Wait for a potential transfer bonus. AMEX has given one out for Hawaiian in Jan/Feb the last two years. It's likely you'll see something like 20% either next month or in February. That's unless, of course, Hawaiian puts that on hold given the pending acquisition.

However, AMEX has so many good airline transfer partners that I don't think it's worth transferring to Hawaiian. We have no idea when the merger will actually close and no timeline on when the programs would converge. We also don't know what AS's award chart will look like then.

All of that said, I would absolutely go after the HA credit card and I plan on doing that soon for myself and P2.