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, here’s a potentially lucrative opportunity.
In this post:
Buy Hawaiian Airlines miles with 100% bonus
Through 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?
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.
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!