If you’re like us, you want to maximize your hard-earned miles and points for Hawaii travel. As a result of the purchase of Hawaiian Airlines by Alaska Airlines, we recently took a deep dive into all related frequent flier options to maximize the outcome.
By pooling HawaiianMiles and American Express points, we leveraged their value and moved them to Alaska’s well-reviewed MileagePlan. The result?
We ended up with a half-million Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles, enough to fund multiple trips. Here’s how we did it and how you can do the same.
Keep in mind that you can now purchase Hawaiian Air flights on the Alaska Airlines website, so that having your miles at Alaska doesn’t preclude your using then on Hawaiian.
Why pooling our miles was key to achieving half a million.
We started with a mix of HawaiianMiles, Amex points, and Alaska Airlines miles but faced challenges: Alaska Airlines doesn’t allow you to pool miles between accounts, limiting the flexibility of how miles could be used. However, Hawaiian Airlines still offers pooling for its miles if the transfer recipient holds their credit card, providing an opportunity to combine points from different accounts.
By leveraging this, we were able to create a flexible strategy to transfer points and consolidate everything into one Alaska Airlines account. The goal was to pool as many miles as possible and use them to book multiple Hawaii trips without limitations.
Step 1: Transfer Amex points to HawaiianMiles.
The first step was to transfer our American Express points to HawaiianMiles. While Amex points don’t work directly with Alaska Airlines, they do transfer to Hawaiian Airlines, which became our workaround.
This transfer provided us with a substantial number of HawaiianMiles, which became the foundation of our pooling strategy. This was key since it’s impossible to transfer Amex points directly to Alaska Airlines.
Step 2: Pool HawaiianMiles using the credit card perk.
Once we had a significant number of HawaiianMiles, the next step was to take advantage of Hawaiian Airlines’ unique pooling option. We could pool miles from various family accounts into one by holding a Hawaiian Airlines credit card.
This allowed us to gather miles from multiple sources and consolidate them into a single account. Having a larger balance of HawaiianMiles set us up for the next move: transferring them to Alaska Airlines miles.
Interestingly, we also discovered that you can convert Alaska miles back to HawaiianMiles for additional flexibility. For example, one of us had a significant number of Alaska miles, and the other did not. Bringing those together in one Alaska account required moving them first to Hawaiian, the only choice for pooling miles.
However, there’s an important catch: when transferring miles from Alaska to Hawaiian, they must be transferred to the same person’s account. You cannot transfer them to a family member, business associate, or friend. However, you can do it once the miles are back at Hawaiian. And thereafter they can be moved back to Alaska.
Step 3: Transfer pooled HawaiianMiles to Alaska Airlines (and vice versa).
Once all the miles were at Hawaiian, the final step was to convert all the miles into one Alaska Airlines account. For many people, that provides the best option for two or more people traveling together, allowing you to make one reservation with multiple passengers.
Otherwise, each passenger would have needed to use their miles for a separate reservation, making managing reservations much more challenging. This process created one large pool of miles ready to be redeemed.
By consolidating everything into one place, we ended up with about 500,000 Alaska Airlines miles, which gave us more flexibility to book flights on many airlines and for multiple trips.
The benefits of this Hawaii travel strategy.
This points and miles pooling strategy provided significant advantages:
Maximized flexibility: By pooling miles into one Alaska account, we gained more freedom to book flights on Alaska’s and Hawaiian’s extensive network to and from Hawaii, as well as on partners including American Airlines, and on international carriers.
Multiple trips: Having a large balance of miles in one place meant we could easily fund several trips for multiple passengers, all with one set of miles.
Efficient use of Amex points: Although Amex points don’t directly transfer to Alaska, we found and used a great workaround by using HawaiianMiles as a bridge, making the most out of our points.
Final thoughts: Make the most of your points while you can.
This strategy isn’t just about maximizing miles; it’s about creating flexibility in using them. By pooling miles across both airlines and taking advantage of credit card perks, you can significantly increase the value of your points and miles.
If you’re holding on to HawaiianMiles, Alaska miles, or Amex points, consider a strategy to combine them into one pool. With a little effort, you could end up with a sizable balance ready to fund your next Hawaii vacation.
If you try this travel hack, let us know how it works for you.
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Great insights on pooling miles! This is a fantastic strategy for maximizing travel rewards. Combining Hawaiian, Amex, and Alaska miles for a bigger payoff truly shows how flexible planning can open new travel opportunities.
Incredible travel hack! Pooling miles across different programs for such a big reward is a smart strategy. It’s always exciting to see how creative use of points can lead to amazing travel experiences!
When I try to transfer my Hawaiian miles over to alaska I get a pop up that says “you are not eligible for this exchange”. Any advice?
Hi Darla.
Suggest you contact the HawaiianMiles service center. Check the website.
Aloha.
Hmmm, I cant seem to find how to transfer miles from Alaska to Hawaiian without incurring a fee (the only options I find are either through Gifting or Transferring either of which includes fees).
Where do you find info on how to move miles from Hawaiian to Alaska. I can’t find it on either website.
Thank you very much for sharing the Hawaiian/Alaska/AMEX strategy to get the most that the travel incentives have to offer. Your exhaustive endeavor is just another reason I continue to read your publications as soon as published.
Mahalo
Hi Mike.
Thank you! Much appreciated.
Aloha.
Ironically, I did the opposite. I moved everything I had (over 300k) worth of miles, including the rest of the family, into Hawaiian. Mainly because our experience to the mainland in back is better on Hawaiian, than Alaska’s 1st class – which leaves a bit to be desired. I would suggest that if you’re going to book award 25k upgrades on HA, you do it sooner than later, as the AA folks start to figure that out I assume award upgrades will be even harder to get. Food for thought..
Hi Alex,
We too prefer Hawaiian over Alaska, can you please share the process of transferring from AA to HA?
My problem with this hack is that I love that Hawaiian Airlines flies nonston from Kahului, Maui to Sacramento, California.
Alaska Airlines only does so to SFO.
I am thinking that perhaps I need to transfer my Alaska miles to
Hawaiian miles…
Your thoughts?
Exactly what I did and HA’s product, imho – is better.
Great info! Do you know if Hawaiian’s pooling feature will let me add points from a family member who isn’t a credit card holder, or is the card a must-have?
Hi Michael.
The recipient of a HawaiinMiles transfer has to be a credit card holder, but anyone can be the donor. Hope that helps.
Aloha.
I’ve used Amex points for hotel stays, but now I’m thinking of switching to flights. Are there any fees for transferring Amex points to HawaiianMiles or to Alaska?
Every time you transfer points into a U.S. airline frequent flyer program, your linked Card account will be charged an excise tax offset fee of $0.0006 per point (with a maximum fee of $99). Amex charges this fee to offset the federal excise tax we must pay when you transfer points.
As noted, this fee only applies to the frequent flyer programs of U.S. airlines. For Amex, this includes three programs:
Delta SkyMiles
HawaiianMiles
JetBlue TrueBlue
Transfers to hotel partners and international airline programs will not be charged this fee.
Do you think this method is worthwhile for smaller balances, too? I have around 50,000 HawaiianMiles and want to figure out how to maximize them. Thanks.
Interesting strategy! I didn’t realize you could do multiple transfers back and forth between Alaska and Hawaiian. How long did the transfers take in your case?
I am currently working on a similar hack. 6 of us are flying Alaska to Maui in a couple of weeks. I asked everyone to get an Alaska number and a Hawaiian number. Once we are home we will move the miles to Hawaiian and pool them, then move them back to Alaska for a trip to Europe next summer.
I spoke with an agent at Alaska to buy that middle seat on another upcoming flight and mentioned my plan. She thought it was great.
aloha, thanks again for the mileage ideas.
Do you see any problem with pooling miles and leaving them in the Hawaiian account instead of on the Alaska one. also, just off chance…..do you have an opinion on the best credit card for miles on all airlines? (we need alaska, Hawaiian, and united as united is the only airlines that flies to our small town in Northern Calif.)
Ane T.
Hi Ane.
No disadvantage we can see in doing that. As for best credit cards – no suggestion. It’s complicated and we’ll let others share their best CC tricks.
Aloha.