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Until June 21, 2017, there is a 25% transfer bonus from American Express Membership Rewards to Hawaiian Miles. Log in to your Amex or Membership Rewards account online to see the offer. One thousand Membership Rewards transfer to 1,250 Hawaiian Miles.
This is a repeat of the promotion from last year.
Redeeming Hawaiian Miles
On Hawaiian Airlines flights
The best deals will probably be found flying Hawaiian’s own planes. Check out the award chart for Hawaiian Airlines flights here.
For example, it costs 20,000 Hawaiian miles (16k Membership Rewards with the current bonus) to fly one way in Hawaiian economy between
- New York City
- Las Vegas
British Airways (Avios) offer excellent deals from most West Coast cities to Hawaii, but they do not have any partner flights directly from Las Vegas. So Hawaiian miles are useful for award flights from Las Vegas to Hawaii.
Flying First Class, it costs 40,000 Hawaiian miles (30k Membership Rewards) between Hawaii and the mainland. Here is an old trip report of Hawaiian Airlines First Class when Scott flew it in 2014, but the product has improved on some of the routes.
Between Hawaii and the mainland, you can fly the improved lie-flat First Class product between:
- New York and Honolulu
- San Francisco and Honolulu
- San Francisco and Maui
Beware though that First Class award space flying Hawaiian Airlines can be very difficult to find. Be sure to check your desired travel dates before transferring–speculative transfers are not recommended.
On Partner Flights
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
- JetBlue
- Korean Airlines
- Virgin America
- Virgin Atlantic
- Virgin Australia
Check out the award charts for flying partner airlines here.
Some good deals:
- Virgin America economy, roundtrips between the mainland and Hawaii that have an origin and destination no more than 750 miles away from each other: 20k Hawaiian miles (15k Membership Rewards)
- Korean Air Business Class, roundtrip within Asia: 60k Hawaiian miles (48k Membership Rewards)
- Virgin Australia economy, roundtrip within Australia that have an origin and destination no more than 1,000 miles away from each other: 20k Hawaiian miles (15k Membership Rewards)
Booking
You can book Hawaiian awards flying their own planes on hawaiianair.com.
For partner awards, you need to find Saver availability for the partner, which you cannot do on hawaiianair.com. For Virgin America space, I’d search alaskair.com; for Korean and Virgin Australia 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 1:00 PM to 10:30 PM ET. I haven’t booked a partner award myself, but I’ve read it can be challenging.
Bottom Line
You have 9 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.
There are a couple good deals here and there redeeming on partners, but beware that they’re not the easiest awards to book.
You won’t be charged fuel surcharges on awards flying Hawaiian nor partner airlines, only taxes. Transfers of Membership Rewards to Hawaiian miles are typically instant.
Hat tip Frequent Miler
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