American Express Membership Rewards - What's the conventional wisdom on MR --> HHonors these days?

MR --> Honors hasn't ever been generous or the most rewarding way to accomplish the transfer.

MR --> DL, CO --> HHonors was always better. But DL is gone and CO is almost gone. (It still should be possible to do MR-->CO-->Amtrak-->HHonors)

So what's left?

IIRC, MX isn't an option because only flight miles can be transferred out of MX.

That leaves Hawaiian. Does anyone have experience with this? Is MR-->HA-->Hilton currently the best way to get Amex points into Hilton?

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View from the Wing (http://www.webflyer.com/blog): A blog about Free Miles and Free Markets

I've pretty much decided to move my miles to CO and leave them there. Now that I can spend them on CO/NW/KLM/DL ...

of course if you are a UA or AA elite that doesn't help u much.

I may decide to switch to the SPG or the HH Amex and drop my Green Card.

Sure.

But my question really was what is now the most effective way to move MR points into HHonors, now that the intermediary CO/DL steps will no longer be available.

Is Hawaiian the best way to do it?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by gleff:
Sure.

But my question really was what is now the most effective way to move MR points into HHonors, now that the intermediary CO/DL steps will no longer be available.

Is Hawaiian the best way to do it?</font>

Hawaiian is the fastest way. If you transfer MR points to HH on Monday the points will be in your HA account in a day or two. Then the transfer from HA-HH will take a week to a week and a half. So overall within ten days your MR points will be in your HH account for twicw the value.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by NYC@LAX:
So overall within ten days your MR points will be in your HH account...</font>

Same timeframe reported here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum25/HTML/000159.html

This is the only reason I keep my MR card.

Can one sign up for a Hawaiian FF account and use it for this purpose alone--no flights at all? I don't expect to ever fly on Hawaiian. Will they allow me to use the account simply to shuttle points through it?

I know that MR -&gt; HHonors gives 1.3 HHonors points per MR point. What is the points ratio for MR -&gt; Hawaiian -&gt; HHonors?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by travelmad478:
What is the points ratio for MR -&gt; Hawaiian -&gt; HHonors?</font>

1:1:2

So 1 MR = 2 HHonors.

An improvement over a direct transfer that gives you 1 MR = 1.3 HHonors.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by travelmad478:
[B]Can one sign up for a Hawaiian FF account and use it for this purpose alone--no flights at all? I don't expect to ever fly on Hawaiian. Will they allow me to use the account simply to shuttle points through it?

Yes!!!

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by gleff:
1:1:2

So 1 MR = 2 HHonors.

An improvement over a direct transfer that gives you 1 MR = 1.3 HHonors.</font>

Just for clarification, didn't CO-&gt;HH give used to give 1:2?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by LLZ:
Just for clarification, didn't CO-&gt;HH give used to give 1:2?

</font>

Liz:

You are right, but it may take up to 90days to reach Hilton via Continental (as oppose to 10-14 days via Hawaiian).

Ran a little test case - my first MR-&gt;HA-&gt;HH transfer. MR-&gt;HA requested late afternoon 9/9; HH points just posted. Eight days total - not bad.


[This message has been edited by singlemalt (edited 09-22-2003).]