Strikes me that if you're going to Asia and want to fly first class, and if you're going to also stay 5 nights in a hotel in a Hawaii, then the points would be better used on airfare because of the price differential as you point out.

A couple of points:

- From AmEx's web site, looks to me like the Membership Rewards points to Starpoints conversion rate is 3 AmEx points = 1 Starpoint. So 120,000 points would get you 40,000 Starpoints. That's a bad conversion ratio in my opinion; I wouldn't use it. Even if it were 2 to 1, that would still be a bad conversion ratio IMHO and I wouldn't go for it.

- Membership Reward's partnerships make it difficult for you to get to Asia - no UA, NW, or OneWorld partners. There are a few options, though; for instance, you could dump the miles into OnePass and fly on Northwest.

Have you considered switching to the Starwood card? There are so many advantages over Membership Rewards - no annual fee, one Starpoint per dollar spent, tons of airline partners, and 20,000 Starpoint -> 25,000 airline mile conversion rate.

Good luck, and welcome to the board.