partners, I’d search wherever its award space was searchable. Hawaiian Airlines should have access to all its partners’ Saver award space.

Then you book by calling 877-HA-MILES from 7 AM – 4:30 PM HST Monday through Friday, which is currently noon to 9:30 PM ET.

Other Ways to Get Hawaiian Miles

The Hawaiian Airlines® World Elite MasterCard® comes with a 50,000 mile sign-up bonus after spending $1,000 in the first 90 days.

Hawaiian Airlines cardholders with family members who also accrue Hawaiian miles can take advantage of a unique benefit: Hawaiian miles can be combined into one account through the share miles program. This free benefit can turn worthless “leftover” miles into an award goldmine.

Anyone who has a card open can receive Hawaiian Miles from another account for free. Most airlines charge over 1 cent per mile for transfers of this kind!

The other benefit of the Hawaiian Airlines card, that I mentioned earlier, is that you get to book Super Saver economy awards between the United States and Hawaii for 17,500 Hawaiian miles each way instead of the 20,000 mile price on the chart.

Bottom Line

You have 12 days to transfer 1,000 Membership Rewards to 1,250 Hawaiian Miles. That will be a good deal for people who want to book the sweet spots on the Hawaiian Airlines chart that I laid out in this post.

Hat Tip View from the Wing