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Long time readers will know I no longer care about Delta points. They have lost so much value for awards in premium cabins, especially internationally, in 2025 and are beyond psychotic for redemptions! Thus, I no longer work to collect Delta points and my balance is almost zero for the first time in my life with Delta / NWA.
What I am amassing and all-in on are transferable points that do hold real value. That means points like Chase Ultimate Rewards® points and American Express® Membership Rewards® points. The latter are what matters for today’s post.
For those who missed it Alaska is basically taking over Hawaiian. The result is the frequent flyer programs are merging and this means you can now, very simply, send award points back and forth between the programs 1:1. Here is why that is interesting.
Right now you can transfer American Express® Membership Rewards® points to Hawaiian and those points post almost instantly to your account. Yes, there is a small fee from Amex of $0.0006 cents per 1000 points with a MAX fee of $99 but once they are at your Hawaiian account you can then, as mentioned, almost instantly send them over to Alaska.
This matters because Alaska airlines is NOT a transfer partner with Amex or Chase and earning very valuable Alaska points are not as easy as other points. Then when we pair that with the amazing partners that you can fly with Alaska points – at reasonable points prices BTW – and you have a gold mine for those who like to fly premium cabins at reasonable prices.
My old Hawaiian account seemed to be dead but it took no time at all to setup a new one, then link it to my American Express® Membership Rewards® account and transfer a bunch of points that became instantly available. Then, after fixing a tiny issue, I was also able to instantly transfer all those points over to Alaska.
I have big plans over the next few years and want to fly all kinds of premium cabins to get to locations far and wide and these points will allow me to do just that at prices I can afford.
Bottom line is that if you want to do what I have done you only have to end of the month before the ability to send your Membership Rewards points to Hawaiian ends and it is unlikely that you will in the near future have the ability to fund your Alaska account so quickly and simply.
I am so thankful I have taken my own advice and have, rather than focus on ultra low value Delta SkyPennies, and have driven my spend to accumulate valuable points that offer transfer options like this and I can not wait to redeem them for amazing premium cabin flights over the next few years!
Are you too taking advantage of this possibly once in a lifetime opportunity to send Membership Rewards points to Alaska Airlines? – René
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This sounds awesome, and I’m just wondering if it’s too good to be true. Mergers are a time of shake-up, so I’m wondering whether you’ve heard any rumblings of an Alaska/Hawaiian loyalty program re-evaluation. I’d hate to transfer points that way just to find out that they’re the next SkyPennies in a few months. What does your crystal ball show?
@Rob – Like taxes, I am sure at some point Alaska will devalue. But I doubt it happens right away on the heals of the merger. For me it is worth the risk / reward!
Wow. Thanks, René!
Even though I’m PM on DL this year(1MM + MQM trade-in, which turned out to be the wrong decision, btw), this will come in handy, as I’ve been traveling mostly on AS and partners, and I’m mostly very happy. I’m sure I’ll continue to choose AS over DL when it makes sense.
And, I have 200K+ Membership Miles. I no longer have a Delta Amex, so I can’t take advantage of the discount if I transfer them to SkyMiles. I want to terminate my relationship with Amex altogether upon next renewal: Amex Platinum no longer makes sense to me since they’ve limited lounge access, and they no longer allow me to enter Centurion Lounges with my dog!
This will allow me to retain the value of the Membership Miles, and ditch Amex when the time comes.
Thanks again!
If Alaska and Hawaiian are combined, do we still need to transfer the Hawaiian points to Alaska now or wait until booking a flight on ALaska?
@Ronda – Until fully merged you will need to send back and forth.
I don’t agree with this at all, especially with your comment about premium cabin. AS is horrible with phantom award availability for premium cabins, I have over 120K I’ve been trying to spend for two years and haven’t, partner awards show really good value, but when you actually go to BOOK it, it’s never there to begin with, says can’t secure the partner award. I mean, you’d think it would learn from that an remove the option, nope, still there for weeks showing 55K but never can book. Call them up, yup they’ll say it’s not really there. I suspect they keep it that way so people keep thinking it’s a great value and never actually realize it’s all phantom. Waste of miles to book on an AS flight for just a bigger regular seat that’s selling for cheap anyhow.
@Jason Say – I have always got great value out of my AS points and not run into your issue. Then on the flipside you have Delta that ALWAYS shows 300,000-600,000 D1 tickets to Europe every day of the week year long so…
I’ll second the Phantom Premium Cabin award issues on AS. Now there is value to be found, but it’s no walk in the park, and to make matters worse, they pollute long-haul flights with mixed cabins (economy on the long-haul flights). On the other hand, Delta is the worst value in redemptions, it’s insane.