There's a 20% AMEX Membership Rewards Transfer Bonus to Hawaiian Airlines until June 27. Is it worth it, for award travel to Hawaii? I don't think so, for at least a couple reasons:
- United BusinessFirst is cheaper, using an AMEX transer to Singapore KrisFlyer, even with no transfer bonus: 60K AMEX points = 60K KrisFlyer miles for United BusinessFirst vs. 67K AMEX points + 20% AMEX transfer bonus = 80K Hawaiian miles for Hawaiian First Class to Hawaii
- Hawaiian's domestic First Class is a joke. Sorry Hawaiian–as a kama'aina, born and raised in Hawaii, I'd love to be more enthusiastic about Hawaiian, but it has to be said. I'll take the lie flat seats on United's nonstop EWR-HNL flight any day over Hawaiian's “first class” recliner seat.
Best Uses of Hawaiian Miles?
In my view, the best uses of Hawaiian miles are:
- Virgin Atlantic Upper Class from the East Coast to the UK for 105K AMEX Points: It's 125,000 Hawaiian Miles roundtrip, so with the 20% transfer bonus, this is 105K AMEX points. Note that since Hawaiian devalued its Virgin Atlantic award chart last November, the West Coast is no longer a good deal at 160K Hawaiian miles (so 134K AMEX points, with the 20% transfer bonus)
- Hawaiian in Coach from the East Coast to Hawaii for 30K-34K AMEX Points: It's 40K Hawaiian Miles roundtrip from the mainland to Hawaii, so with the 20% transfer bonus, that's 34K AMEX points. Or, if you have a Hawaiian Credit Card, the roundtrip coach award is normally 35K Hawaiian miles, so that would bring it down to only 30K AMEX points with the 20% AMEX transfer bonus. Note that if you're flying from the West Coast, you'd be better off just using 25K Avios roundtrip in coach. Or of course, you could get a United free one way or free one way on American as part of an international award trip.
- Hawaiian Coach SuperSaver Neighbor Island Flights: A coach supersaver award to a neighbor island is 15K Hawaiian miles, so it would be 12,500 AMEX points (though you need to transfer in increments of 1000 points, so 13,000 if you're only booking one award).
- Hilton HHonors Stays? After the Massive Hilton HHonors Devaluation, HHonors stays for the top Hilton properties are a pretty horrible deal, but as a last resort, if you don't have any use for your Hawaiian miles using the above, you could transfer them at a 1:2 ratio to HHonors points. Unfortunately, this isn't actually an option with the 20% AMEX transfer bonus, since you have to earn miles directly with Hawaiian (via a credit card or flying Hawaiian) to be able to transfer to Hilton HHonors. So for AMEX transfer to HHonors, you'd need to go through Virgin Atlantic.
Will you take advantage of the 20% AMEX Transfer Bonus to Hawaiian Miles, or save your AMEX points for another use?
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Massive Hilton HHonors Devaluation
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