The Offer
- Receive a 25% transfer bonus when you transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles. The standard rate is 1:1, so this means it would be 1:1.25. So if you transfer 1,000 Membership Rewards you’d receive 1,250 HawaiianMiles.
The Fine Print
- Valid until June 21st, 2016
Hawaiian Airline Mile Uses
You can get flights for 35,000 miles round trip with the card from mainland USA to Hawaii, but there isn’t a lot of space available. Another good use of the miles is for inter island flights in Hawaii, they come out at 7,500 miles per one way trip.
You can also transfer to Hilton at a rate of 1:1.5 (meaning you’d get 1.875 Hilton point per Membership Rewards point), but I think that’s a massive waste. Update: These miles cannot be transferred to Hilton due to this fine print:
Note: Transfers will be made immediately, however, please allow up to 48 hours for the transfer to be complete. Points transferred into HawaiianMiles accounts may not be transferred to a third party loyalty program.
Our Verdict
You can view a full list of transfer bonuses American Express has offered here. This is what they have offered for Hawaiian Airlines in the past:
- December 8th – 21st, 2015: 25% bonus
- June 11th – June 23rd, 2014: 20% bonus
They are also offering a 30% transfer bonus to Etihad until June 15th. Barclaycard are currently offering a 50,000 mile bonus on their Hawaiian Airlines credit card.
Is there a way to find out when Amex has MR transfer bonuses, other than reading it on a blog? I mean, for instance, if there may be somewhere on my Amex profile where I can select to receive notices of these types of offers. Thanks!
You can follow Amex on twitter since they also post these, but it’s quicker to do it on this blog, reddit or flyertalk
Not targeted, I see the bonus without being logged in
Thanks, Gary!
Uh no! I applied for this card in late April for the purpose of transferring the MR to Hawaiian airlines. Logging into my account, Hawaiian airlines IS listed as a transfer partner with the word PROMO stamped across the image. No other correspondence received.
This is the bonus I’ve been waiting for but it’s early!! I purposely hit the 3K spend today, my account closes on 6/19 and this promo ends on 6/21. Wonder if my new card bonus will post in time?? I’m going to ensure my account is paid in full before the close date, message a CSR to bump up the close date if possible, and pray that I get my bonus in time. Any other thoughts?
There was someone who had his MR points expedited after paying off his balance so there seems to be DP for it. Good luck!
This might help you: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/which-credit-card-issuers-will-expedite-your-signup-bonus-points-or-miles/#American_Express
Update since 6/8: Having hit the 3k spend, overnight AMEX added 40k MR into my account but the statement still closes on 6/19. No worries about those lingering pending points, I got the bigger bonus. Honey, we’re going to Hawaii first class and it’s all thanks to your Hawaiian airlines CC, AMEX points, and my financial mentor Doc.
Side comment – I’ve been studying how to transfer AMEX points -> Hawaiian airlines and then combine into my wife’s Hawaiian airlines account; think it’s all good.
Glad to hear it’s all working out for you, hope you have an amazing trip!
I believe Hawaiian doesn’t allow miles transferred from other programs to be transferred to Hilton. It may be possible, but it’s against their rules and is sometimes enforced.
In in Seattle, so British Airways is a much better option for getting to Hawaii. It used to be 1:2 to transfer to Hilton which made it more worthwhile.
Got a link to that rule?
The wording used to be much clearer on their website: http://hawaiianair.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/13/~/redeem-hawaiianmiles-with-our-partners-(non-flight)
Here’s a clearer statement: “Note: Transfers will be made immediately, however, please allow up to 48 hours for the transfer to be complete. Points transferred into HawaiianMiles accounts may not be transferred to a third party loyalty program.”
http://hawaiianair.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/48/~/american-express-membership-rewards-(u.s.-members)
Thanks, P. Updated this post.