Hawaii-based Airlines - Transferring AMEX miles to Hawaiian

Hello. I am new at this point business so please excuse this perhaps basic question. I have tried to search on the web for this question and I cannot get a solid answer.

My husband and I both have Hawaiian Miles accounts. We would like to go to Kauai this fall. My husband has enough miles in his account to get us there, but I would also like to use the 170000 I have.

Is it possible to transfer his Amex points to his account and then transfer some to my account. If this is possible, is it best to book the flight online ourselves thru our respective Hawaiian accounts?

If this is not possible, do you suggest I buy an extra 3000 miles from Hawaiian, and book myself to Kauai, and then get all the miles transferred to my husbands account and get him a Return flight and my flight back?

Is it true that you have to transfer them and then call hawaiian to confirm this?
If so, how long does it take to get the miles active so I can book the flight.

http://help.hawaiianair.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/48/~/american-express-membership-rewards-(u.s.-members)

Should Amex platinum guest services be able to do this for me??

Many thanks for taking the time to read this and hopefully give suggestions.

You can transfer Amex points to HA account for a slight fee and transfer HA miles between accounts for free but the account holder receiving miles must have a HA Visa credit card.

The transfers post almost instantly and can be checked online, just transfer the Amex points then book your flights.

I would book flights online yourself from one account, as mentioned below I did exactly what you're asking about quickly and with no problem.

BTW what airport and dates are you departing/returning and are you looking at First or Economy? Your questions about buying 3k miles from HA, booking and transferring miles, booking return etc. a bit confusing. With 170k+ sounds like a nice couple of FC RT awards to me that can all be arranged well in advance.....

You can transfer Amex points to HA account for a slight fee and transfer HA miles between accounts for free but the account holder receiving miles must have a HA Visa credit card.

The transfers post almost instantly and can be checked online.

I would book flights online yourself.

Per the T&Cs, you're not allowed to transfer miles that have been transferred in from MR.

Per the T&Cs, you're not allowed to transfer miles that have been transferred in from MR.

How odd, just did it a few months ago and can't find the language you mention on HA site except this:
Points/Miles transferred into a HawaiianMiles Account from another program may not be transferred to a third party loyalty program.

Transfers between HA accounts are not third party loyalty programs.

Appreciate it if you'd post a link if I missed something.

BTW what airport and dates are you departing/returning and are you looking at First or Economy? Your questions about buying 3k miles from HA, booking and transferring miles, booking return etc. a bit confusing. With 170k+ sounds like a nice couple of FC RT awards to me that can all be arranged well in advance.....


Thanks for the replies. This all seems to confusing, not that I thought it would be easy.

We are looking to go from PDX to LIH in the fall. The flights are about 20-30 K each way for each person in economy class. It seems like a good use for the miles, the tickets are about 700$ each (return). I can't decide it it's worth using the points with the transfer or just paying for the tickets cash and using the points at a later date. I didn't realized that there was a fee involved in transferring them nor the level of knowledge required to get everything organized.

What is MR?

Did you perhaps mean 17,000 not 170,000 in your first post? If you have 170,000 HA miles, you have more than you need. If it is 17,000, your reference to tra sfering 3k makes more sense.

If you give a general sense of your and your husband's balances, perhaps we can help more.

But, in general, you can transfer Amex from one Amex account to another person's HA account. So, you could transfer 3k to yourself and 25k to your husband, etc. The cost to transfer is low. Not worth worrying too much about. $6 per 10,000 transfered. Once transfered, book online. It is easy. Others say Amex points o HA are instant. That is not my experience. I have had it take a few hours to half a day.

If your trip is well into the future, you may conwider applying for the HA credit card. Once approved, your husband can transfer his miles to you. Also, you get a small reduction in the number or miles needed to book from USA to HI -- about 2.5k each way.

Oh, and welcome to flyertalk.

Did you perhaps mean 17,000 not 170,000 in your first post? If you have 170,000 HA miles, you have more than you need. If it is 17,000, your reference to transfering 3k makes more sense.

If you give a general sense of your and your husband's balances, perhaps we can help more.

But, in general, you can transfer Amex from one Amex account to another person's HA account. So, you could transfer 3k to yourself and 25k to your husband, etc. The cost to transfer is low. Not worth worrying too much about. $6 per 10,000 transfered. Once transfered, book online. It is easy. Others say Amex points o HA are instant. That is not my experience. I have had it take a few hours to half a day.

If your trip is well into the future, you may conwider applying for the HA credit card. Once approved, your husband can transfer his miles to you. Also, you get a small reduction in the number or miles needed to book from USA to HI -- about 2.5k each way.


Yes 17 000 not 170 000. sorry about that.

I have 17000 and my husband has 15000 in our respective HA accounts. He has over 80 000 in his AMEX account. I get so nervous about transferring things etc that I get overwhelmed. This forum has really helped! THANK YOU.

I guess it may be worth transferring them to our HA accounts and then using points. Is 40K for the return trip a good deal, or is it better to pay 667$ each?

I have considered the CC but I'm not super keen to get one, especially since I wan to apply for the Alaska Air one.

How odd, just did it a few months ago and can't find the language you mention on HA site except this:
Points/Miles transferred into a HawaiianMiles Account from another program may not be transferred to a third party loyalty program.

Transfers between HA accounts are not third party loyalty programs.

Appreciate it if you'd post a link if I missed something.

No, you're right. I guess I just misread the post as I am often transferring my HA miles to Hhonors.

Yes 17 000 not 170 000. sorry about that.

I have 17000 and my husband has 15000 in our respective HA accounts. He has over 80 000 in his AMEX account. I get so nervous about transferring things etc that I get overwhelmed. This forum has really helped! THANK YOU.

I guess it may be worth transferring them to our HA accounts and then using points. Is 40K for the return trip a good deal, or is it better to pay 667$ each?

I have considered the CC but I'm not super keen to get one, especially since I wan to apply for the Alaska Air one.

40k seems reasonable but only you can put a value on your Amex MR (membership rewards) points and HA miles.

You can also mix miles and dollars on the HA booking page.

As lkar wisely points out getting the HA Visa card is worth it if only for this trip as you can transfer between HA accounts and get the discount. Also while my Amex transfers posted almost instantly
YMMV (your mileage may vary) that is to say not all transfers may do so.

No need to be nervous and hope you're able to enjoy the Garden Island this fall at a "price" that suits you.

No, you're right. I guess I just misread the post as I am often transferring my HA miles to Hhonors.

I did not know about 3rd party restrictions, thanks for the info.

Yes 17 000 not 170 000. sorry about that.

I have 17000 and my husband has 15000 in our respective HA accounts. He has over 80 000 in his AMEX account. I get so nervous about transferring things etc that I get overwhelmed. This forum has really helped! THANK YOU.

I guess it may be worth transferring them to our HA accounts and then using points. Is 40K for the return trip a good deal, or is it better to pay 667$ each?

I have considered the CC but I'm not super keen to get one, especially since I wan to apply for the Alaska Air one.

I have both the Alaska Air and the Hawaiian Airlines cards. In terms of benefits, if you plan to fly to Hawaii more than once (or even just for one trip) having the Hawaiian card is pretty good. You get 30k bonus miles, discounts of 2.5k to 10k on flights from the mainland, and a coupon for 25 percent off a roundtrip for two. You also get the ability to transfer points into your account, which allows you to avoid small amounts of points.

Your ability to use discounted miles and get the 25 percent off coupon shows up on your account pretty quickly -- about a week after you get approved for the card. (It showed up for me even before I got the card in the mail.) So, you could actually buy the trip for about $525 if you had the card instead of $700, by using your 25 percent off coupon. Otherwise, here are some thoughts.

So, let's say that PDX to LIH is 20k each leg for each person. I would simply transfer 23k from your husband's amex account to your HA account and 25k from his amex account to your husband's HA account. The transfer fee will be about $30. Then you each book your ticket out of your HA account -- piece of cake.

Is 17k HA plus 23k Amex worth $700? As others have said, only you can make that call. It's not a home run, but it's a decent redemption. For all of us, it's a different analysis. If you have sufficient disposable income that you can spend cash just as easy as miles, it's one matter. If paying cash for the trip would be a stretch, so that using miles makes it doable, then it's a different analysis.

If you follow flyertalk, you'll see that people often talk about how many cents per mile you're getting for your miles. Here, you're getting 1.75 cents of value per mile. (That is, you're spending 40,000 miles/points to get a trip that would cost you $700, or 70,000 cents. To figure out cents per mile, divide 70,000 cents by 40,000 miles.) Many people like to save their miles to get bigger numbers to take aspirational trips that they could never otherwise afford -- like saving up 200,000 Amex points, to transfer them for business class tickets to Europe that would cost thousands of dollars if purchased. But others think that if you have a place you want to be, and are getting at least 1.5 cents or so, miles are there to be used. Go for it. It all depends on your tolerance, plans, and travel desires.

One last matter to point out -- the math I gave you above is the simple math. As you get deeper into this game, you realize that when you make a redemption instead of paying cash, you also are foregoing the miles you would earn on a cash ticket. So, for example, if you paid the $700 cash, you would earn about 6,000 HA miles for the journey. There are different ways to do the math here, and you might even get passionate debate about it. But I simply add those miles to my "cost". So, for purposes of comparing to cash, I would view using miles for this trip to "cost" 46,000 miles. That brings the value you're getting for your miles down to about 1.52 cents.

Can get complicated . . . .

Outstanding synopsis.....+++

You can get the same transferabilty (is this a word?:D) with a Bank of Hawaii miles debit card. I understand you can open a checking account online. The monthly fee is $3. No miles bonus though.