While I frequently write about opportunities to buy points, I haven’t historically covered promotions from Hawaiian Airlines’ HawaiianMiles, given the limited value offered by the program. However, with Alaska having acquired Hawaiian and now allowing mileage transfers between programs, buying miles from Hawaiian is also an opportunity to acquire Alaska miles.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about a pretty amazing promotion on purchased miles that Hawaiian rolled out. I wanted to post a reminder of this, as it will be expiring shortly.
In this post:
Buy Hawaiian Airlines miles with 100% bonus
Through Friday, November 15, 2024, HawaiianMiles is offering a 100% bonus when you purchase miles. The promotion kicks in if you purchase at least 3,000 miles in one transaction, and you can buy up to 100,000 miles per transaction, with no limit to the total number of miles that you can purchase.
You can ordinarily buy miles for 2.5 cents each, before any bonuses, and before the tax recovery fee. So if you maximized this promotion, you could purchase a total of 200,000 miles at a cost of $2,540, which comes out to a rate of 1.27 cents per mile.
This is among the lowest costs we’ve ever seen on buying Hawaiian miles, and on top of that, this is significantly lower than the cost at which Alaska Mileage Plan sells miles, even during a promotion.
Could this promotion be worth it?
If you purchased miles with this offer, I’d generally view this as a way to acquire Alaska miles, given how much more value that offers than Hawaiian’s own program. It’s now possible to transfer miles between the programs of Alaska and Hawaiian at a 1:1 ratio.
So to me the question comes down to whether it’s worth acquiring Alaska miles for 1.27 cents each. I’ve gotta say, that’s a really attractive cost at which to acquire Alaska miles, and I’m tempted to take advantage of this. There are lots of great uses of Alaska miles, especially for domestic travel on American.
For example, living in Miami, I frequently redeem 15,000 Alaska miles for American first class to Chicago and New York, so being able to pick up those miles for 1.27 cents each could be quite a good value, as it’s like paying under $200 for a one-way ticket.
Honestly, my Mileage Plan balance is running a bit low and I was thinking I needed to buy some miles anyway, so I might as well do it when the cost is 1.27 cents per mile, rather than significantly higher through Mileage Plan.
Alaska miles also aren’t easy to earn, as the program doesn’t partner with any major transferable points currencies, except Bilt Rewards.
Bottom line
Hawaiian Airlines is selling miles with a 100% bonus, which is an opportunity to acquire them for 1.27 cents each. While I haven’t historically had much interest in acquiring miles with the program, it’s now possible to transfer those miles to Alaska, and that’s a mighty attractive rate at which to pick up those rewards.
Do you plan on buying Hawaiian miles with a 100% bonus?
Just be careful re: availability. Premium cabins are hard to find across the board, but ALL Qantas awards have disappeared from AS's website, for example -- not just premium cabins.
Between devaluations and lack of availability, I'm weary of these offers, especially when so many people take the plunge to compete for an ever-shrinking number of redemptions. Throw in the risk of phantom availability and even purchasing miles for an award you think you...
Just be careful re: availability. Premium cabins are hard to find across the board, but ALL Qantas awards have disappeared from AS's website, for example -- not just premium cabins.
Between devaluations and lack of availability, I'm weary of these offers, especially when so many people take the plunge to compete for an ever-shrinking number of redemptions. Throw in the risk of phantom availability and even purchasing miles for an award you think you see in front of you still isn't a guarantee (this happened to me a few months ago, though AS did make an "exception" and refund the miles I'd just bought when it turned out the award didn't actually exist).
Not sure where you can use Alaska miles these days. Except for AA awards and few on condor, there are no premium awards to any destination on any carrier these days. How’s 215k for QR J award a good deal ? Even on AA, cash price is less or on par with what I pay for miles.
Finally took the plunge and topped off the Alaska account via this promotion. Bought 82K (+82K) for 164,000 Alaska Miles. WOW! Seriously joined up thinking and writing on the websites - Hawaiian miles were added to my (newish) account within a minute. I followed the transfer link, logged in to both accounts, hit transfer and then went to my Alaska account - miles were there. Possibly the fastest buy miles transaction ever. Can’t say availability...
Finally took the plunge and topped off the Alaska account via this promotion. Bought 82K (+82K) for 164,000 Alaska Miles. WOW! Seriously joined up thinking and writing on the websites - Hawaiian miles were added to my (newish) account within a minute. I followed the transfer link, logged in to both accounts, hit transfer and then went to my Alaska account - miles were there. Possibly the fastest buy miles transaction ever. Can’t say availability for biz is ever great - but anything is do-able especially with the stopover feature on Alaska Miles.
Unfortunately, Alaska miles seem to get about as worthless as United or Delta miles. I used them for Condor in 'J', all the way from FRA to Maui, 85 K miles the last two summers, great deal. Now suddenly they are 400K miles, or 85 K to 110K with 'Mixed Cabin', meaning you have to suffer the last two legs from the mainland to HI in 'Premium Eco', for another $ 450 extra, where they...
Unfortunately, Alaska miles seem to get about as worthless as United or Delta miles. I used them for Condor in 'J', all the way from FRA to Maui, 85 K miles the last two summers, great deal. Now suddenly they are 400K miles, or 85 K to 110K with 'Mixed Cabin', meaning you have to suffer the last two legs from the mainland to HI in 'Premium Eco', for another $ 450 extra, where they serve the most grueling gin I have ever had in paper cups that dissolve after the second drink, adding some really weird taste in addition to the artificial 'Lime' powder pouches, instead of a slice of lime. Next summer, already booked, I guess I have to bring my own glass and lime.
As someone who lives in Hawaii, I believe that the merger of Hawaiian Airlines and Alaska Airlines is a godsend. In the "old days," HA had some good deals with points, like flying economy nonstop from Honolulu to New York City for 17,500 points. Those have disappeared. Now, with transferring my points to Alaska, I have many more options using far fewer points than I did with Hawaiian.
Purchasing 100K miles with the 100% bonus...
As someone who lives in Hawaii, I believe that the merger of Hawaiian Airlines and Alaska Airlines is a godsend. In the "old days," HA had some good deals with points, like flying economy nonstop from Honolulu to New York City for 17,500 points. Those have disappeared. Now, with transferring my points to Alaska, I have many more options using far fewer points than I did with Hawaiian.
Purchasing 100K miles with the 100% bonus points is a terrific deal for me. And the transfer to Alaska took just a few minutes.
Does one have to have to have a Hawiian mileage account for 30 days [or any amount of time] to purchase these miles?
Just purchased 100k Hawaiian miles. The 100k+100k bonus miles landed in account in less than a minute. Just had to refresh the account details. The transfer to Alaska took about 1 more minute. Refresh Alaska account and the 200k miles are there. Now booking a Qatar flight
I signed up for a Hawaiian account and was able to buy and transfer miles in five minutes.
I’ve bought and used Alaska miles a lot. First and biz class to aus on Cathay. Biz and first to Japan from the USA etc.
Now I’ve boosted my balance I’m seeing a complete lack of jal and qf availability compared to American.
I know there are some comments in here that had a different experience but I was able to purchase Hawaiian miles and transfer to Alaska and the entire process was complete in less than 5 minutes.
which cc should I use to purchase these miles? are they thru Points.com or can I use my AMEX plat? Or is it better to use my Hawaiian Airlines mastercard? Does anyone here know?
Supposedly earns 3x on the Hawaiian card.
It does. Tried it and it worked, so I bought more to meet the spend on the Hawaiian Card.
To meet the spend? The recent 70K offer was after first purchase. What spend are you trying to meet?
I bought Hawaiian miles last night (11/3, around 7pm) with the intention of transferring them to Alaska. At 12:40pm on 11/4, they still haven't posted to my account. I think this is still a good deal, but people should know that the Hawaiian miles may not post to your account instantaneously or even quickly. I'm hoping that the redemption I have in mind isn't gone by the time the Hawaiian miles show up in my account...
I also bought some miles on 11/2 in the evening and they didn't show up in my HA account until today. The transfer to my AS account was immediate, but by that time the award I was looking for was gone! Grrrr...
You should probably do more research before you write articles. You cannot transfer miles purchased from one program to another. So I now have a ton of Hawaiian miles, I don't want.
Is this true? Has anyone else tested this yet?
Ralph, maybe you should do YOUR research before so rudely and unnecessarily accusing Ben. The link to the site where you can do the transfer has been linked in one of Ben's previous articles (also here: https://storefront.points.com/mileage-plan/en-US/exchange/lps?lpId=2053).
Um…I just bought 100,000 miles and got 200,000 Hawaiian miles which I was then able to instantly convert to Alaska MileagePlan miles via the previously posted transfer link.
It was pretty easy and effectively paying 1.27 cents per Alaska mile is the best offer I have ever seen for miles that are otherwise hard to earn in quantity. I redeemed some right away for an AA domestic award. Hoping to use more next year for a trip to Australia/Asia
I purchased miles with my Hawaiian airlines cc and transfered miles to my Alaska airlines account same day. Both accounts must have the same owner.
Also..received 3x points for the purchase!
Ditto!
Can I still get the Hawaii card and transfer miles to alaska?
Thanks Ben. This is a very helpful notification of the Hawaiian sale. I see the points don't expire and there's free change/cancellation which is rare now. Also Hawaiian are flying AKL-HNL over the Northern winter so could be flights of interest using points.
I used my HA miles for 3 economy RT flights between HNL-AKL this Christmas. Got lucky and found them for (if I recall correctly) <80,000 miles RT. I'm now seeing seats on the same day for 80,000 miles on way.
I’ve had an alaska account for years - if I open a Hawaiian account can I buy points immediately to transfer to alaska? or is there a waiting period?
No waiting period, I also have had an alaska account for years but not a hawaiian account. I created an account with Hawaiian, immediately bought points, they showed up in about 5 min in my Hawaiian account, and I transferred right over to alaska.
I'm very tempted to pick up some Hawaiian points at this 100% bonus, as I am starting to plan for an international trip next fall. As I started searching about a month ago, I am not seeing there is much (if any) "sweet spots" availability in business class....
Did Alaska just increase award costs in the last few days? A domestic first class award on AA (rdu-ord-sgf) was 15k each way a few days ago and now looks like it's 20k.
They have dynamic pricing. If the cash price increases, so can the redemption price. More often this happens on their own metal.
So glad I didn't buy Alaska miles recently with the 60% bonus!
What card do you recommend for the purchase of Hawaiian miles?
1) Any card you're working on hitting min spend.
or
2) Amex BBP, Cap1 Venture/X, or Citi Double Cash.
That was originally my assumption as well because it's processed by Points.com. However the promo page says:
"Buy miles before Nov 15 and earn up to 100% bonus miles with your purchase. Gift miles to family or friends and they’ll get more miles.*
Don't forget, earn 3x miles per $1 spent when you use your Hawaiian Airlines® World Elite Mastercard®"
If using the Barclays HA card to buy points gives 1x rather than...
That was originally my assumption as well because it's processed by Points.com. However the promo page says:
"Buy miles before Nov 15 and earn up to 100% bonus miles with your purchase. Gift miles to family or friends and they’ll get more miles.*
Don't forget, earn 3x miles per $1 spent when you use your Hawaiian Airlines® World Elite Mastercard®"
If using the Barclays HA card to buy points gives 1x rather than 3x, I would say their page is highly misleading. I would be curious to hear if someone gets 3x from this.
Was wondering the same thing. The promo does mention triple points on the Hawaiian card. Not sure if that's special to the Hawaiian card, or if it processes as airfare.
You can buy more than 100,000 miles per year. The 100,000 miles limit is per transaction.
The ability to transfer miles between programs is already live and has been for weeks.
@ yoloswag420 -- D'oh! Time for my second cup of coffee. Fixed, thanks!